Curious Lives: Adventures from the Ferret Chronicles. Richard Bach. Hampton Roads Publishing Company. Charlottesville, VA. 2005.

Book Review by Joel
I waited a while before doing a review on this one. I think because I may be holding a mirror up to myself and not liking it. But I did not like this book. It is a series of short stories, originally sold separately but put all together in one volume here. I like Richard Bach and read Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah and really enjoyed them.

What I liked about those books is his philosophy and his ideals about living the big picture and seeing beyond your food source or comfort zone. But in the Curious Lives: Adventures from the Ferret Chronicles, I just see thinly veiled metaphors for the human struggle without the true struggle against our own nature. A G-rated collection of kid stories that for me grew tiresome. I admire the philosophy of a warless and selfless band of ferrets living only to attain their “highest right” or to enable others to do so. But the stories seemed to me to be basically the same with different characters, doing their “highest right” and then living happily ever after.

So am I holding this mirror up and seeing someone who missed the whole point of these stories and who has lost all faith in human nature or am I upset because you cannot wipe out evil in society because you don’t want to deal with it? Or is it just a collection of stories about made up ferrets?

If you are going to purchase this book, be sure to look for “Curious Lives”, because the single books are still out there. You’ll be upset if you pay for a book that is included in the big book. I know; I did it.

Joel.