Book review: The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

It is always a challenge to re-read a novel... Will we still enjoy it? Will it live up to our memories? Have we changed so much that it does not appeal to us any longer?

Well, rereading The Call of the Wild for a project of mine certainly made me wonder. And Jack London's magic, his magnificent style, the heart-wrenching story of Buck, our clever dog-protagonist, made all these questions vanish in a second!

Here are two of my favorite passages:

"Buck’s first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock and surprise. He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial. No lazy, sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored. Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a moment’s safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb were in peril. There was imperative need to be constantly alert; for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang."

"This first theft marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death. It marked, further, the decay or going to pieces of his moral nature, a vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence."

The Call is as powerful as ever! Enjoy or re-enjoy a great, priceless, unforgettable experience!