Another engrossing and fascinating Mowat title, another Mowat "must read", "Woman in the Mists" is the sympathetic biography of a woman whose work gave us a window into the world of the mountain gorilla, a species to whose protection and conservation she was devoted. By alternating excerpts from her diary entries and personal letters with his own descriptive text, Mowat brings Dian Fossey, a powerfully willed and often abrasive woman, to life. Her youthful years, young adulthood, her fateful meeting with Louis Leakey, her romantic involvements and disappointments, her first contacts with the gorillas and the years of her work and struggle are portrayed with humanity and affection. The tale is enormously enriched by her own words. She struggled indomitably against self-serving African bureaucrats, indigenous herdsmen and hunter-gatherers, antagonistic forces that gained strength against her in the fields of primatology and philanthropy, and her own gradually deteriorating health largely the result of a powerful smoking addiction.

But her work and her happiness were plagued by male academics and agents of philanthropic organizations who got caught up in a web of calumny and distrust motivated by primatologists who were seriously bent out of shape by her abrasiveness and who felt they could avenge themselves by vilifying her, possibly abetted by society's undercurrent of misogyny. Had there been no vilification, she may never have been killed, as her fatal enemy, probably an African, no doubt took strength from knowing how much she was hated by, for example, the American and European agents of the Mountain Gorilla Project. Mowat provides the reader a chilling view of Fossey's victimization, but never identifies the sexist element which seems apparent to this male reviewer.

Fossey survived all the victimization because of her extraordinary strength and a powerfully motivating love for the gorillas and the entire eden-like natural world in which she lived. She had serious blind spots: her obliviousness to her abrasiveness, her hatred for the National Park's Tutsi herders and pygmy hunter-gatherers, even before the latter began killing her beloved gorillas (whole gorilla family groups, in order to capture a single infant for the zoo trade and skulls for the tourist souvenir trade), and her (and Mowat's) use of the racist epithet "wog" with impunity toward Africans who she hated, though she shared genuine bonds of love with the Africans who worked with her as trackers and poaching patrollers, and evidenced no other racist feeling. Mowat's record of Fossey's life is a powerful, shocking, revealing and loving account.

Farley Mowat performed an excellent service when he wrote this book. Dian Fossey was a woman of great character, confidence, courage, determination, and conviction. Her life was lived for what she found to be a greater cause and the world is that much worse off without her. This book did an excellent job of showing the reader who Dian Fossey really was and what she really went through. I recommend it to anyone. It is well worth reading.

Read this book, and you will feel like you know the real Dian Fossey. Personal letters, journal entries all give insight to her life as a living, breathing human being who had many friends (human and non-human). Her passion for life is inspirational! This is a must read, and also an excellent book to read for school projects!

An astonishing writer named Sy Montgomery thoughtfull wrote Walking With The Great Apes. Montgomery's captivating novel portrays three women who are fasinated about how primates live and care for one another. In a dire world of poaching and murder, these three scientists attempt to protect and preserve the world and nature of humanity's closest cousins. All together Walking With The Great Apes is a thought-provoking book and a must read for anyone interested in the Great Apes.

A very well written book and a great introduction to those who want to know more about the lives and studies of these 3 extremely remarkable woman Jane Goodall, Birutas Galdikas and last but not least for me THE woman of the 20th century Dian Fossey.

Sy Montgoemry writes extremely well, and as a consequence, her book is compulsively readable. Not only that, but the subject matter is pure fascination, as she sheds light on each of these great apes, their extraordinary environments, and the daring women scientists who study them - their unique approach to science, their trials and tribulations. A great book.

This is a fantastic, moving and deeply personal biography of Dian Fossey - written by the famous Canadian naturalist Farley Mowat. The book engages the subjects life and passion in a way that only another committed naturalist could.

Fossey's dedication and ambitious hope for the Gorilla's and also for humanity and the Earth's survival was awesome.

The book is very readable. Includes some photos. Very enjoyable and worth the time to read.

Fascinating insight into the life of Dian Fossey. Does not pull any punches. Describes how she walked the fine line between dedication and lunacy.

I found this to be an interesting and insightful book. There were many surprises about the life of Dian Fossey. I have to say that I came away with less respect for her (and a few others mentioned) The roughshod treatment and callous disregard of the native people was disturbing to me. I believe she was not truly up to the job although she did seem to care deeply for the gorillas and that came through clearly in the book. The sexual shenanigans that went on reminded me of a sleazy soap opera. Somehow I expected more professionalism from those involved. One can only ponder why the wives mentioned would accept such behavior. This is a well written book that manages to hold ones attention throughout and is worth reading.

This is a great book, and it is a wonderful way to understand the life of Dian Fossey. This is definetly a book for people who love animals and admire the work of Dian Fossey.

