Friday Flashback: Rec. #125: My Family and Other Animals

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Don't you want to be mildly obsessed with an eccentric, vaguely bohemian British family as they're on the brink of WWII? Of course you do. The movie My Family and Other Animals is as good a place to start as any. It's based on the memoir by naturalist Gerald Durrell about his family's five years living on the Greek island of Corfu, where he develops his passion for wildlife. His siblings, however, are more concerned with their own interests --- writing, shooting, and heartbreaking, respectively.

Comparable to: Like getting sucked into all those Mitford stories, but without the dreadful connections to Nazi sympathizers. And with the sense of humor and adventurous spirit of Patrick Dennis's Auntie Mame.

Representative quote: "They're just like us, aren't they --- families. I want to know how they all work. Imagine if they weren't there?"

You might not like it if: You get all fluttery at the sight of Matthew Goode (who plays the eldest sibling, Lawrence) looking all handsome, and you feel this is unseemly.

How to get it: As I said, this is a good entryway into the Durrell family. There was also a television series made from Gerald's book in the 1980s. And the book itself, plus its sequels: Birds, Beasts, and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods. And once you start looking into Gerald's siblings (Lawrence, Leslie, Margo), you pretty quickly run into The Alexandria Quartet, Henry Miller and Anais Nin, suicides, expatriation, South Africa, and zoos.

[Originally posted 5/14/11.]

Also: Auntie Mame was Rec. #70.