Book Review: The Maneaters of Tsavo

 

Well, I am squeezing in another book before I finish The Knowledge of the Holy. While Mackenzy and I were traveling, I tried to pack lightly so the Kindle was very helpful. Since this book was already on my Kindle, I finished it on our trip. This is the true story of John Patterson's adventures while in Africa building railroads. The first half of the book deals with the part of the tale that was made famous in the movie "The Ghost and the Darkness". 

                   

I was curious to see how the book and movie compared. If you have seen the movie, then you will find that Michael Douglas' character is not even in the book. But much of the rest of the story about the lions of Tsavo lined up pretty closely with Patterson's account of the story. 

As England was building its empire, they were constructing railroads across the continent of Africa as fast as possible. Patterson was an engineer sent there to help build a very difficult bridge across the Tsavo River. He hadn't been there long when the two lions began their reign of terror. Normally lions don't eat men. But these two lions, hunting together, were different. They spent weeks hunting and devouring dozens of men from the camp building the railroad. The first half of the book tells the story of how Patterson tried one thing after another to stop these marauding monsters. The lions seemed to anticipate every trap and trick he could come up with. If he waited for them in one area, they struck another. If he set out bait, they simply ignored it. 

As the days passed, the fear became paralyzing. Many of the workers left. But still the lions found more victims. Patterson simply refused to give up. He tried crawling through the thorns, tracking the lions' trail as they dragged away another victim. The lions became so bold toward the end that they wouldn't even drag them away. They would eat them right on the edge of the camp. The others could hear them consuming their gruesome meal. It was almost like the lions were taunting those in camp. 

Patterson finally was able to catch up with the first one and then the second lion and kill them. It really was amazing to see how he handled his own fear by simply doing whatever needed to be done to end the devastation. I thought the book would end there, but there were still another 70+ pages filled with adventures. Even though it was interesting, the second half of the book was definitely anti-climactic. Patterson continued building the railroad and encountered other "man-eaters", but nothing like the lions of Tsavo.

When we were in Chicago several years ago, we went to the Field Museum and actually saw the two famous lions that killed so many men in Tsavo.  They were maneless males and they hunted together, which was very unusual. Hard to imagine that these two lions killed and ate so many. Patterson had used the skins as rugs for several years before he sold them to the museum, where they were mounted in these poses. It kind of made my skin crawl to stand there and actually see these two. If you are ever there, you should check them out.

This is #13 in the 52 in 52 challenge.