The Snake Charmer: A life and death pursuit of knowledge

I’m fairly late on reviewing this book, and I have finally got the time to sit and finish it up.

Although it was still too dark to see well, Joe absentmindedly thrust his right hand into the sack to extract the specimen and have a look. Immediately, he winced with pain and yanked out his hand. A tiny black-and-white banded snake, less than ten inches long, was dangling limply from his middle finger, its fangs still sunk into his flesh. Joe looked at it in quiet horror. Without the hope of a doubt, he said, “That’s a fucking krait.”

Written by Jamie James, The snake charmer is a look in to the life of the herpetologist Joe Slowinski. I had heard of Joe, his work and his tragedy, but in the book it goes in to great insight in to his life, starting with his childhood and where his first interest in herps fired his passion, then though college, his career and the to the point of his expedition to Burma. While reading the last section of the book, you get the feeling that you are on the trip with them, but you know the tension is coming and what will soon be a tragic ending.

The book was a good read and easy to follow. I highly recommend it. I learned a lot about Joe and his work and was very inspirational.

You can find out mroe about the book at snakecharmerbook.com