My Family And Other Animals

My kind neighbors left me a stack of books to read during my illness and couch potato period.  "Read this one first," she said as she pointed at My Family And Other Animals written by Gerald Durrell.  She said this book was her all time favorite.  I enjoyed it too although it took me a long time to get through it.  The story is about a family.  A single mother is raising a family with Gerald being the youngest at about 8 years of age.  She moves them from their home in Britain to the Greek island of Corfu.  Gerald tells the story from a young boy's perspective of his mother and his older siblings.  Little Gerry grows up in a family is loud, scattered and supportive.  Gerry likes nature.  He goes out into the Greek countryside and observes nature and is fascinated by what he sees.  He brings home animals and is allowed to keep them as pets including turtles, geckos, owls, magpies, gulls, scorpions, fish and poisonous snakes.  His family complains yet tolerate all these dangerous animals in the house.  His family has lively discussions and each member's opinion is considered.  When his siblings invite too many people to come to visit, the family decides to move to a bigger house on the island.  When a less preferred extended family member decides to come to stay for awhile, another family discussion leads to them moving to a much smaller house on the island so there won't be any room for her to stay.  The family has elaborate dinner parties where what can go wrong, does go wrong and he writes about it in a very funny way .