The Extinction Club by Robert Twigger, Hamish Hamilton, 拢12.99, ISBN
0241140676
HALFWAY through The Extinction Club, Robert Twigger maintains that a
鈥渂ookhead鈥� develops the ability to judge a book鈥檚 quality by flipping through a
few of its pages. Any bookhead flipping through Twigger鈥檚 book will give it the
thumbs up at once. It鈥檚 remarkable, enjoyable鈥攁nd difficult to
categorise.
The first surprise is a dust jacket that makes it look like a well-used
second-hand book, but you learn that, to Twigger, second-hand bookstores are a
sign of humanity鈥檚 saving recalcitrance. The second is that there is no
conventional form: no chapters, just headings to sections. It looks as if the
author has been sidetracked every now and then and has let his mind wander,
delighting in the freedom but still banging away at his keyboard.
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Running through all this is the extraordinary story of the preservation of
P猫re David鈥檚 deer. This unique animal had survived only in the palace
parks of the Chinese emperors. But by about 1900 it was wiped out in China by
flood and war, but not before a few specimens had been introduced to
Europe鈥攖here is now a thriving herd at Woburn Park. But this tale surfaces
only occasionally, scattered among autobiography, biography (the Russells of
Woburn, P猫re David), travel, history (China鈥檚 Boxer rebellion), fact and
fiction and something that might be either. It creates a puzzling choice for the
reader of which narrative thread to follow, but that only increases the pleasure
of the book.