Rating: 
Summary: Another work of "light history"
Review: If you are between serious history books, or if you just like to dabble in history & enjoy a curious story around which a broader tale of culture can be told, this is a nice volume. Allin is a very good writer, holds your attention throughout with a trail of trivia, all held together by the story of this giraffe. I read the book in a couple of days & have now went ahead & circulated to friends of mine who, like me, travel alot on airplanes. This is the perfect book for a long airplane flight.
Rating: 
Summary: "Necked Came the Stranger"----a tall, but true story
Review: If you think about history books as beer, then this one is definitely 'Bud Lite'. You're thirsty to read a good book, so you reach for ZARAFA. You chug it down. Hmm. Definitely liquid but not much of a kick. Well, OK, who could resist buying a book about a giraffe ? Not me, who always loved those weird-looking creatures. But I like well-organized books of history too, and I fear that this is not one of them. It's a kind of "cabinet de curiosités" as found in the France of the Enlightenment, but in the early 21st century, I feel we might expect something deeper, something that gave us a story to hold on to. Perhaps, to return to beer, a drink that would quench one's thirst, not only just wet the whistle. Editing is a problem. The same information is repeated in many places, and on p.140-141 even a line is repeated. This reveals a certain hastiness. Michael Allin must be congratulated on a great idea, a nice collection of illustrations, and some pleasant writing. I would certainly try his next book, because I think he has what it takes. ZARAFA, however, does have certain failings. The book jacket promises "a fairy tale for grown-ups", but fairy tales are not usually so diffuse. You can read this book in a few hours, but if you are looking for information about giraffes, about the historical period concerned in Egypt, France or the Mediterranean, don't expect much here.
Rating:
Summary: Nice book.
Review: Imagine you saw a giraffe for the first time.I would be stunned.
Here we follow the life of a giraffe,on its trip to Paris from
Ethiopia 4000 miles away.This took place in 1820s and along the way you get a little history of the areas it passes through at the time.This is not a 1000 pages of endless info,but just a little bit of everything interesting,like how how the sphinx
lost its nose(no, it was not a king with a coke problem),and yes,
what this lovely creature went through at the time,all in 200
pages.Nice one.
Rating: 
Summary: Zarafa Stands Tall
Review: In "Zarafa," author Michael Allin has the gift of engaging the reader in a tale he or she would not have necessarily selected off a bookshelf. Zarafa is the main character - not a king, conqueror or superhero, but a giraffe. As we follow this giraffe from the depths of Africa to cosmopolitan Paris, we get to know her as intimately as any human travel companion. Along the way, we learn about French and Egyptian history, Arabic customs and Parisian ways, geography, exploration and many other interesting tidbits. The book's only shortcoming is its sentimentality, but this is not of the heavy-handed Disney variety and does not detract from a most engaging, interesting, and enjoyable journey.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful; a mesmerizing joyride
Review: Michael Allin takes us on a Mike Toddian historical joyride, managing to leap gracefully from the time of the pharoahs to Napoleonic Europe (which is the story's focus) and back again. The central episode of this delight ful collage is the odyssey of a single (although for a time there were two) female giraffe calf which began in 1824 when the Viceroy of Egypt sends her as a gift to King Charles of France to divert the French from Egypt's excesses on the side of the Turks against Greece. Zarafa,though she has the title role, does not really appear for fully a third of the book, but her story is obviously the lens through which we are to view the author's canvas. Western Europe has entered the Age of Enlightenment. That means that the powers no longer make war and subjugate lesser beings for the usual reasons (fun and profit) but rather in quest of ideas and learning and other intellectual pursuits.Having ousted (make that beheaded) their king and queen at the end of the eighteenth century in favor of some sort of popular republicanism, by 1810 the fickle French returned to royalism and reinstated the very family that they had targeted in their bloodbath barely two decades earlier. Napoleon passes from military hero to banishment following a poor won-lost record. The French and other Western powers are newly obsessed with Egyptology and everyone has been happily plundering, brutalizing, enslaving and generally exploitingthe Nile Valley and the wonders of grave-robbing. Egypt itself is preoccupied with its own alliance with Turkey in their rape of Greece, although before too long Egypt decides to change sides and turns on the Turks. Enter Zarafa. Michael Allin clearly knows and loves his subject. He has exhaustively researched Zarafa's journey and takes us from her capture in Africa to her arrival in Paris in 1827after having actually trekked the last 500 plus miles from Marseilles. In this pre-photography era, no one has seen her like and crowds mob her along her route. Allin applies his brushstrokes with great affection, irony, enthusiasm and above all considerable wit and amusement. While the reader is inexorably caught up in the historical sweep of the author's scape, Allin makes certain that we do not miss the greed, sadism, incest, waste, class consciousness and raw power struggle that have fueled these events. What better way to underscore the ugliness that has marked man's time on this planet than to contrast the innocence and charm and beauty of this exotic creature. She seemed to bear a message that, while everyone was captivated by the messenger, no one heard. Zarafa is a jewel and is not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Simply magic.
Review: The book defies description, defies classification, is simply a magic, wonderful little tale from the most obscure corners of the earth. Just -- magic.
Rating:
Summary: And I Thought I Had Trouble Taking My Dog On Trips
Review: The logistics alone are worth the read. How do you get a giraffe from Africa to France? You make sure it's infant enough to train, kill its its mother, ship it by barge down the Nile, cut a hole in the deck of the boat to for her head to stick out of the hold, march her daily, relentlessly for several months through the French countryside -- where she becomes adored by crowds of people lining the roads to glimpse her beauty. As slaves are shipped onboard with her, one young slave becomes her caretaker, and lives two stories above the ground in Paris so he can sleep beside her head and talk to her. Its the story of the grace and gentleness of animals, and the cruelty and barabarism of humans. It's the story of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, brilliant strategies against vicious desert warrior tribes, lost naval battles, and magnificent discoveries in a land where the great Pharoahs had been forgotten and mummies were burned for stove fuel. And it's the story of patching up broken relations between the East and West with a giraffe -- Zarafa -- The Lovely One. I started this book as a simple afternoon read. Next thing I know, my child is asking me to read it aloud. Next day we find ourselves at the zoo because he's never seen a giraffe. Next day we find ourselves at the museum looking at mummies. Then we're at the library looking for more about Napoleon. This little book has lit a fire in the heart of my 10-year-old son! I highly recommend it if you like to read down rabbit trails. Like a trek along a country road, you come across interesting things along the way.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing story lost in convoluted details and prose
Review: The story of Zarafa is intriguing as political, scientific, and social history. Thank you to Allin for bringing it to our attention. Unfortunately, the author's telling of the tale is a tangle of poorly crafted prose and convoluted, repetitive detail. The uneveness of his writing disasterously distracts from the story. Instead of enjoying his juxtapositions of fact and fantasy I spent my time frustratedly wishing an editor had intervened before publication.
Rating:
Summary: Zarafa is an enchanting creature made immortal by Allin.
Review: The wonderous spectacle of Zarafa walking across France is almost unbelievable. How wonderful it would be if humans could regain that enchantment at the sight of another creature. Allin has made a page of history very real and fascinating. This is a special book to be shared with those who care.
Rating:
Summary: A good book but is pointless and stays too long with prose
Review: This is a good book but it is wrapped up with prose and serves very little purpose as a non-fictional story and obviously serves very little purpose as a historical reference. However, tthe author is able at some points to engage us in his characters and the big one; the giraffe itself.
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