Despite feeling like I was being beaten over the head with his strident arguments, I still found myself cheering Masson for writing such a passionate book, and I was happy to overlook some of his more specious generalizations knowing the intent was to convince folk who hadn't really thought about this topic before that it's one worth embracing and exploring more deeply.
Back when I worked at the public library I became hooked on non-fiction, and I've always loved the life sciences in particular, so I'm already very familiar with the topic. My inner dialog was so loud and persistent I had to take notes on paper to help myself focus more clearly on what I was reading it felt good to be so actively interactive with a book! About halfway through chapter one, though, I realized I definitely wasn't part of the target audience. I fell right into this book from page one of the prologue. Forming a complete and compelling picture of the inner lives of animals, When Elephants Weep assures that we will never look at animals in the same way again. Chapters on love, joy, anger, fear, shame, compassion, and loneliness are framed by a provocative re-evaluation of how we treat animals, from hunting and eating them to scientific experimentation. Not since Darwin's The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals has a book so thoroughly and effectively explored the full range of emotions that exist throughout the animal kingdom.įrom dancing squirrels to bashful gorillas to spiteful killer whales, Masson and coauthor Susan McCarthy bring forth fascinating anecdotes and illuminating insights that offer powerful proof of the existence of animal emotion. The popularity of When Elephants Weep has swept the nation, as author Jeffrey Masson appeared on Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, and was profiled in People for his ground-breaking and fascinating study. This national bestseller exploring the complex emotional lives of animals was hailed as "a masterpiece" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and as "marvelous" by Jane Goodall.
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