A Review of “West with Giraffes”
The memories that Woody Nickel, a 103-year-old veteran, is determined to record provides the catalyst for the narrative in West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. Woody’s journal, however, is not a recounting of his life in the army, but the one experience that has had the most profound effect on his life. At the age of seventeen, the Dust Bowl throws Woody into the world without family or home. Heading to New York, he finds himself working and living with a most reluctant uncle. Then the hurricane of 1938 hits the east coast and once again, he finds himself in dire straits. In his wanderings in the storm-torn city, he comes across two giraffes being taken off a disabled ship. He discovers that two giraffes have somehow survived the journey across the ocean.
Events lead to an unlikely bond between Woody and the two giraffes, and he finds himself traveling across country helping the Old Man deliver them to the San Diego Zoo. Along the way, he uncovers a great deal about himself and friendship.
This heart-warming story captivates the reader from the first page to the last. With a resonance of love, friendship, and humanity, this tale brings to mind Water for Elephants by Sara Guen. The key characters in both of these novels are animals that find themselves in a world foreign to them. These giraffes, Boy and Girl, win the love and respect of Woody; the Old Man; and Red, a young woman whose drive, passion, and friendship bind them all together.
Ms. Rutledge has taken the true events of the twelve-day journey of two giraffes from the east coast to the San Diego zoo in 1938 and transformed their trek across the country into a novel that no one will forget after reading it.