Les racines du ciel

Romain Gary's Les Racines du Ciel is the best novel written in the 20th century. In part, it is the story of a man who attempts to disappear in Africa only to make himself very famous as a renegade protector of elephants. The novel preceded any environmental movements by more than a decade. However, the import of the book lies not in the subject treated, but in Gary's unique treatment of humanity.An author's ability to see humanity from an unusual point of view is nothing new. Gary's genius lies in his ability to make the reader see clearly through his eyes. His narration reveals truths in human actions that must be despaired, pitied, and celebrated all in the same sentence. His characters are not criminals, nor are they very likeable. In this book they include a dangerous idealist, a young German girl who follows him faithfully, a fanatical African nationalist who wants to use him, a disgraced American officer, an amoral gunrunner, a famous photo-journalist, and a French administrator who wishes to be reincarnated as a tree. The reader will lament their many failings and rejoice in their few victories not for anything they have done, but for who they are: human beings taken by surprise by the human condition. His characters reveal how human beings reform the world around them when history has become overwhelming. Sometimes it is world history, often it is a character's personal history.Les Racines du Ciel is not intended to teach the reader how to live a better life by describing characters who live life badly. The book will remind you of basic traits of humanity. It asks what is goodness and decency and how are they better than evil and brutality? And if they are better, why do they so seldom win in the end? Reading a Romain Gary novel is smiling through the tears.Unfortunately, the reverence held for the author in Europe is matched by the indifference of readers in the United States. Several of his books have been translated into English but are now out of print. I highly recommend any of Romain Gary's books; Les Racines du Ciel is simply the best of his work.

The narration by Saint Denis becomes repetitive and contradictory at times, to the point of overkill. Not just in discussing Morel, but also Minna.It could be that there was more than one version of the French text, because I downloaded an English version of the book and found that the French version (bought on Amazon) contained significantly more text than the translated English version, which could not be explained as the translator simply shortening the text (to reduce the less meaty texts), because there were differences, not just exclusions. I would have liked the French version of the translated book more because it's less tedious.Aside from the above gripe, I'd give the book 5 stars for subject matter and story development. I sought, and found, Google confirmation of the book's claim that 30,000 elephants per year were killed in the 50s -- stunning!

This is the best book I've ever read! It is the story of a man who devotes his life to save elephants from being exterminated in Africa. It speaks about mankind, what it is, what it could be... It is both pessimistic and optimistic, ... it is difficult to tell the story but everybody, and especially high school students should all read it. It is almost a poetic book.It's certainly one of the most humain books you'll ever come across. The author, Romain Gary, is very well known all over Europe and it saddens me that he's almost anonymous in the states.He deserves recognition and the Americans deserve to know this great writer. I don't know if it has been translated in english, if not what a loss for english speakers ;-)

This is one of the best stories ever told by anyone anywhere. Its tenderness, foresight and deep knowledge of human weaknesses makes it a testament to be read by all. It should be studied in high school as a compulsory book. There is more politics, love, hate, deceit, dreams and braveness than in any other book I ever read. Maybe one day Steven Spielberg or other would like to take a deep read at it and finally give the Hollywood treatment it needs to be made universal.

This is an analysis it is not the book, please disregard the comments from other customers, obviously they never read the book that it's been selling.

Probably the first ecological book.It is impressive to discover that 70 years after…nothing have changed except maybe this human amnesia!

Bon état . Livre dont le contenu est tout à fait d’ actualité.Bien ecrit evidemmenth…

Buch kam schnell u in perfektem zustand

Compliqué à lire pour un non Français. En tous cas, le prix Goncourt est une vraie garantie de bonne litérature.

Un libro interessante, che descrive un'africa che non esiste più, me che è restata nella memoria di molti "vecchi" frequentatori di quei paesi. La prosa è un pò prolissa, gli argomenti interessanti, soprattutto in relazion agli aspetti relativi alla protezione dei grandi mammiferi. Consigliato