Description

pp. 318, signed by the author on the title page, “One of the most intriguing aspects of The Follow is that it began as a biography of Galdikas which Key Porter approached Spalding to write. And although it does end up drawing a portrait of the controversial researcher-not a particularly flattering one, I might add-it isn’t really a “biography” at all. Ironically, one of the book’s greatest strengths is that it doesn’t adopt the pseudo-objective tone so common in conventional biographies. Spalding tells her friend, Riska, who incidentally has also just published a book (Riska: Memories of a Dayak Girlhood, Knopf, 252 pages, $29.95) with an introduction by Spalding: “Tell it through your own eyes, the way it felt. If you’re going to write, you need a point of view. You need to expose yourself.” Spalding heeds her own advice, and the result is much more engaging than any straightforward biography would have been. In fact, by the end of The Follow, the anthropologist has become, not so much the subject of, but the catalyst for an inspired-and inspirational-journey.”