The Call of the Wild

Image credit: Alibris

Finishing a book and then going in search for another is probably one of the hardest things to do. Unless, at some point during your last book you developed a craving or idea of what to read next, one can spend hours staring at titles, spines, and authors’ names and never find inspiration. When that happens, I make a grab; usually something small that I know I can read in a week so as to have a new review posted on time. This method of book choosing led me to read an undervalued classic in literature this week: The Call of the Wild.

Set during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, the book tells the story of household pet Buck, who’s cushy, civilised life is turned upside down when he is kidnapped, sold, and put to work pulling a sled in the frozen Canadian wastes. Adapting to the rules of this new dog-eat-god world, Buck begins to change as the domesticated years of his breed are slowly shed and the underlying primordial instincts of his ancestors begin to take over.

Call of the Wild is one of those rare and delightful books that seem as though they’d appeal to a certain audience, but then prove to be the exact opposite. Like Orwell’s Animal Farm, London’s semi-anthropomorphic tale told in the third person omniscient empathising with the perspectives of the canine protagonist, seems like it could be a children’s tale, only to dash that initial impression with macabre and horrific descriptions of savagery and brutality, almost like a horror novel.

Image credit: NPR

However, this impression also gets pulled apart by London’s dramatic, rhythmic, and gorgeously crafted prose that romanticises the wild and the wilderness, painting it as something both beautiful and terrible. One cannot help but become completely mesmerised by Buck’s transformation as he moves further and further away from ‘man’s best friend’ to the epitome of the untamed wild.

A breathtakingly beautiful yet harrowing depiction of ingrained identities, nature vs. nurture, and a universal ‘animal’ instinct that resides in all life, The Call of the Wild is a surprising and deeply stirring book.

The Call of the Wild was written by Jack London in 1903. It was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, and first published by Macmillan (New York).