Only finished it to see if the elephants survived. ( )

This was a novel I really enjoyed on many levels. I had a vague idea of the contradictory reviews of the readers, but I seldom let negative opinions influence me when it comes to historical fiction, if I am really interested in the era and the subject.

I hadn't read any work of fiction or non - fiction, before I started reading Elephant Moon, about Burma and the region as a whole during the Second World War, so I was completely invested in the story. John Sweeney's writing is simple and beautiful at the same time. When he describes the jungle, the city market, the suburbs and the school, I am able to envision the scenes without feeling as if I am reading Travel Literature. The dialogue flows naturally with a nice touch of '40s English colloquialisms and tasteful hints of humour. It is a difficult, unusual subject, and delicate, since Grace Collins, a young, British schoolteacher, has the duty of leading 60 children out of the jungle - that can become a battlefield anytime - aided by a few brave men and some astonishing, beautiful creatures, the elephants. However, the real danger lurked much closer to them than they had imagined.

I liked Grace as a heroine. She was believable, brave, level-headed and stood her ground against sexim and discrimination. Did she fall in love a little too easily? Yes, so? Most of us do, anyway. Sam and Bertie are fascinating gentlemen. Gregory is one of the vilest, most malicious and despicable literary creations I've ever come across, reminiscent of the Victorian evil antagonists that have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

So, my two cents about Elephant Moon? Don't be dissuaded by the polarized reviews, give it a chance and see if you enjoy it. Do not expect Forster's A Passage to India, but a well-written, refreshing novel about brave people and even braver animals. ( )

Elephant Moon is a novel based on the true story of "Elephant Bill", James Howard Williams, an Englishman who worked with elephants in the teak forests of Burma, starting in the 1920s. During World War 2 Elephant Bill helped the British army evacuate itself from Burma. Here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Howard_Williams. I bought it because it was on the Kindle bestsellers list and was $1.

If Sweeney had stuck to the story of Elephant Bill, who turns up in his book as Sam, and written some characters that weren't like paper dolls, this book would have got more than 2 1/2 stars from me. The setting was great - first Burma then the jungle and the Himalayas. But he centred it around Grace Collins, a schoolteacher in Rangoon at the outbreak of war, and her school of orphans. Grace knows she needs to evacuate the kids to safety, thanks to Love Interest #1, Mr Peach from Government House, but her ostrich-like headmistress can't make a decision, so they get stuck in Rangoon till it is almost too late. Next up, Grace and the kids get out of Rangoon in a doubledecker bus, helped by Love Interest #2, the Jemildar, an Indian soldier with a complicated past. The bus gets replaced, happily, by Sam the Elephant man and a group of Burmese soldiers, and Grace and the kids try to make their way to safety.

In the hands of a good writer this would have made a great story (even with Grace-who-could-do-no-wrong) but Sweeney decided to add in another twist - a thoroughly awful character who needed a backstory about his past in the dockyards of London then as one of Mosley's blackshirts - who ended up in Burma and trying to escape by tagging along with Grace and the kids. Sweeney switched the perspective to Sergeant Gregory for quite a while and I really couldn't wait to be finished these parts. And it would stop me recommending the book to early teen readers who might otherwise have loved it - his plans to rape and kill were horrible to read.

I enjoyed it enough to finish it and did want to know what happened in the end. So, if you see it in the library, get it out and maybe you'll like it more than I did. Alternatively, you could just buy another new book about Elephant Bill, [Elephant Company] by Vicki Croke. It's just had a great review in the NYT and it's going on my wishlist!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/books/review/elephant-company-by-vicki-constan... ( )

I feel mis-sold. I read (on Amazon) that this was 'based on' a true story - but the Author's Note clearly states it is a work of fiction (mea culpa - checking this morning, the original source for the true story claim is the Daily Mail. If only I'd realised at the time, I'd have fact-checked before I bought!).

The true story appears to be the thin thread that the elephant men of Burma did indeed help refugees escape the Japanese through the mountains in 1942, which is an epic tale in its own right. However, there was no prim schoolmarm, no ambivalently political Jemadar with a satchel full of sensitive documents, no bus-load of half-caste orphans, and no murderous Londoner to mix it up with politics, sex and unnecessary vileness.

Unfortunately, this means that all the bits of the novel that I objected to and found got in the way of a good story were utterly fictional, so there's little left here to like. It's not particularly well-written, it objectifies its female heroine right up to the point where the point of view swaps to a criminal who only thinks in terms of raping and murdering her, it relies heavily on tropes about the British Empire (both good and bad) to provide engagement, and in spite of touching on themes of racism and independence, reduces its non-white cast to nameless supporting forces who are referred to by rank (the Jem / Jemadar and the Havildar, vs Sam, Gregory and Peach for the white officers).

If, like me, you're interested in finding out the true story of escaping across the mountains of Burma with elephants (a logistical horror that puts Hannibal in the shade), the book to seek out is apparently Elephant Bill by Lt-Col J. H. Williams (his autobiographical account of the flight).

On the plus side, the stunning locations, disinterest in getting beneath the skin of its characters and the sensationalist swoop of its plot will no doubt make Elephant Moon a great film one day. ( )