Dian Fossey,author of Gorillas in the Mist uses this book to talk about her experiences researching gorillas in the wild. Starting in the year 1963 and ending in the year 1983, Fossey gives us an intimate look into her life and interactions with the mountain gorillas.
The book begins by telling the story of her first experience in Africa. The reader walks away from the first chapter of the book keenly aware that this is not an average woman writing of her weekend stay with gorillas in a zoo. Here is a headstrong woman willing to go to any lengths to travel to Africa to see the majestic gorillas, a physically capable woman handling the challenging terrain of the mountains undeterred even after breaking her ankle along the treacherous path to see the gorillas.
After her first African encounter Fossey cannot wait to come back and research the gorillas for an extended period of time. She leaves the United States in 1966 and travels to the Congo to study. However,this turns into an abbreviated stay because of the wars going on in that country. She moves camp to Rwanda,where she establishes a permanent home at the Karisoke Research Centre. Her study of gorillas starts here, and she quickly finds that living in the Parc National des Volcans will be physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging for her.
I was certainly ready to start reading about experiences with gorillas by the time that Fossey had gotten settled. The research at this point moves very quickly. Groups of gorillas are numbered and individuals are named. At times it became difficult to keep up with all hte names and numbers given to the gorillas; Fossey, however, does a wonderful job of keeping the reader informed of which group and which individual she is talking about.
Involved in the book is information about Fossey's life with other researchers. I was eager to read about how she overcame the language barrier between herself and the Rwandese. It was also interesting to read about thier initial trials and errors with food and locals that were recruited to help track the gorillas.
This book informs about the poaching problemin Africa. She lets the reader know that she is doing everything she can to thwart the poachers efforts at capturing the gorillas; that without support this species will be literally hunted to death. Sometimes her behavior was rash. She wrote about how she retaliated against poachers and their families. In one instance she stole a herd from a local Rwandan until she obtained information about the poachers she was looking for. Some of her tactics in stopping poaching were less than diplomatic,to put it diplomatically, she could have handled many situations differently. Clearly, however her aggression toward poachers came out of her love for gorillas.
I enjoyed reading about the entire life cycle of an individual gorilla from birth until they were sexually mature. I felt more connected with the gorillas because of this and it made me want to turn the page to find out what would happen to my favorite gorillas next. It was also fascinating to read about gorilla interactions. In many wats they are similar to humans in that the infants need a significant amount of love and support and as they grow older they fall into the typical male and female roles. The males would try to imitate their fathers whom they would eventually succeed; and the females would become very interested in infants born into the group, often playing with and grooming the new additions.
After reading several pages I was hooked and found every detail fascinating. My only criticism is that sometimes the order of events is skewed. Fossey would tell an entire story about a gorilla, then go on to talk about a time before this story unfolded. It seemed sometimes that she was putting the proverbial "cart before the horse." This made the story line at times hard to follow. Despite this stylistic shortcoming Gorrilas in the Mist is a moving story about Dian Fossey and her life with the African mountain gorillas. She was passionate about her work and her passion vividly comes through in every page.

From the moment you open this captivating non-fiction book about the mountian gorillas of the Virunga Mountains, you crave to know more of these "gentle giants". Written by the first serious mountain gorilla observer, Dian Fossey, it is the first book to tell of these great apes and their very human-like characteristics and behaviors. It also tells all too well the gorillas' struggles for "freedom" and their troubles with poachers, zoos, and most of the outside world.

Though it would be easy for the author to stray away from the gorillas to her own personal life, Ms. Fossey stays completely focused on her selfless journey to explain to the world that these gorillas are not beasts but "gentle giants". She beautifully paints the picture of the gorillas' close-knit families and groups, and the hostility that can be felt in or between groups. Ms. Fossey also wonderfully incorporates her own experiences with the gorillas to bring a human touch to the book and to show that humans and gorillas can have relationships and can be "friends". This book is a must and I would definetly recommend it for all audiences.

The legendary story of Dian Fossey and her "Gorillas in the Mist" is, by now, well known around the world. One cannot help but read this book and be left feeling an enormous sadness for the few remaining mountain gorillas left in the world. Pouchers have all but eliminated this rare and precious species. Dian's work and memory will forever live on in the hearts of those who appreciate her determination, strength and dauntless courage in fighting for what she wholeheartedly believed in - the protection of the mountain gorillas.

Fossey gave her life in speaking out for her beliefs; she was murdered, most likely by poachers, in 1985. Since then, she has proven to be both an inspiration and hero in the eyes of animal rights' activists and those who truly believe in fighting for what they believe in. The book is an extremely emotional, often turbulent, book to read especially when encountering the peaceful, loving, family-oriented nature of the gorilla and the horrendous, barbaric actions of the poachers, but it is also a compelling book lovers of the animal kingdom will not want to miss. This book is highly recommended and worth a five star plus.

A collection of four pieces on African history or culture. 'The Woman Who Loved Gorillas' is a stark, unflattering look at Dian Fossey. Differing from the usual hagiography about Fossey, this essay focuses on her mistreatment of the Africans, her erratic and supposedly violent behavior, and her anti-social arrogance. It's not a slam piece, though, offering motives about her murder and admitting that Dian did much for the gorillas of Rwanda. 'The Last of the Dog-Headed Men' is a look at the elusive indri, a 'singing' lemur of Madagascar. 'The Emperor Who Ate His People' is a look back at the career of Central African Republic dictator Bokassa. Finally, 'In Search of the Source Of AIDS' is both a quest for possible sources of the virus and a look at how the disease is ravaging Africa (circa 1987). The last essay might be the most powerful, if it weren't so dated. On the whole, the book serves well as a source of interesting information, viz. on the indri, Bokassa, the history of madagascar, how totemist works in modern Africa, etc. It's marred, though, by Shoumatoff's odd tendency to make general pronouncements on national character (belied by the facts which he himself relates a page or two later) : 'the Rwandans are a peaceful people who abhor violence' (and so are unlikely to have killed Fossey with a machete, of all things); 'the Malagasies are, on the whole, a remarkably serne and wonderfully polite people' (I guess all that tribal warfare is just gentle native play). So again, this is a fine document for facts, but great travel writing requires a clear and unbiased attitude, which Shoumatoff doesn't have.