I've been a lazy blogger, oh so very lazy. And as a result a bit hard to remember what exactly happened in this book that I read more than two months ago. So let's see...the story revolves around a Beefeater named Balthazar, who owns the titular old tortoise, and as the book opens he is charged with the upkeep of the Royal Menagerie (or the titular zoo), which has just been moved to the titular Tower of London. And as it turns out, there are some strange folk who choose to make a 1,000-year-old stone prison their home, and The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise is really about how their hopes and their disappointments come together.Overall, it reminded me of a Maeve Binchy novel, how a singular event sheds light on individual hurts, ultimately bringing together a community in a sappy sweet happy ending. Personally, I like those kind of books, and I liked this one, but they're definitely not for everyone.
So, I offer a test to gauge your interest: "For once, he didn't feel the urge to poke her awake in order to rid himself of the harrowing illusion of sharing his bed with his Greek father-in-law, a man whose ferocious looks had led his relatives to refer to him as a good cheese in a dog's skin. Instead, he quickly got out of bed, his heart tight with anticipation. Forgetting his usual gazelle's step at such times, he crossed the room, his bare heels thudding on the emaciated carpet."
The passage comes from page two, as Balthazar gets out of bed in the wee hours to pursue his favorite passion, collecting rain (I kid you not). The language is pretty flowery, with many multi-syllabic adjectives per page, and Stuart uses a lot of quirky descriptions. If you like what you see, I would definitely recommend The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise. It has a strange and lovely charm. But if the paragraph above doesn't suit, probably best just to move on.
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