Despite the hip, appealing jacket and auspicious credentials of the author, this book disappoints. It feels like an academic toss-off, designed for the layperson with a fleeting interest, who will leaf through it like a magazine. To swim through the author's disjointed and often autobiographical slough to arrive at the occasional chunks of interesting stuff is simply not worthwhile. On page 9, the author describes his attitude toward his doctoral thesis (...I stayed up, slept late, frequented cafes in the long afternoons, wrote and unpublished novel and an unperformable play, watched far too many old movies, and diligently avoided my supervisor...) Replace 'supervisor' with 'lit agent', and we may have discovered Newton's approach to book writing as well.

It's a wonder that a writer could take such a fascinating subject matter and make it so annoying.

An interesting read that poses some crucial questions about language, trust, and human identity. What separates us from animals, and from each other as humans? Perhaps it's much less, and much more, than we think. These case histories describe children's abilities to survive in the wild as well as their various attempts at re-entering human society - attempts invariably fraught with sadness, triumph, mystery, or even all three.

There are many myths about abandoned children who become heroes, like Moses and Oedipus. These had the good fortune to be found by humans and raised by humans. But there are other myths, some as modern as Tarzan, about abandoned children who are taken up by animals. Romulus and Remus were raised by wolves, and Semiramis, who founded Babylon, was raised by birds. Such stories seem to be of intense interest to humans, and when a real "wild child" is produced, it can cause curiosity, sympathy, and sensation. The stories of six such wild children are recounted in _Savage Girls and Wild Boys: A History of Feral Children_ (Thomas Dunne Books) by Michael Newton. The individual stories, full of contradiction and wonder, are all intriguing, and the responses to the children and their fate have something to tell us not so much about feral children, but about ourselves. These poor children lacked human contact when they should have been learning how to talk, eat, and behave; the result of such deprivation brings up profound questions about what language means, and what it is to be human.

Peter, the "Wild Boy" came naked out of the forests of Hanover, and became an attraction at the court of George I. He lived on for sixty years, described in 1751 as "more of the Ouran Outang species than of the human." He could say only three words, "Peter" and "King George." Memmie le Blanc was lured out of a tree in France in Champagne in 1731 when she was about ten; she seems to have been a Native American dropped for some reason by the slave trade. She could run and swim well, used a club to kill prey, and lived on roots and raw meat. She eventually learned some French, and made artificial flowers for her living. Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron was captured in the woods and lost twice over the years before being finally taken in 1800. His development is among the best documented, as a young doctor set out to make the wild boy social. Victor learned to say the French word for milk. Kamala was about eight years old, suckled by wolves in the Indian jungle, until she was captured in 1920. She lived nine further years, and learned a few words. The famous Kaspar Hauser had a strange tale of being kept prisoner in a cellar for sixteen years. He is the one feral child here that might be fraudulent. The most modern example, the sad Genie who was tied to a chair in Los Angeles until she was about thirteen, acquired lots of words but no grammar. What was going on in the minds of these children?

Probably no one knows with any confidence, but that does not stop curiosity or speculation. One of Genie's caretakers found her "unsocialized, primitive, hardly human." By the time we get to her case, we can see that the same thing was said of all these wild children, and that their suffering struck cords in those around them. But like Victor, Hauser, and Le Blanc, Genie was rescued, received intense caring attention, became a celebrity, and then was consigned to oblivion. The pattern happened over and over to the wild children who lived long enough, and seems to indicate that bringing such creatures happily into human society is almost impossible. Those who thought about these children, and they thought long and hard, were eager to examine humanity uncorrupted, as completely blank slates, but no one came close enough to understanding the children to make them social. We fantasize that we can reclaim such lost humans, or that they have the intellectual power to reclaim themselves; look at Mowgli or Tarzan. It must not be forgotten that these poor children survived under appalling conditions, and that can inspire some admiration. But humans need each other, and Newton's serious and earnest book is best at showing this simple truth in a new way.

Mr. Weiner(Michael's real name how appropriate) I find your predilection towards grandiloquent words to be both infatuistic and bombastic!, you are a inferior writer! give it up for the sake of all Americans. Mr. Michael Weiner is another in a long line of fame hungry, angry, nihilistic boob's lacking in judgment and prudence, spreading their contagion to the minds of the intelectually challenged(aka Mental Pygmies), his abhorrent behavior is matched only by his rancor. If you have to waste your time on something(like reading or listening to the radio) find something positive and worthwhile, instead of this detestable pontificating oaf.

Now that Michael Savage has taken his tumble this out-of-print rant may seem to matter less than nothing. Don't bet on it. The fellow shows a real sense of mission, and when you've got that, plus a tribe of emotional adherents who see you as victimized by the enemy "other" (in this case, immigrants, liberals, terrorists, homosexuals etc.), you'll go places, sooner or later. Other people have done it.
Michael Savage boasts that he got to "conservatism" from a "liberal" beginning, meaning to prove the logical and emotional validity of his noisy and ugly concatenation of opinions. Reminds me of a fellow who claimed that he got to anti-semitism from an unbiased, open-minded start, and mixed all kinds of intellectual rubbish in with it to get it to book length. Have a look at that book too. It's called "Mein Kampf".
The "ideas" in "Compassionate Conservative Speaks" are preposterous derivatives of Hollywood and late-night television. The writer himself stumbles forth as the kind of guy who gets bounced from barrooms for fighting with the bartender, then comes back with a gun and shoots himself in the foot. But man, he's got that small-mustache charm about him.
If you argue for America, argue against Michael Savage. If you pray for America, pray against Michael Savage. If you do voodoo, do the voodoo against Michael Savage. He's the worst this perishing Republic can produce.

Anyone who has read this book undoubtedly has already heard or been made aware of the author's radio talk show, which is really nothing more than maniacal, foaming at the mouth conservative ranting based on half-baked hypotheses and conclusory information. Unlike Rush Limbaugh, Savage doesn't screen his calls. However, he frequently berates and insults callers. More simply put, Savage is to radio what Morton Downey Jr. was to TV not that many years ago.

"Compassionate Conservative Speaks" is really nothing more than a series of conclusory statements, thinly veiled insults, and inane theories in support of the author's ultra conservative viewpoints. Don't look for critical analysis here, as you won't find it.

Each side of the political spectrum has its share of loudmouthed fringe element whackos who can't see the fallacy of their own arguments. The left has Ralph Nader and the right has Pat Buchanan. Savage's extremism and paranoia is even farther to the right of Buchanan's. This book is little more than a modern day version of Mein Kampf.