Customer Reviews: Read 139 more reviews...
 This book is phenomenal November 22, 2008
I absolutely love this book! Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop. I started on a Friday and finished the next day. Jack London really knows how to draw in and capture a reader. Fabulous book.
 Great Book - which I suspect is a metaphor for Jack London's inner life October 6, 2008
I suspect that White Fang is really a disguised tale about Jack London's inner emotional life, and particularly his childhood. I don't know too much about London, so this is only speculation, and his biography would probably give better clues, though so often biographers idealize their subjects' childhoods - and gloss over the more painful emotional dynamics.
So the dynamics I sensed, and you may know better than I how they parallel Jack London's life: White Fang (= Jack London), abused and neglected as a puppy (= Little Jack), born outside any conventionally accepting community, somewhat loved and then abandoned by his mostly-wolf mother, fully abandoned by his wolf father after his birth because of mother's behavior, raised in isolation, treated consistently cruelly by the world and became tough as nails and aloof and independent to defend himself against this cruelty (= London splitting off emotionally to keep his identity and inner strength), never unconditionally loved by anyone so he became a frustrated and angry creature, but kept his sense of himself somehow, and fought for what he believed in.
Passed around from owner to owner, treated progressively worse by each (adults and society massively failed London again and again), and used him for their sick purposes, to the point of nearly killing him, until one man finally rescues him and loves him and nurses him back to health - and teaches him the meaning of love. White Fang is then redeemed, and ultimately becomes a beloved member of a family, a hero, and a loving father of puppies of his own.
I suspected this last part of the book was Jack London's hidden fantasy for how he wanted his own life to turn out - to finally become non-emotionally isolated, loved and accepted by a family system, and essentially "normal." Didn't he instead die in his early forties, a miserable, lost and embittered alcoholic?
A Wonderful Read April 10, 2008
This a great book to read because I remember reading it as a kid. I liked the book so much that I read it twice. There was also a dog that I used to have that kind of looked like the main character, but he was a huskey. Also, I would recommend this book to anyone.
Only the best book of all time [IMO] September 4, 2007
I picked up this book in the 6th grade for an English class assignment. I didn't even finish it the first time I tried to go through it. I was bored with it as I usually am with books I am made to read. However, a year or two later I was back at the challenge. I feel guilty about leaving books unfinished, and since wolves are by far my favorite animal I needed to give this book another shot. Since then I've read this book about 6 times and can tell you all about the events and characters, the struggles, and the ending. It's become my favorite book with no close rivals, as Jack London has become my favorite author. It's excellently written, descriptive, with a wonderful story of the hardships and trials of one wolf-dog's life in the far North.
Free SF Reader September 3, 2007
White Fang is a pup born a hybrid, part wolf and part dog. The other dogs, therefore, are not big fans of his. He ends up a tough super-dog as a result, and as such, attracts the attention of dog fighters, and keeps winning until he is rescused from a fight.
He ends up helping out his new owners, and getting to relax and enjoy his golden years.
|
