BOOK REVIEW: West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

 I just finished West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge, a truly heart-warming historical novel.

Using a framing structure, the book begins when a VA employee is assigned to sort out the effects of a newly-deceased 105-year-old WWII veteran, to return them, if possible, to remaining family. The veteran possessed only a single footlocker. When the employee opens it, she finds a toy giraffe and a stack of hand-written notebooks.

The novel then opens into chapters that alternate between the last days of the veteran, who is suffering from dementia but has vivid memories of his eighteen-year-old self. Despite the efforts of the nursing home staff, he spends his last days writing a letter to a mysterious woman that is a memoir of sorts. This memoir/letter is what the VA employee finds in the notebooks.

The letters recount the 1938 cross-country trip of the young man, Woody (Woodrow Wilson Nickel), as the driver helping to transport a pair of giraffes from New York to the San Diego Zoo. The giraffes are miraculous survivors of a hurricane that hit during their Atlantic crossing. Woody is a bedraggled survivor himself, having been orphaned in the dust bowl of the Texas panhandle. Woody carries a load of guilt – both from the trauma of circumstances surrounding his parents’ deaths and from the fact that he has become a petty thief in order to survive. 

Riley Jones (a.k.a. the Old Man), the man hired to transport the giraffes has a way with animals, but he can’t drive because of a shriveled hand. When the original driver proves incompetent, Woody manages to take his place, on a temporary basis. It is as difficult as one might imagine to drive two giraffes coast-to-coast with a 1938 truck and 1938 roads. Not to mention the danger of theft or illness of the giraffes, or of Woody’s past misdeeds coming back to haunt him.

There is also a young woman, Augusta, or, as Woody calls her, Red. An intrepid photographer with a passel of secrets, Red wants so badly to be a photojournalist for Life Magazine that she pretends to be one. Red follows their truck in a conspicuous green Packard that she has “borrowed.” Woody is smitten. 

This is a beautifully written story of a life-changing journey – with giraffes. It is based on a true story of hurricane-surviving giraffes that were carted across the country in a modified truck. Newspapers followed the progress and along the way, people turned out to see the exotic animals, a must-needed distraction during the Depression and pre-WWII tensions. The historicity of the novel is enhanced by snippets of news articles, telegrams and a sample “hobo card.” Although I’m not sure if these are real excerpts or fictionalized ones, they ring true. This is a great book for book clubs.