Based in Zimbabwe for the most part Safari follows Canadian researcher Michelle Parker, her interactions withFletcher Reynolds, a lodge owner in the safari business. She jumps at an opportunity to visit the mountain gorillas, but the head of Reynold’s anti-poaching unit makes her start to rethink her decision.
I liked Park’s first-hand knowledge of places and wildlife, making the descriptions vivid, and using sound to compliment visual imagery. I applied this idea of combining senses in a sentence to my own writing, to bring vivid imagery to mind: “The odd cat knocking over trash cans, vagabonds sleeping along the walls wrapped with cardboard.”
Park balanced the pace of the fast-paced novel by using short sentences to break up the long descriptive sentences. It felt balanced, it kept the flow moving. Following long sentences, I placed shorter sentences before or after, to keep the story moving forward, i.e. short, short, long – “Spine tingling, heart pounding, I broke into a run. It wasn’t far to my building, only about one hundred metres. My black-laced boots pounded the pavement as I raced past a few late shoppers, listening keenly for the sound of someone trying to catch up to me”
Nikki Lockwood 