Interesting premise for a non-fiction, that's for sure. Does it deliver? Let's find out.
After slowly growing more and more estranged with modern society for a while, author Geoffroy Delorme decides one day to turn his back on a normal life, and goes to live in the forests of Normandy for seven years among the local roe deer population. Here, he gradually gets closer to the animals and learns to adapt by learning their ways, using as little human tools as possible to survive. He also forges bonds with his "friends" and describes some of their lives to us.
Like I said, interesting premise, and for the most part the book doesn't fail to deliver. You want to read about a guy who lives with deer for seven years? It's what you get. He describes how he decides to live in the woods, learned to adapt, grew close to the roe deer population and eventually after living among them for seven years decided to return to society. It's well-written and reads quite nicely. It's also not a super long book, just a nice medium-length read for those in the mood that love nature.
Now for the things I wasn't as into. Okay, first of all, of course the moral question should be asked if a human should be getting close to wild animals in the first place. The general answer to this question is usually no, with some exceptions. Delorme's situation is not an exception, however. The roe deer aren't gaining anything from him other than company, instead they're growing accustomed to humans which of course wild animals, predator or prey, aren't supposed to be. Sure, Delorme doesn't feed them or anything, but still he's getting uncomfortably close to them, to the point of touching and petting them. Sometimes even letting them sit on his lap. And I know that all of this sounds magical and fantastic to a lot of readers, being able to get so close to a wild animal. But truth in the matter is that the roe deer shouldn't be growing accustomed to humans in this situation as Delorme is doing with them.
Another thing (that may have been a mistranslated on my Dutch edition's part) is that this book mentions some Native American philosophies, beliefs, etc. about roe deer. Which just made me groan because, as anyone with even mild deer knowledge knows, there are no roe deer in North America. They're an Eurasian species. There's not even a closely related roe deer cousin in North America, such as is the case with European red deer and North American elk being somewhat related species. I think that the text probably was just meant to say deer in general, or maybe something more specific such as white-tailed deer, but my translation did say roe deer which of course don't exist in over there. Either a mistranslated or an issue of the original text, I don't know. Either way it doesn't look very professional when a book all about deer can't even get its species' location right.
Also, I personally could've done with a list of all the roe deer Delorme mentions. He gives pretty much all of them names, but with how many there are and how in rapid succession they're sometimes introduced, it was a little hard to keep track of who is who. So a list of all individuals, possibly with who they're related to would've been nice.
Finally: I personally would've liked a little bit more on what exactly made Delorme turn his back on society. He mentions it very briefly, but I would have liked a little more setup. The main subject should of course still be his life with the deer, but the book almost instantly starts with him abandoning his "human" life in favor of a "deer" life and it was just a little too quick for me. I'd have liked a little more introduction into Delorme. Who is he, what is his backstory, what is this life he's turning his back on exactly? It was just a bit of a jarring introduction to me with so little context.
Overall I do consider this a pleasant read, though I would definitely also say: don't try this at home. Not because you'll probably freeze to death or could get kicked by a deer, but also because wild animals should be respected for what they are (wild) by keeping your distance and keeping them human-shy.
Rating: 3/5
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