Sunday, April 5, 2020

Book Review: The Call of the Wild by Jack London


The call of the wild and selected stories | Open Library

I felt like revisiting some classics, and I needed a shorter book to read as my final book to read in 2019, so I decided to ultimately go back to The Call of the Wild by Jack London. I’ve loved this book for years, and will likely continue to do so. However, I never truly made a proper review of the book, and now that I’m doing book reviews, I feel that it is a good time to do exactly that. So, let’s take a look at The Call of the Wild. Spoilers ahead, but, come on, the story’s so old, pretty much everyone knows what’s going to happen.


This book follows a Saint Bernard-Scotch Shepherd mix named Buck, who is taken from his comfortable home in California to the north to become a sled dog due to the Gold Rush taking place. This happening causes many changes in Buck, and he’ll have to learn to adapt in order to survive in this harsh climate.

It’s a very old story, and a bit predictable, especially considering the title, but I nonetheless thoroughly enjoy The Call of the Wild. This is one of the first animal-POV books I read when I was younger that didn’t overly anthropomorphize the main character or have the animals talk. This was back then very refreshing, and even nowadays I still like going back to this book like once a year to just re-experience Buck’s struggles in the cold north.

Not all of the characters are amazing, and most of them fall into one category, just “good” or “bad”, but the story isn’t really about them. Buck takes central stage as our protagonist, and he does his job well. You see how he goes from a pampered proud dog to a weak, hungry yet still strong sled dog. He works his way up as a sled dog, eventually becoming a leader, and finds the love of a kind man after so many have been harsh to him. Then, finally he heeds the call of the wild. When the last chain between him and his life as a pet is severed as his new owner Thornton dies, he turns to a wolf pack and eventually becomes their leader. It’s a sad story, but at the same time it has a bit of a nice ending with Buck finding his way in the wild.

I wouldn’t say it’s very realistic, as most pets that weren’t raised in the wild will die of starvation, but I’ll allow some suspension of disbelief because Buck becoming more feral is slowly built up and it of course fits the theme of the story of going back to a more primitive way of life.

While it’s of course an old story, I still think The Call of the Wild is a very enjoyable story. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, and it has a lot of animal mistreatment and death in it, so read at your own risk, but for most animal lovers that can stomach that, I’d say, go check it out. It’s in the public domain as far as I know, so it should be easy to read for free. 

Rating: 4/5



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