Wild Life by Keena Roberts

Hi everyone, this last week I’m sharing an amazing memoir I found quite by chance one day as I was browsing shelves. The cover image was what caught my eye to be honest! If you ever wondered what being a primatologist means, then this is the book you need to read. If not, carry on with your browsing…

Thanks for stopping by dear reader!! My review of this amazing read is below.

Title: Wild Life: Dispatches from a childhood of baboons and button-downs

Author: Keena Roberts

Genre: Autobiography

Publication details: Grand Central Publishing; NY, 2019

ISBN: 9781538745151 (Hardcover)

What this book is about: Raised by primatologist parents, Keena Roberts and her sister spent most of their childhood years in a rustic island camp in a national wildlife preserve in Botswana. As their parents tracked baboons through the bush, the family found they themselves were tracked by lions, treed by buffalos, or chased by elephants. Keena grew up with a sharp awareness of the intricate ways that danger and beauty coexist in the natural world and a deep love for the wild African landscape she called home. However, once a year, she and her family had to make a return trip to America, where for several months she had to hone her survival skills in a much more treacherous environment – a private Philadelphia school. She and her peers were baffled by one another. Keena didn’t understand the appeal of the latest 1990’s pop songs or TV shows, she had shaggy hair and too many pocket knives and hated wearing shoes. Dreamer, reader, and adventurer, this young woman from the bush was far more comfortable dodging real-life predators than navigating the cliques of spoiled high school field hockey players. A funny, tender, fish-out-of-the-water memoir about coming of age across national and cultural divides, Wild Life is by turns heartbreaking and hilarious, and ultimately the story of a brave and sensitive girl desperately trying to figure out if there’s any place she truly belongs. 

My review: This was a fascinating memoir about growing up in an African safari camp!! It took me back to my childhood where I too grew up with that same African heat!! (Unlike the author, I grew up in the middle of a town, not a safari camp!) Keena Roberts uses a witty and eloquent voice in telling her life story. I found myself transported to the dry savannah amidst baboons, impala and elephants I saw on visits to the National Parks of Zambia. The episodes she records are really well described and fascinating to read. I found those school scenes to be quite hilarious, reminiscent of that movie Mean Girls!! I’m glad Keena got the privilege of attending Harvard and achieving some amazing goals in her young life. This was a truly inspiring and interesting memoir of a young woman who figured out where she belonged despite the challenges life threw at her.

My rating: 4⭐