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© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/156853007X217221 Society and Animals 15 (2007) 299-307 www.brill.nl/soan Book Reviews A Cautionary Tale: Th e Whale Caller , by Zakes Mda. New York: Picador, 2006. ISBN-10: 0312425872, $14.00 Zakes Mda’s Th e Whale Caller represents a major shift from post-apartheid literature. While the novel acknowledges aspects of national transformation it foregrounds the interactions and interconnections between human culture and the material environment. Th e Whale Caller represents a relationship of loving biosociality between a human and a whale but is, ultimately, a cautionary tale. Set in contemporary Hermanus, a seaside resort near Cape Town, South Africa, the eponymous protagonist is a wise fool who engages musically with Sharisha, a southern right whale. He is never named beyond his vocation of calling whales with his kelp horn; his pursuit has elements of the magical as he communicates passionately with the largest mam- mal on the planet. But the narrative does not have nature or an animal as an active healing force, an essential element of folktales. Nor is the whale caller an heroic figure who tri- umphs over evil through his own courage. He is a flawed character, semi-nomadic and socially marginalized—his
Society & Animals – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2007
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