Friday, May 12, 2017

Charismatic mega-vertebrates

Setting out to read a book that is set within 100 miles of my location, I turned to Hannah’s Dream by Diane Hammond.  

Technically, the town of Bladenham, Washington is fictional.  However, since it purports to be within smelling distance of Puget Sound, I’m going to count it.  

Max of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo was born in Seattle but grew up on safaris in Africa. When her parents left her at age 25, she moved to their 50 room estate surrounded by 300 acres of farmland in Bladenham. By the 1950s, her estate had become home to a number of wild and exotic animals. Just before she died, she acquired a young elephant by the name of Hannah. She appointed one of her new hires, Sam Brown, as Hannah’s keeper.

As Hammond writes, “When he first met her, Hannah reminded him of nothing so much as a worn-out, hip-shot, low-slung, dog-ugly, poorly dressed old floozy in bad shoes.” After 40 years, Sam and Hannah are still together, but Sam and his wife Corinna are looking forward to retirement. Although she is happy with Sam’s morning delivery of Dunkin’ Donuts and daily walks, Hannah dreams of having companions and room to roam.

The zoo’s new director, Harriet Saul has grand plans. After realizing Hannah has the potential to bring in money and visitors to the zoo, she hires a new elephant keeper, Neva Wilson. Neva soon finds an ally in both Sam and Truman, the director of operations. They soon find themselves hatching a plan to find Hannah a new home at a California elephant sanctuary.


Sam’s affection for Hannah had me hooked from the first chapter. However, it was the cast of characters from Neva’s eccentric landlord to Truman’s potbellied pig Miles that kept me reading.  All, not just Hannah, are charismatic mega-vertebrates. 

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