Just finished reading: West with Giraffes
I just finished reading West with Giraffes, by Lynda Rutledge — a beautiful story. One I was sad to finish. (No spoilers here, because I hope you read it, too.)
Much to my delight, the main character was named after President Woodrow Wilson.* Not only that, but there were many references to things and people I’d learned about in other books. I scribbled out a crude Venn diagram mapping the overlaps from four of the books I read last… then decided to simplify the diagram to my most recent book. Predictably, I completely negated my simplification and took this post off road on some tangents.
*I wish I could add Woodrow Wilson Nickel to my list of 100 Centenarians, but he’s not based on a real person.
The only book not represented below is Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch. Excellent book. Despite an overlap with Africa, giraffes, and rhinos, I didn’t have any supporting doodles.
Let’s get this show on the road…
The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, by Steve Fraser, overlapped a bit with West with Giraffes.
A few doodles
In no particular order, here’s a collection of doodles and tangents West with Giraffes brought to mind:
Becoming Queen Victoria: The Unexpected Rise of Britain’s Greatest Monarch, by Kate Williams
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria loved the giraffes she visited at the Zoological Gardens in London, which was full of her uncle King George IV’s collection.
Put your seat belt on because we are veering off for some tangents already:
When Napoleon died, King George IV was told “Sir, your bitterest enemy is dead.” And he answered “Is she, by God!”… referring to his wife. He was reportedly “gayer than it might be proper to tell” when his wife died a few months later.
He himself was pretty sickly. And it’s no wonder. Each night before bed, he consumed:
2 glasses of hot ale and toast
3 glasses of claret with strawberries
1 glass of brandy
Breakfast included:
mozelle
champagne
2 glasses of port
brandy
3 beefsteaks
2 pigeons
I could use the pigeon reference to get back to West with Giraffes (there was a swarm of passenger pigeons!), but then I wouldn’t be able to mention what happened when King George IV died!
When William IV learned his brother died, he immediately wanted to return to his bedchamber because he’d “never been to bed with a queen.”
At 65 years old, he was the oldest king coronated in England… until King Charles III in 2023.
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Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1962, by Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
Sundown Town
A 1940 Democratic flyer depicted Republican candidate Wendell Willkie and reminded people that (despite his Civil Rights platform), his hometown was a “Sundown Town”. Black residents were prohibited and Black visitors could only be there during daylight. Despite the headline (“Picture Without Words”) there were words in this cartoon. Including some ugly ones I didn’t include in the doodle above.
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“The WPA practically built the zoo!”
Woo-hoo!
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The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, by Steve Fraser
Lions and bears
No giraffes in The Age of Acquiescence, which is probably for the best… since the other animals mentioned were in the context of a butcher shop.
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Don’t let that warm smile and long chin puff fool you
George Pullman controlled everything in his beautifully-designed company town. Everything. And the costs of everything, too. He laid off workers, cut pay, and reduced hours all while keeping rent stable. Jerk.
George wasn’t mentioned in West with Giraffes, there were references to the “fancy Pullman car for giraffes”.
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John D. Rockefeller
Again, he didn’t appear himself in this story. But I’m counting the references anyhow.
The quote should have been “the individual has gone, never to return.” I hadn’t realized it before, but I write “frick” a lot when I mess up in my doodles… and above this particular goof was a doodle of Frick himself — Henry Clay Frick! I don’t know if the etymology of the soft curse “frick” traces back to him or not. My half minute of research yielded nothing. But I did kind of giggle to myself thinking of Henry Clay Frick semi-cursing “Frick”...
Which made me think of Kermit Roosevelt undercover doing some real shady shit in the CIA. He would scream “OH, ROOSEVELT!” when he missed a shot playing tennis, an unfortunate move … given that he was undercover as James Lockridge. To save himself, he claimed to be a super-passionate Republican who used FDR’s name as a curse because FDR was evil.
In any case, neither Kermit Roosevelt nor James Lockridge appeared in West with Giraffes.
All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, by Stephen Kinzer
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The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt
Amelia and Eleanor
Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were both mentioned. Very briefly. Enough for me to mention that Amelia Earhart offered to teach Eleanor to fly. FDR asked Eleanor not to and she complied. It was a rare time that he limited her.
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Hoovervilles & the Dust Bowl
I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I like Herbert Hoover. We had our Hoovervilles here (and in West with Giraffes). Abroad, he was so beloved that Finland coined the term “Huuvere” to mean “charity” and “loving all men as brothers.” Some credit Hoover with saving more people than any person in history.
Plus, if everyone had just listened to him (diversifying crops, planting cover crops, and retiring land once nutrients were depleted), perhaps the Dust Bowl wouldn’t have been so devastating.
Herbert Hoover: A Life, by Glen Jeansonne
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Have you read West with Giraffes?
Let me know in the comments below.
Looking for more fiction?
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