I honestly don’t remember how this book ended up on my list, but I am glad I picked it up. The plot is fairly simple, a woman who is avoiding civilization after getting a PhD in biology moves to the middle of nowhere and ends up befriending a fox. Or the fox befriends her. Either way, the relationship she has with Fox changes her whole outlook on life and connections that she has.
The most interesting and unique aspect of this book is the way that it is written. The narration jumps around a lot, between time periods and between perspectives (the author’s and the fox’s). Which can make it somewhat confusing, especially since the author likes to throw out big plot points and move on from them immediately to some description. Which is indicative of the author’s tendency to not get emotional throughout the story, animals die and nature is brutal and she remains pretty stoic throughout it. It is cool to see the fox’s perspective though, at one point I was wondering how she’d know what the fox was up to but also. It doesn’t matter! He’s doing fox things, you can make educated guesses about your friend and what they’re up to.
As a biology PhD, I won’t pretend that a lot of this resonated with me. A lot of the story has to do with how science teaches us to be objective and not anthropomorphize animals and things like that. And over time the author learns to shed that and let Fox become her friend. Now I am not off befriending an animal, but the avoidance of connections sure is a thing. A lot of graduate students struggle with connections, even though it’s what keeps us afloat. By the end of the story, the author learns from Fox and starts to make connections and put down roots. A lesson all PhD students can learn from!
I’m glad I picked this up, it is such a unique book and a
unique story. And it’s always interesting to read memoirs from other biology
PhDs and see what they manage to do with their lives. Glad I managed to grab
it!
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