The first words in the narrative that one sees in this novel is the beginning of an article published in the New York World-Telegram newspaper on September 22, 1938. The headline of that article is a textbook example of the art of that particular type of composition: MIRACLE GIRAFFES RIDE HURRICANE AT SEA. It is as efficient in conveying all the necessary facts of the incident as the incident is seemingly absurd. Giraffes—an animal most Americans had never actually see for themselves with their own two eyes at the time—had actually somehow managed to survive a wild ride aboard the SS Robin Goodfellow when it headed straight into a typhoon off the coast of Haiti. That puckish little ship battled the onslaught of the tempest for six hours and it is definitely worth keeping in mind that ships charged with transporting exotic animals back looked nothing like the state-of-the-art vessels of today. And even those ships do everything possible to stay away from the hurricanes of the Caribbean.
That the animals survived at all was, as the headline rather politely insists, miraculous. But here’s the really amazing part of West with Giraffes. The story isn’t even about that boat ride. Yeah, crazy, right? Let’s face it, the backstory leading to that appointment with Mother Nature at her most furious would almost certainly—beyond any doubt—have to be a pretty great tale to tell. Just the climax alone covering what must have happened aboard that ship to keep that precious cargo alive and spitting screams “Hollywood, make this into a movie!” Astonishingly, however, the actual story being told by the author is all about what happens after the giraffes have made it safely back to land via New York Harbor. What happens then—what is the actual meat of the matter, as it were—is a cross-country trip via what amounted to little more than a “tricked-out pickup truck” from New Jersey to the San Diego Zoo. And this all takes place more than a decade before Joan Embery was even born!
Even so, this is a novel; a work of historical fiction. And it is through the construct of historical fact and modern-day fiction that this remarkable story which captivated a nation before fading away into almost a forgotten legend is made tangible for today’s reader. With this novel, that true story becomes a parable of our times. What was merely an idiosyncratic story of yet another uplifting tale of survival in the harshness of the Great Depression becomes through the author’s decision to handle it through the conceit of semi-fictionalization a story that speaks to our times as well as scientists inform us that we are the dawn of the sixth great extinction.
