BOOK REVIEW--ANTHILL by E. O. WILSON

Reviewed by Bill Breakstone, September 26, 2010

Here’s proof, once again, that there’s wonderful literature to be found off the New York Times Bestseller List!

E. O. Wilson is the Pulitzer Price-winning author of The Ants and The Naturalist. Regarded as one of the world’s preeminent biologists and naturalists, Wilson grew up in South Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, and is currently Professor Emeritus of Biology and Entomology at Harvard University. The present title is his first novel, and, of course, thoroughly auto-biographical.

It is the story of a young man, Raphael Semmes, from rural Alabama, some 60 miles northeast of Mobile, who from his earliest days was in love with nature and the environment. Though his parents were of limited means, his mother’s family was “Old South” all the way, highly educated, well-bred, with family history going back to generals and admirals in the pre-Civil War South, and with modern-day well-placed connections in the business community and government.

Not far from his home was a tract of virgin longleaf pine forest surrounding a medium size lake. Raff began studying the plants and wildlife of this tract when he was but five years old. He pursued environmental and biological studies at Florida State University, and thereafter at Harvard University, where he earned a law degree specializing in environmental protection legal issues.

When residential developers planned to level the forest and build a massive housing complex, Raff began a five-year fight to save the tract, a process involving conciliation and compromise that would satisfy both sides, the developers and the environmentalists.

The novel is beautifully written, with a luxuriant pace in keeping with the wonders of nature and the growth and maturation of a remarkable young man. The author’s extensive studies of ant colonies comes into play, through a remarkable 72-page chapter that depicts the society, life and fate of four ant colonies in that forest, told from the perspective of the ants themselves. This “ant history” or chronicle is really a parable that draws a fascinating parallel between ant and human societal development, one that stresses the natural balances that must be maintained in order for both societies to survive and thrive.

Far from a book about pure science, here is a wonderful story about Southern families, their loves, frustrations, ambitions, and prejudices. To quote the jacket liner: “In a shattering ending that no reader will forget, Raff suddenly encounters the angry and corrupt ghosts of an old South he thought had all but disappeared, and he learns that ‘war is a genetic imperative,’ not just for ants but for men as well.