Book Review: Horses Fly Business Class by Olaf Koens

 

  Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Paarden vliegen businessclass.

More animal non-fiction, of course.

In this book, Koens delves into the relationship between humans and animals in the Middle East, which (like in other parts of the world) can be rather rocky in some cases. Each chapter features one or a few animals that get talked about in specific situations.

A shorter read, but definitely not a very light one. I'm interested in books about human-animal relationships  in both in my own and other people's cultures, but of course with that often comes quite a bit of animal death and cruelty since worldwide humans and animals don't always get along, including here. And despite this being a very informative book, there's quite a bit sadness surrounding animals, but there's thankfully also some more lighthearted and hopeful moments as well. 

This wasn't my favorite read, though. It did start to lose me a bit about two thirds in as I thought it was starting to become a bit boring. Some chapters and animals featured were more interesting than others. Some of them could be really intense, heartfelt or in some cases funny (see: the donkey painted to resemble a zebra). But there were also just a few chapters I was completely neutral on or just didn't interest me as much. I also wasn't too thrilled by the author's writing voice, it wasn't bad or anything but it did make it a bit difficult for me to stay invested for a long time.

I also wasn't all that surprised to find a reference to another animal non-fiction book I've read in this one, Father of Lions by Louise Callaghan, about a zoo owner in Mosul who is trying to release his lion Zombie (sometimes spelled Simba) and bear Lula into the wild. They only very briefly make an appearance near the end, but it was still neat to tie these two books together (at least from the perspective of a person who has read both recently) like that.

Overall this was a decent non-fiction about the subject, I just wish it could hold my attention for a little longer and the writing voice was less dull.

Rating: 3.5/5