Book Review

Jane Goodall (2006)

EW's GRADE
C+

Details Release Date: Nov 15, 2006; Writer: Dale Peterson; Genres: Biography, Nonfiction; Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Dale Peterson, who's worked with the famed primate scientist Jane Goodall for years, appears to have studied his subject as lovingly as she has attended her chimps: This close-range field study exults in minutiae, interrupted by declarations of sometimes gushing fandom (''Jane's attractiveness to men...is easy to understand''). Yet clear away the thick foliage of Peterson's partisanship on behalf of a professional at first dismissed because ''her legs were too nice, her hair too blond, her face too fine'' — the author's special access is a page-turning primate's reward. Goodall's life story has been so unconventional, it qualifies as wild.

Originally posted Nov 10, 2006 Published in issue #907 Nov 17, 2006 Order article reprints

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