cover image A TORTOISE FOR THE QUEEN OF TONGA

A TORTOISE FOR THE QUEEN OF TONGA

Julia Whitty, . . Houghton Mifflin/Mariner, $12 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-618-11980-6

Promising, elegant, yet of mixed quality, this short story collection takes full advantage of the author's intimate perspective on the natural world, a by-product, no doubt, of her experience as a documentary filmmaker for PBS, National Geographic and the like. The collection's best stories depict the intersection of the human world and the natural one with grace and drama. In "Senti's Last Elephant," an African safari guide introduces wealthy American tourists to the violence of the animal kingdom, to devastating effect. In other stories, she embraces (probably gleefully) what Ruskin termed the pathetic fallacy: ascribing human emotions and sympathies to the natural world. The giant tortoise of the title story, for example, possesses "a heart that had swelled insupportably from nearly two centuries of loneliness." In "Lucifer's Alligator," some denizens of an aquatic theme park become revolutionaries, turning their desire for freedom into a refusal to perform tricks or, more important, to mate. Except for readers with an enormous capacity to suspend disbelief, these fanciful conceits don't fully succeed. Still, Whitty has a fine, experienced eye—whether she's writing of Tonga or Venice, the locales come alive—and an equally keen ear; her prose is supple and poetic. The stories could benefit from more conflict of the human variety, but this is a solid collection that demonstrates a devotion to the natural world rarely seen in contemporary fiction. West Coast author tour. (Apr. 3)

Forecast:Whitty has written and produced over 50 nature documentaries, making this the perfect handsell for Discovery Channel addicts. A witty, all-text jacket will catch the eye of more exclusively literary browsers, who may have read Whitty's work in Harper's, Ploughshares or Zoetrope.