Alex & Me by Irene M. Pepperberg

Release date: 2008 / 226 pages

Synopsis (from back cover): “You be good. I love you,” were Alex’s final words to his owner, research scientist Irene Pepperberg, before his premature death at the age of thirty-one on September 6, 2007. An African Grey parrot, Alex had a brain the size of a shelled walnut, yet he could add, sound out words, understand concepts like bigger, smaller, more, fewer, and none, and he disproved the widely accepted idea that birds possess no potential for language or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence…
 

First line: “How much impact could a one pound ball of feathers have on the world?”

Review: When I received this memoir from TLC tours in exchange for this review, the photograph on the cover immediately grabbed me: a strikingly handsome parrot who seemed to be sizing me up.  I do not have a lot of experience with birds, and I had never heard of Alex before, but as soon as I turned the last page of Alex and Me, I immediately went to You Tube to search for footage. 

For those of you also in the dark, Alex was an African gray parrot who demonstrated that birds are not only able to obtain language (beyond mimicking words), but can illustrate a prolicivity toward problem-solving and communication systems in general.  For example, when bored, Alex would list every color except the one he was being asked to identify.  When his trainer was agitated, he would tell her to “Calm Down!”

My 19 month old niece is acquiring words and language systems at a blistering rate right now, so I have spent the past few months amazed and fascinated by her process.  As an English teacher, I’ve always loved the science of linguistics so the research elements of this memoir were particularly interesting.

Regarding Pepperberg’s thesis, that we should not discount animals as lesser creatures – I agree.  Near the end, she states

“What I learned from [Alex] also supported what I always have known to be true: that there is just one Creation, one Nature, one good, full, complete Idea, made up of individuals of all shapes and designs, all expressing their oneness with one God. We are not different because we look different, but we all reflect the eternal beauty and intelligence of one Creation in our own peculiar way.” 

This philosophy is largely why I stopped eating meat 23 years ago.  The way most people react to eating a cat or dog is how I feel about eating a pig, chicken, or cow.  So, I understand the life-lessons Alex taught Pepperberg.

I also know from the reactions I receive when people hear I have not eaten meat for 23 years that her battle to champion the value of animals has been difficult.  Our culture is deeply invested in human dominance — to an extent I doubt most people realize. The reactions I receive to my choice of diet range from pity to scorn to Bible passages, so I greatly empathized with Pepperberg’s various obstacles and the resistance she frequently had to overcome.

However, I did struggle with the structure and tone of this memoir at times.  The first chapter is filled with examples of a world-wide outpouring of grief and love for Alex.  Since I did not know anything about Alex at this point, I wasn’t sure what to think about a man who “…had to leave work for a while upon learning of Alex’s death, and [whose] eyes have been welling up at various points throughout the day.”  One woman even wrote: “I lost my only child 4 years ago and I have to say that this pain of losing Alex hits me as hard as losing my child.  I just can’t seem to shake the pain…”  The tone of the first section seemed to be a defiant “Told you so!! Just look at the people Alex affected!” and since I had not yet met Alex, I was at a loss to understand the writer’s vitriol as well as the depth of grief so many felt. 

And I must admit, the second chapter was difficult as well.  I read a lot of memoirs, so I know that not every writer has come to terms with a difficult past, but Pepperberg’s anger at her mother and her disappointing childhood was off-putting, especially since it formed my first impression of Pepperberg and her memoir:  

“My mom was what in those days would have been called a ‘refrigerator’ parent: cold and distant, she never hugged me spontaneously or spoke loving words to me, and she never played with me nor read to me… Mom made it very clear to me — often explicitly — that I was the reason for her ruined life, her consignment to a permanent sentence of drudgery.”  

While I did have compassion for her, and her relationship with her mom sounded unfortunate, I couldn’t help but wonder if it might be time to move on from some of the old grievances.  I struggled with the pervasive sense of “victimhood” that defined many of Pepperberg’s experiences.  So many wonderful and truly amazing things eventually happen on Pepperberg’s journey, and I became irritated to read, yet again, how small, cramped, roach-invested, destitute, unfair, etc. her research surroundings were (meta-message: because she was a woman scientist studying animals). 

This sense of bitterness follows Pepperberg, even to Harvard and MIT.  At one point, just when her research is becoming well-known, she thinks “…the chorus of ‘Oh, he’s just mimicking’ or ‘He’s just following her cues’ still sounded loudly in my ears. At least that is how I perceived it.”  At this point I thought, “YES!  Perception is key here!!”  And then later she contemplates studying optical illusions with Alex and muses, “The human brain plays many tricks on us, so we sometimes see things not as they are.”  At this point, I couldn’t help but hope…  as Alex taught people to value life beyond measures of cognition or intelligence, maybe he can teach his trainer to embrace the many blessings of her life and move past her disappointments.

So, did I enjoy this memoir?  At times, yes.  Alex really is the star of this work (as he would agree), so he really should be front-and-center throughout in my opinion. I would have begun the memoir with Alex, moved chapter one to the end, and incorporated chapter two throughout the memoir as a series of flashbacks.  But I still recommend it as a fascinating study of how far we (humans) have come in our consciousness and how far we still have to go… 

Interested?  Leave me a comment and cross your fingers!

For other perspectives…

Monday, November 2nd: BookNAround

Monday, November 9th: Bibliofreak

Tuesday, November 10th: Readaholic

Thursday, November 12th: Raging Bibliomania

Monday, November 16th: Find Your Next Book Here

Thursday, November 19th: Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

Monday, November 23rd: Book Club Classics!

Tuesday, November 24th: Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books

Monday, November 30th: Starting Fresh

Tuesday, December 2nd: A Bookworm’s World

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