Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2010), Edition: 1st Edition
Description
Inspirational and magical, this is the story of a boy who grows up determined to save the world from its most savage ecological predator: man himself.
Media reviews
Anthill is E.O. Wilson's first work of fiction. It contains what its title promises it will contain: an anthill, embedded at its core. Not a metaphorical anthill, a real anthill, filled to the brim with—well, ants. And thereby hangs its tale.
This novel has succeeded in drawing one reader at least into the fascination of ants and the work of E.O. Wilson. But I'm not sure, without other reasons for reading it, I would have gotten that far.
User reviews
LibraryThing member GCPLreader
One thing is for sure-- E.O. Wilson knows his ants. Anthill contains an overly lengthy section told through the ants' point of view that was all science and quite interesting. But even that was too dry and I wish there was more metaphor and more lyrical writing like I remember in A.S. Byatt's
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fabulous Angels and Insects. The main story of Raff is poorly characterized. I wanted more of the "Huck Finn" type adventures, yet the book steered off into too much unnecessary family back story. Wilson missed the mark by not writing more of Raff's Boy Scouts participation, more at college, more of his personal life. The book's first and final suspenseful chapters serve as bookends and don't seem to fit at all with the novel. I do appreciate the author's message and the unmistakable love he has for his beautiful home state of Alabama, but with much regret, I cannot recommend this environmental tale. Show Less
LibraryThing member Boobalack
Raphael Semmes Cody was the product of a mixed marriage. His mother, Marcia, was a Southern Lady in the strictest sense of the words and his father, Ainesley, was a blue-collar man and was barely respectable in the eyes of Marcia’s parents. They offered no objection to the young couple’s dating
This story follows Raff, as he preferred to be called, from childhood to adulthood. He never seemed to fit into the macho-hunter image his father preferred and, instead, was more interested in nature for nature’s sake and in learning about the area around Lake Nokobee, where his parents took him on frequent picnics. There he met Frederick Norville, a professor of ecology at Florida State University. Norville soon became a good friend and was called “Uncle Fred” by Raff. Raff went on to FSU after highschool, and Norville became his mentor. He next went to Harvard Law School, returned home and engaged in an effort to save the Lake Nokobee area from development.
In spite of the clichés mentioned above, the author managed to keep a fresh perspective. His descriptions were so good that I formed a mental image of the land in question. I could also imagine the abandoned old houses, with their sagging porches and weathered boards. Frogman didn’t seem to be a major character, but it turns out in a surprising plot twist that he was very important.
Part of this book is a section called “The Anthill Chronicles.” Raff wrote his senior undergraduate thesis about a dying anthill at his beloved Lake Nokobee site, and this section teaches much about ant life. I remember in school being told that ants are social insects and work together to accomplish their goals. Nobody ever told me how much ant society is like human society. Amazing stuff. Much scientific information is given and could easily have turned this book into a rather boring narration; however, it kept my attention all the way through.
It seems that Mr. Wilson based both Raff and Uncle Fred Norville on himself. Maybe, maybe not, but that’s the impression I got.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good story, along with having an interest in ecology.
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because they thought Ainesley was merely a fling before Marcia got serious about marrying and found a match from her own social class. They were not correct. He was also the product of the Deep South – Mobile, Alabama and environs to be exact. You know, the area of our country where “Fred” is pronounced “Frey yed,” and many other one-syllable words somehow evolve into two syllables. I say this with a happy face, as I was born in Georgia and raised in various parts of the South.This story follows Raff, as he preferred to be called, from childhood to adulthood. He never seemed to fit into the macho-hunter image his father preferred and, instead, was more interested in nature for nature’s sake and in learning about the area around Lake Nokobee, where his parents took him on frequent picnics. There he met Frederick Norville, a professor of ecology at Florida State University. Norville soon became a good friend and was called “Uncle Fred” by Raff. Raff went on to FSU after highschool, and Norville became his mentor. He next went to Harvard Law School, returned home and engaged in an effort to save the Lake Nokobee area from development.
In spite of the clichés mentioned above, the author managed to keep a fresh perspective. His descriptions were so good that I formed a mental image of the land in question. I could also imagine the abandoned old houses, with their sagging porches and weathered boards. Frogman didn’t seem to be a major character, but it turns out in a surprising plot twist that he was very important.
Part of this book is a section called “The Anthill Chronicles.” Raff wrote his senior undergraduate thesis about a dying anthill at his beloved Lake Nokobee site, and this section teaches much about ant life. I remember in school being told that ants are social insects and work together to accomplish their goals. Nobody ever told me how much ant society is like human society. Amazing stuff. Much scientific information is given and could easily have turned this book into a rather boring narration; however, it kept my attention all the way through.
It seems that Mr. Wilson based both Raff and Uncle Fred Norville on himself. Maybe, maybe not, but that’s the impression I got.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good story, along with having an interest in ecology.
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LibraryThing member tgford
An extremely slow moving book with excruciating detail about coastal Alabama wildlife habitats mixed throughout with a thinly veiled conservation message. Even though we are introduced to the main character Raff at an early age, his character never seems to develop fully. The first part of the book
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spends more time on Raff’s parent’s background and the history of the Mobile social hierarchy than the main character himself. The middle part of the book is an extremely detailed explanation of the life cycle of an ant colony. Finally the last part of the book begins to build some excitement but sadly it is too little, too late. If I hadn’t been committed to writing this review, I would have put the book down after the first 100 pages. Show Less
LibraryThing member bkswrites
It may have been asking too much to expect a scientist and advocate of E.O. Wilson's stature to be able to follow the novelist's dictum of 'show, don't tell,' and his instructional digressions, on everything from ant behavior to weather patterns in coastal New England, certainly allow him the
This is not to say I didn't enjoy the book. I'm not sure it ever would have seen print if the writer didn't already have a publisher and a nonfiction following, not to mention a Pulitzer Prize for his work on, yes, ants. But I've read a lot worse and certainly learned a lot less. And I know enough people with teaching in their DNA to know how difficult it is for someone like Wilson to let a "teachable moment" pass. So I won't blame him too severely for taking the opportunity and running with it, or even for running with every conceivable opportunity that happens by in the course of the story.
What none of this can diminish is the delightful digression of 75 pages or so in the middle of the book, titled "The Anthill Chronicles." It's presented in the novel as extracted from Raff's undergraduate honors thesis, and in the page of Acknowledgments as "derived from" the researches of Wilson and his nonfiction coauthor, Bert Hölldobler, and published in, "for example," their 1990 and 2009 tomes The Ants (Belknap/Harvard University Press; the Pulitzer winner) and The Superorganism (Norton).
On the other hand, this "Anthill Chronicles" section embodies my biggest disappointment with Anthill the novel: As I began to read, from an ant's point of view, a saga of what happens when the queen of the colony has died of old age, complete with flashback to her mating flight and solitary work to establish the colony, I thought "Cool! Watership Down for ants!" But it was not to be. While Wilson is willing to lapse into anthropomorphism at several points in the substory — such as characterizing the humans who interfere with the ecosystem as "gods" who giveth and taketh away — not even here can he quite manage a well-drawn character. I would have loved to have heard Dr. Wilson's learned imagination of an ant's thinking, even though its brain, as recently described by a Canadian radio commentator, is "the size of a donut sprinkle." Well, I suppose it would have to be a plural ants' point of view, since, as Wilson and Hölldobler have pointed out in Journey, "One ant alone is a disappointment; it is really no ant at all."
In fact, I think I might have liked it best if Wilson could have spared himself and us readers the incomplete characterizations, the detailed ecological and personal biographies, the fairly formulaic plot, certainly the foot-race chase through the beloved ecosystem, and the stereotyped and overstrained-for-drama denouement. I certainly wish he'd spared us the preachy, disconnected prologue and gone straight for a story we could sink our teeth into.
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citation of exalted company. But a writer needs a story as strong as Moby Dick and a more clearly identified and involved narrator to get away with it. This is not to say I didn't enjoy the book. I'm not sure it ever would have seen print if the writer didn't already have a publisher and a nonfiction following, not to mention a Pulitzer Prize for his work on, yes, ants. But I've read a lot worse and certainly learned a lot less. And I know enough people with teaching in their DNA to know how difficult it is for someone like Wilson to let a "teachable moment" pass. So I won't blame him too severely for taking the opportunity and running with it, or even for running with every conceivable opportunity that happens by in the course of the story.
What none of this can diminish is the delightful digression of 75 pages or so in the middle of the book, titled "The Anthill Chronicles." It's presented in the novel as extracted from Raff's undergraduate honors thesis, and in the page of Acknowledgments as "derived from" the researches of Wilson and his nonfiction coauthor, Bert Hölldobler, and published in, "for example," their 1990 and 2009 tomes The Ants (Belknap/Harvard University Press; the Pulitzer winner) and The Superorganism (Norton).
On the other hand, this "Anthill Chronicles" section embodies my biggest disappointment with Anthill the novel: As I began to read, from an ant's point of view, a saga of what happens when the queen of the colony has died of old age, complete with flashback to her mating flight and solitary work to establish the colony, I thought "Cool! Watership Down for ants!" But it was not to be. While Wilson is willing to lapse into anthropomorphism at several points in the substory — such as characterizing the humans who interfere with the ecosystem as "gods" who giveth and taketh away — not even here can he quite manage a well-drawn character. I would have loved to have heard Dr. Wilson's learned imagination of an ant's thinking, even though its brain, as recently described by a Canadian radio commentator, is "the size of a donut sprinkle." Well, I suppose it would have to be a plural ants' point of view, since, as Wilson and Hölldobler have pointed out in Journey, "One ant alone is a disappointment; it is really no ant at all."
In fact, I think I might have liked it best if Wilson could have spared himself and us readers the incomplete characterizations, the detailed ecological and personal biographies, the fairly formulaic plot, certainly the foot-race chase through the beloved ecosystem, and the stereotyped and overstrained-for-drama denouement. I certainly wish he'd spared us the preachy, disconnected prologue and gone straight for a story we could sink our teeth into.
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LibraryThing member checkadawson
This novel is a bit too full of detailed information about science and ecology. Personally, I liked the detail, and I certainly learned a lot, but then I also enjoy reading non-fiction books. Avid novel-readers might find this one tough-going at times. The characters are not full-fledged enough to
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carry the story, along with all its scientific baggage, but I loved Wilson’s vivid descriptions of the land. Show Less
LibraryThing member eenerd
An interesting parallel between people and nature, this takes place in Florida and follows the relationship between a young man and the forest ecosystem he loves. Great fiction for lovers of science and ecology, especially, with really intense scenes of the rise and fall of ant societies--but
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written with such flair that anyone would enjoy. An Show Less
LibraryThing member lostbooks
As someone with a bachelors in biology, I enjoyed the section on the ants, though I don't think it did much to enhance the story. This story was very slow and redundant for me (and my husband, who read it first and did not care for it). The "exciting" part of the story seemed very far-fetched and
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too Grisham-like for me. I wouldn't recommend this as a good work of fiction. Show Less
LibraryThing member ATechwreck
Soft, and well written book tracing the coming-of-age of Raphael, the son of an Old South mother and a working class father. Raphael escapes the unhappiness of his home to the surrounding woods and swamp where he studies nature and develops an expertise on environment. Raphael thus sets out to be a
Lovely descriptions of the ecology and anthills of the forest, but the story is a little slow to develop.
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environmentalist, but his future takes him places he could not have imagined.Lovely descriptions of the ecology and anthills of the forest, but the story is a little slow to develop.
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LibraryThing member co_coyote
I almost hate to say this, because I don't mean it in a negative way at all, but this book is almost exactly the kind of book you might expect if E.O. Wilson were to sit down and try his hand at writing a novel. That is to say, it is not too bad. It's reasonably interesting--the section on ants is
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excellent, of course--if a bit too predicable in how it all turns out. But, if you have read any of E.O. Wilson's other non-fiction books, you can easily imagine him writing this one about the South he grew up in. Wilson is always a well-informed and competent writer, and he doesn't let you down in this book. It's not exactly Nevada Barr, but it's a perfectly satisfying leisurely read. I'd read another if he cared to write one. Show Less
LibraryThing member NellieMc
This is actually a hard book to comment on. Wilson has written numerous books on ants and I've found them fascinating -- if you do you'll enjoy this book. The middle section on the rise and fall of several ant colonies -- and one ant super colony -- is worth reading the book alone if you're
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interested, and for that he merits the third star. As a book of fiction, it's not terribly good. The characters are shallowly drawn and obviously mean to fit certain types (earnest environmentalist, crazy Christian fundamentalist, money-focused capitalist, shallow Southern belle) all of which allows him to basically preach a message. However, I was pleased ultimately with the message -- that environmentalism shouldn't be extreme -- there are ways to work things out so man and bug can live together, and that also earned it a third star. So I enjoyed reading it and don't regard it as time wasted. But Wilson should have written a fictional book all about the ants -- it would have been a lot more fun and worthy of being compared to Watership Down . Show Less
LibraryThing member JamaicaMemorialLib
Anthill: A Novel by E.O. Wilson presents interesting characters and plot. The southern stereotype was a bit overdone, but the sections on the natural world were well written. The foreshadowing, at points, was a bit too much. The main character Raphael is likable and finds himself at odds with the
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world around him. As a coming of age story this is a decent read. The sections on ants are fascinating from a biology/nature point of view. Show Less
LibraryThing member LauraAdams
This book is about a boy named Raff who spends a lot of time in a swamp observing the anthills. He decides to try adn fight to keep the swamp from being taken over by developers. The book takes you through many years of Raff learning and preparing to try and protect the Nokobee area and a lot of
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what he learns is from his observation of the ants. You will learn a lot about ants from reading this book. I liked the book and the characters in it. Not great but a good book. Show Less
LibraryThing member ToTheWest
E.O. Wilson, a biologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of nonfiction, has produced a work of fiction best viewed as a fable, rather than a traditional novel. Anthill is the story of a boy, Raff, and his relationship to the natural surroundings of his hometown.
There are few surprises in the plot
The above might be damning with faint praise, but this is not: Anthill dazzles in the section called "The Anthill Chronicles". In less than one hundred pages, I came to care for the ant colonies and their triumphs and downfalls far more than those of any of the humans. Wilson's scientific speciality is the study of ants, and one of his Pulitzer Prizes was for a book he co-wrote on the subject. A non-entymologist reading this section could learn and understand all he or she would ever need to know about ants.
I can't say I'm sorry I bought and read this book. The section on the ants is one I'll likely go back to now and again. I just wish Wilson hadn't laid the focus on his less interesting characters.
There are few surprises in the plot
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and the human characters at veer dangerous close to southern stereotypes. As a coming-of-age tale, there are far better books out there. However, Wilson's love for his native Alabama and its natural history shine through in his prose. Likewise, I've also read many worse novels -- Wilson is a fine wordsmith, even if his narrative craft leaves something to be desired.The above might be damning with faint praise, but this is not: Anthill dazzles in the section called "The Anthill Chronicles". In less than one hundred pages, I came to care for the ant colonies and their triumphs and downfalls far more than those of any of the humans. Wilson's scientific speciality is the study of ants, and one of his Pulitzer Prizes was for a book he co-wrote on the subject. A non-entymologist reading this section could learn and understand all he or she would ever need to know about ants.
I can't say I'm sorry I bought and read this book. The section on the ants is one I'll likely go back to now and again. I just wish Wilson hadn't laid the focus on his less interesting characters.
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LibraryThing member creynolds
Interesting in how this is both about people and an ant colony, and how the two are very similar. It also introduces the idea of reaching evironmental goals through cooperation and compromise with those who want to use land for financial gain rather than forcing a win/lose situation. The only
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drawback is that it felt more like the book was set further back in the past than it really was, perhaps due to the author's age or perhaps because it was largely a book of the south. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sean191
48. [Anthill] by Edward O. Wilson. One of the book blurbs compared this to a modern day Huck Finn. I wouldn't go that far - I really enjoyed Wilson's story and his writing style, but to compare him to Twain would be a stretch. Wilson is incredibly talented though, this is another one of those cases
Back to the Twain comparison, I felt like Wilson did at least catch a bit of flavor from the Old South and gave a history and science lesson rolled in between some covered boards. I'd recommend this book to those interested in the South, nature, or the struggle between society and wildlife.
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where I wonder how it's possible for someone to be so talented - like [Atul Gawande]. Somehow, even though the book was a decent length, it moved along very quickly and ended when I felt there could have been enough for another hundred pages easily. The climax was a little farther out, but something had to happen, so there it was. Back to the Twain comparison, I felt like Wilson did at least catch a bit of flavor from the Old South and gave a history and science lesson rolled in between some covered boards. I'd recommend this book to those interested in the South, nature, or the struggle between society and wildlife.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Audiobook....found it to be boring....may have been my state of mind....
LibraryThing member BillPilgrim
I haven't read any of Wilson's previous books, which are all non-fiction. This is his first novel, although there is a major section in the middle that is a description of the workings of ant colonies, which is supposed to be the college Honor's Thesis of the book's protagonist, as edited by his
I found the fictional part of the book moderately enjoyable. Raff is a youngster who loves the woods near his home, and sneaks off there to observe the nature and learn as much as he can about it. We follow him as he grows up and goes off to college in Florida and Harvard Law School, where he studies to be an environmental lawyer. He then returns to the southern Alabama, Florida panhandle area to practice law. His plan is to save the wild area he loves from development. I found this part of the book to be very unrealistic, mostly from a legal perspective. I liked reading about the Southern culture and lifestyle, as well as the descriptions of the natural environment. There is a thriller aspect of the story that just seems tacked on at the end, which did not work for me.
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professor. That part to me was the most interesting part of the book, and makes me want to read some of Wilson's other, scientific books. I found the fictional part of the book moderately enjoyable. Raff is a youngster who loves the woods near his home, and sneaks off there to observe the nature and learn as much as he can about it. We follow him as he grows up and goes off to college in Florida and Harvard Law School, where he studies to be an environmental lawyer. He then returns to the southern Alabama, Florida panhandle area to practice law. His plan is to save the wild area he loves from development. I found this part of the book to be very unrealistic, mostly from a legal perspective. I liked reading about the Southern culture and lifestyle, as well as the descriptions of the natural environment. There is a thriller aspect of the story that just seems tacked on at the end, which did not work for me.
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LibraryThing member mojomomma
This book is chock full of the natural history of southern Alabama piney wood environment as seen through the eyes of Raff Cody as he grows up from student to environmental lawyer. It seems obvious to me that the author is a professional biologist and not a novelist because the plot twists and
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"hooks" seem to be added as afterthoughts--the character "Frogman" is introduced in the first chapter and then we don't hear from him again until the last few pages. The controversy with the religious right pastor and his extreme reaction to Raff is not fully developed. I think the novel would have been better either leaving the Pastor out completely or giving him a much larger role. What we have now feels forced and contrived. That said, the portions of the book describing the area of Lake Nokobee are beautifully written and Raff is a sympathetic character that has you hoping he will persevere and come out on top. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eliz12
In a word: no.
Boring. Dreadful characters. The only truly interesting part (the ants) seems just thrown in, as if to provide some validity for making this a "serious" work of fiction.
If the words "homespun goodness" appeal to you, this is likely to be a book you'll like.
Otherwise, stay far, far
Boring. Dreadful characters. The only truly interesting part (the ants) seems just thrown in, as if to provide some validity for making this a "serious" work of fiction.
If the words "homespun goodness" appeal to you, this is likely to be a book you'll like.
Otherwise, stay far, far
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away. Show Less
LibraryThing member kgib
The beginning of the book was OK, and the anthill section was the best. Things went downhill after that. Clever and good Raff succeeds easily at everything. And this isn't always a dealbreaker for me, but wow this book is about men doing men things. The heroes (Raff, his reporter buddy, his mentor)
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are men; the villains are men (the family patriarch, the developers). And don't forget the cameo from JoLane the flaky feminist. Show Less
LibraryThing member ljhliesl
I really expected more from this, more about ants and less about flat human characters. The bit that did have ants was great, but it didn't flow as part of a novel and it wasn't even a quarter of the book (as I recollect--I liked it so little that I left it at a hotel).
LibraryThing member bibleblaster
Worth the read for the chapters on the ants themselves. Surprisingly gripping. The rest is a pretty good, if slightly corny, tale of one man's environmental crusade. The characters tend toward the one-dimensional; the ants come to life.
LibraryThing member debs913
Edward O. Wilson is a Pulitzer prize-winning author and naturalist. Anthill follows the life of young Raff a boy entranced by nature and most especially the life of Lake Nokobee, a small patch of wilderness near his Alabama home.
Wilson excels and description of setting, of the creatures that
Raff is too good to be true. The boy and then young man has no flaws and moves through a charmed life, where parents from diverse backgrounds fight, yet stay together, a rich Uncle pays his way through college and Harvard Law, and even gets him the exact job he wants right out of school.
Raff has a plan to save Nokobee from developers by joining those developers as their attorney. Even here, Raff does not suffer from any conflicts or problems. Life goes smoothly and he never faces any small challenges nor does he suffer and failure.
I enjoyed the book for the natural history lessons and will probably read other Edward O. Wilson non-fiction. But Mr. Wilson should probably stick to what he's good at, he is not a novelist, despite the title claim "Anthill: A Novel".
Wilson excels and description of setting, of the creatures that
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inhabit Raff's favorite places, and most particularly the life of the ants in the Nokobee area (ants being the subject of his Pulitzer non-fiction book). The book is intelligent and readable, but falls flat in plot and character development.Raff is too good to be true. The boy and then young man has no flaws and moves through a charmed life, where parents from diverse backgrounds fight, yet stay together, a rich Uncle pays his way through college and Harvard Law, and even gets him the exact job he wants right out of school.
Raff has a plan to save Nokobee from developers by joining those developers as their attorney. Even here, Raff does not suffer from any conflicts or problems. Life goes smoothly and he never faces any small challenges nor does he suffer and failure.
I enjoyed the book for the natural history lessons and will probably read other Edward O. Wilson non-fiction. But Mr. Wilson should probably stick to what he's good at, he is not a novelist, despite the title claim "Anthill: A Novel".
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LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Halfway through the book, which means 1/2way through the Anthill Chronicles section. Pretty much expository so far. No thrills (which is good for me), cardboard characters. I really want to love it, but at the same time I'm trying to keep my expectations in check so I won't be terribly
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Well, ok, yeah. Certainly not subtle in its message that humans have more in common with ants than many of us would like to admit. Not subtle in its message that we're smart enough to escape the trap we've built for ourselves, either. An important book, especially for all the ppl who've never actually spent time watching an empire of ants over the years. or otherwise closely attuning themselves to nature. Too bad it's not more engagingly written.
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disappointed.... We'll see.---------------------
Well, ok, yeah. Certainly not subtle in its message that humans have more in common with ants than many of us would like to admit. Not subtle in its message that we're smart enough to escape the trap we've built for ourselves, either. An important book, especially for all the ppl who've never actually spent time watching an empire of ants over the years. or otherwise closely attuning themselves to nature. Too bad it's not more engagingly written.
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LibraryThing member Javi_er
A life time of field observations compiled into a few pages for me to enjoy in my sofa; nice! The book is not completely about ants, but I did enjoy it nonetheless. I'll recommend this read to anyone interested in nature.
Awards
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2011)
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize (Fiction — 2010)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2010
Physical description
8.74 inches
ISBN
0393071197 / 9780393071191