Anthill, E.O. Wilson

Two weeks before Labor Day, Raphael Semmes Cody sat with his cousin Junior in Roxie's Ice Cream Palace. Both were scooping out almond crunch ice cream covered with butterscotch syrup and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. Outside, heavy air grown humid from passage over the Gulf of Mexico and torrid from radiant heat off the Florida Panhandle had come to rest upon the little town of Clayville. 


This book had an interesting premise. It's about a boy in Alabama interested in insects who wants to save the environment from its worst enemy: humans themselves. Interesting, right? I liked the descriptions of the South in the book, the mentality there. Really. But. The book's writing style was really off-putting; it was dull, and I actually found myself skimming over a lot of the book. It didn't really read like a novel. I guess this is because E.O. Wilson, the author, is a naturalist, and this is his first novel. Still. No excuse for a dull writing style. It read more like a science book, which is fine, but not for a novel that's supposed to be telling a story. There were a few interesting chapters about ants which saved the book from being a total flop. That's where Wilson's true forte is. But overall, a disappointment.

Read Anthill:

• if you are interested in science
• if you are particularly interested in insects
• if you are interested in humans as nature's worst enemy

378 pages.

Okay book, but it left me wanting more!