West with Giraffes - Velha Estante

Paperback, 371 pages

Published Feb. 1, 2021 by Lake Union Publishing.

ISBN:: 978-1-5420-2334-4

(1 review)

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…”

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, …

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…”

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

4 editions

Acton reviewed West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Review of 'West with Giraffes' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Westward with Giraffes is an historic novel, based on a well-researched, true event about a pair of giraffes who survived a hurricane at sea and then a road trip across the country, from New York City to San Diego, California. It is also a tumultuous coming of age story for one young man named Woodrow Wilson Nickel, or Woody Nickel for short. The year is 1938, a time when this country is still recovering from The Great Depression and Hitler is threatening war in Europe.

Woody, all of seventeen years old, has already suffered loss and trauma, but we the readers never get a sense of exactly what Woody has lost: I’d like to know more about his time with his mother and sister. Were there any good times at all, bittersweet memories of life before the dust bowl?

Also, the story is supposed to be told by Woody when …

Westward with Giraffes is an historic novel, based on a well-researched, true event about a pair of giraffes who survived a hurricane at sea and then a road trip across the country, from New York City to San Diego, California. It is also a tumultuous coming of age story for one young man named Woodrow Wilson Nickel, or Woody Nickel for short. The year is 1938, a time when this country is still recovering from The Great Depression and Hitler is threatening war in Europe.

Woody, all of seventeen years old, has already suffered loss and trauma, but we the readers never get a sense of exactly what Woody has lost: I’d like to know more about his time with his mother and sister. Were there any good times at all, bittersweet memories of life before the dust bowl?

Also, the story is supposed to be told by Woody when he is aged 105, written in longhand by pencil. That might be too much for me to picture, but it’s not a huge point. And if I wasn’t completely comfortable with the writing style, perhaps it’s because an old man wrote it, in a hurry, before dying.

And once again, Woody is all alone. To whom is he writing this long missive? We don’t learn that until the end, and it’s yet another tragedy that he never gets to know its effect. Woody has multiple people in his memories, but has had precious few moments with them, or so it would seem, since there is very little information about what happens during his life between WWII and the present.

Woody Nickel certainly has his adventures driving a rig hauling two giraffes long distance, beside his employer, an old man in a fedora who loves animals and tall tales. There is also a mysterious young woman, nicknamed Red, who is determined to follow them with her camera and dreams of being a photographer for Life Magazine. They get into some precarious positions, but are always lucky enough to survive them.

This was an easy, interesting novel to read, though somehow I didn’t find it moving. There were aspects about driving across country during that time period that were an education, and I am glad to have read this.