海角大神

Women scientists, long given a raw deal in labs, are having their day in novels. Last year, Bonnie Garmus鈥� enormously popular 鈥淟essons in Chemistry鈥� introduced a brilliant, mistreated research chemist who found unexpected, sweet revenge as host of a provocative cooking show that dared women to rethink their life recipes.

Now we have Ramona Ausubel鈥檚 鈥淭he Last Animal,鈥� which features another scientist, also a single mother and widow of a fellow scientist. Ausubel鈥檚 ambitious heroine is tired of being 鈥渢wice as capable and half as appreciated鈥� as her male co-workers in the Berkeley paleontology lab where she is working her way through graduate school.聽

We meet Jane on a summer expedition to Siberia led by her boss, whom Jane refers to as 鈥渕y professor,鈥� but whom her late husband, Sal, a prominent anthropologist, referred to as one of those 鈥渄e-extinction wackos.鈥� The group鈥檚 mission is to unearth woolly mammoth bones in order to extract DNA in the hopes of someday bringing back these lost Ice Age creatures.

A year after her husband鈥檚 death in a car accident in Italy, Jane is still passionate about human evolution, adaptation, and the devastation of our planet, but she is struggling emotionally and financially. Regrettably, her role as her husband鈥檚 assistant on his highly acclaimed book about an ancient humanoid dubbed 鈥渢he iceman鈥� unearthed in Northern Italy has left her with no marketable credentials of her own.

Along for the ride 鈥� though not happily 鈥� are Sal and Jane鈥檚 daughters, Eve and Vera, 15 and 13. The girls are used to far-flung travel, having spent much of their childhood on research expeditions with their parents. But they miss their father and hate seeing their mother belittled by her male colleagues. They wish they were in summer camp.聽

The idea that a graduate student with no clout would be allowed to bring kids along 鈥渢o the edge of the world鈥� strains credulity, but that鈥檚 just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of this novel鈥檚 outlandish albeit endearing improbabilities. Ausubel has concocted a wild and woolly global escapade about unbounded scientific experimentation. Yet what comes into sharpest focus under her authorial microscope are mother-daughter and sister relationships.聽聽

For much of the novel, Jane is a terrible mother. She sees her children as 鈥渘eon signs of her age, her widowhood, her inability to be her own kind of success.鈥� In her distraught state, she unloads too much on them 鈥� her grief, her worries, her frustrations, her pressure to build a career that will support them and satisfy her dreams. At one point she complains, 鈥淚鈥檓 a thirty-eight-year-old graduate-student single-mother widow. You couldn鈥檛 string together a sadder list of attributes if you tried.鈥� Sensitive, responsible Vera says, 鈥淒o you hate your life that much?鈥澛�

The two smart, competent sisters are a tight duo, wonderfully delineated. It鈥檚 no surprise that, far from being a liability, they turn out to be an asset 鈥� beginning with a remarkable find in the permafrost that briefly raises their mother鈥檚 stature.聽

Practical Vera, who loves to bake and turn pain into pastry, longs for a more conventional, settled existence 鈥� and a more attentive mother who sets boundaries. 鈥淪he had been raised to imagine greatness, difficult and brave work, but she mostly wanted something steady.鈥�

Eve is restless. Unlike Vera, who worries about the climate crisis and is determined to fix it, Eve鈥檚 attitude is that since the earth is doomed, they might as well have fun with what鈥檚 left. Which is what she tries to do when her mother鈥檚 next expedition takes them to Iceland to study the genetic signature of the remote island nation鈥檚 pure-blooded population.

Ausubel鈥檚 tale of grief and grievances morphs into a 鈥渇our women and a fairy tale鈥� caper after Jane, fed up with never being credited for her ideas, impulsively decides to initiate her own experiment. She cooks up a plan with a wealthy Italian named Helen who keeps exotic animals 鈥� including a pachyderm of breeding age 鈥� on her husband鈥檚 castled estate on Lake Como. Jane鈥檚 obsessive fervor for this rogue experiment leaves the girls, who distrust Helen鈥檚 motives, feeling downright endangered. 鈥淎re you still our mom?鈥� Eve asks as the neglected sisters vie for their mother鈥檚 attention.聽

鈥淭he Last Animal鈥� is a hairy but cuddly beast of a novel that sheds life lessons, some heartwarming, many sticky with sentiment. Jane has brought up her daughters to understand that 鈥淟ife is experiments.鈥� But she also wants them to know that it is filled with improbabilities, an 鈥渆ver twistier road,鈥� and that 鈥淭he fantasy is always better before it comes true. That鈥檚 a life truth.鈥�

So what to do? Play it safe, or go for greatness?聽 Look to the past, or to the future? What about the present?聽 Ausubel鈥檚 conclusion is clear: Nurture the earth and your dreams, but don鈥檛 forget to nurture your family: 鈥淭hey mattered to one another, now, alive, and that was the whole gift.鈥�

Heller McAlpin reviews books regularly for the Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR.