book afterthought

I finished a book called, the Tiger, a True story of vengeance and survival.  The book was about a man-eating tiger, and the process of hunting the tiger down by a group of expert hunters at the outer Manchurian.

It was a great read.  The whole process of hunting was only quarter of the book.  But the Arthur detailed the people involved in the whole process.  By doing that, readers were introduced to the region, the era, the people and their cultures, and present political and economical situation around outer Manchuria.  It was a fascinating read.

The main character was the Amur Tigers.  As the Russian brought their technology eastward gradually starting 17th century, the seed of destruction of Amur tigers' habitat was sown.  But the vast Siberia land was Amur tigers' protector, it slowed down the process, until the Trans-Siberian railroad finished at the end of 19th century.  Then the modern technology poured in with increasing speed following historical events like, Stalin, WWII, Mao, and perestroika and its aftermath.  These events were like hands, setting people into their places, the places and the era in terms guided different characters to make different decisions.  (The Amur tigers however, was not really a character.  It is part of the so called "Mother land". It is also a book about conservation.  The habitat lost to logging, before and after perestroika; the fall and rise of the tigers' population, where and who is the tiger's biggest market, China. )

The books is fascinating, because it used a very incredible story to get people to follow the train of Author's thought.  The book spend three quarter to make the characters intimate with the readers.  The characters' situation in the book was bad, because the economic was horrible.  And to the Far East of Russia, the situation was even worse.  Many characters were forced to live off the Mother land, the Taiga.  By doing so, chance encountering with tiger became plenty.  From there, after two cases of a tiger eating human.  The final showdown between the tiger was the high lights of the story.

One of the fun thing about the book was how it described the natives.  Basically, the book described them as with North American Natives.  I find that fun.  Because at the end of the book, the poachers they mentioned was of the native tribal people.  Of course, in bad economic, they could be suffering the most.