A la luz de una hoguera, en la sabana africana, un hombre cuenta la historia de Morel, un francés que en los años cincuenta llegó al África Ecuatorial Francesa para emprender una campaña contra el exterminio de los elefantes, amenazados por las leyes del progreso. Tras pasar por la ignominia de los campos de concentración nazis, la defensa del elefante es, en Morel, un símbolo de la nobleza perdida, de la preservación de la dignidad del hombre y de su derecho a ser libre. Traicionado por unos y apoyado por otros, acusado de misántropo y de nihilista, Morel no duda en recurrir a las armas para luchar contra la barbarie y la crueldad en una región asediada por la demagogia nacionalista y el odio racial. Con esta novela, llevada al cine por John Huston en 1958, Romain Gary obtuvo en 1956 su primer premio Goncourt.

Not too much remains in my head about this book, it has been 58 years, after all. But, we are in French Africa, and a man is trying to stop people from shooting elephants. It's a metaphor for our private hopes for redemption. The "Naughty Bits" are not very interesting. ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Gary-Les-racines-du-ciel/1616
> BAnQ (Le devoir, 22 déc. 1956) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2789387
> Nuit blanche, (136), pp. 18-19 : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/72689ac
> The French Review, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Oct., 1958), pp. 38-43
> The French Review, Vol. 30, No. 5 (Apr., 1957), pp. 409-410
> BAnQ (La tribune, 19 janv. 1957) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/3549697
> BAnQ (L'Action catholique, 29 déc. 1956) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/3527197
> BAnQ (Le lingot : un journal du Saguenay, févr. 1957) : https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2871842
> Bibliographie : https://www.librarything.fr/catalog.php?view=Joop-le-philosophe&author=garyr...
> Voir un extrait : https://books.google.fr/books?id=2h7lTbMfIIwC&hl=fr&printsec=frontcover&...

> Chepiga Valentina. Les archives de Romain Gary.
In: Genesis (Manuscrits-Recherche-Invention), numéro 29, 2008. pp. 171-173. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/item_1167-5101_2008_num_29_1_1450

> Les Racines du Ciel / Romain Gary ... Je n'avais jamais lu le célèbre roman de Romain Gary.
C'est chose faite même si j'ai eu parfois du mal à avancer dans un récit très touffu et un peu long à mon goût.
Une belle écriture cependant, des passages magnifiques et une réflexion intéressante sur l'Afrique, la nature humaine. L'analyse géopolitique reste d'actualité même si la réflexion de Gary est très ancrée dans l'immédiat après guerre. Malheureusement la défense de la nature et l'écologie sont encore de nos jours opposées au développement des sociétés humaines...
—iPapy, 20 juil. 2015

Ce livre m'a avant tout ennuyée. C'est long à se mettre en place, c'est dense et parfois difficile à suivre quand on lit ça d'un oeil. L'auteur joue beaucoup sur les changements de lieux, de temps, de personnage suivi, et ce qui marche relativement bien pour les personnages m'a semblé beaucoup plus bizarre et artificiel pour les lieux et les temps. Tout cela pour créer une espèce de suspens autour de l'intrigue et son dénouement, mais c'est tellement tordu que ça retombe un peu comme un soufflé qu'on aurait trop regardé... Et ça m'a paru bien laborieux -tout ça pour ça...- avec des redondances un peu lourdingues dans l'argumentation, des sous-entendus pas clairs, et au final on s'en fout de ne pas comprendre les sous-entendus, ce qui est plutôt mauvais signe... Les personnages finissent par être sympathiques, mais pourquoi prendre autant de temps pour les présenter suffisamment pour qu'on s'y attache? C'est un peu couillon, on s'y attache dans le dernier tiers du bouquin... J'ai aussi eu du mal à m'y retrouver dans les personnages, mais ça c'est peut-être juste ma fatigue et mon étourderie naturelle. :P ( )

This is my second book by Romain Gary and I really enjoy his writing. This book, written in 1956, is a post war book that examines what it takes to survive. This is a tale of Morel, a French dentist that has come to French Equatorial Africa to campaign for the elephants which are in danger of extinction. This is shortly after WWII, colonialism is reaching its end in Africa and the people of Africa are seeking independence. We have various characters; missionaries, anthropologists, prostitutes, gun runners, hunters, deserters. Morel is considered crazy by most but he also rises to legendary status. He is hero, traitor, and dangerous and a tool to be used by others. Many questions arose for me while reading this book. Such questions as, do we have to sacrifice nature for development? If we love nature do we hate man? Those Africans seeking freedom, are they really seeking freedom or have they already been tainted by westernization. Are they sacrificing their own culture for westernization without realizing.

I loved this book a lot. There are different voices that tell this story about Morel and his campaign for elephants.
Here are some quotes I wrote down.
"weight of memories which was oppressing him in his solitude"
"move a little away from the flames in order to regain the company of the stars."
"as for Morel...Everything has been said about him, 'a man who has gone even further into loneliness than othrs.

"It seems the elephants Morel was trying to save were purely imaginary and symbolic, a parable as they say, and that the poor bastard was really defending the old human rights, the rights of man.

"The years of isolation in the depths of the jungle have no power against the tenacious hope, and that a hundred acres of land at the height of the rainy season are easier to clear than are certain intimate nooks of our soul."

"...,patience was ceasing to be a virtue and was becoming a luxury he could less and less afford."

"Islam calls that 'the roots of heaven' and to the Mexican Indian it is the 'tree of life' -- the thing that makes both of them fall on their knees and raise their eyes and beat their tormented breasts. A need for protection and company, from which obstinate people like Morel try to escape by mean of petition, fight committees, by trying to take the protection of the species in their own hands."

"our needs for justice, for freedom and dignity are roots of heaven that are deeply embedded in our hearts, but of heaven itself, men know nothing but the gripping roots."

"when you live too long you end up knowing nobody" and "where there are elephants, there I go free"

The book references that a nation must give up something of its nature for its freedom; for America it was the bison, for Russia-the wolves and for Africa, the elephant. Is that so, why does that have to be? It also mentions that a good news story (there is a lot about journalism in this book) will sell magazines such as a story about killing helpless turtles for turtle soup boost sales of the magazine but did it really effect the sale of turtle soup?

So this story will appeal to each person on a personal basis. For some it is about animal rights, for others it is about dignity and for another it is colonialism. For me, it was about survival and I was most reminded of [book:Man's Search for Meaning|4069] [author:Viktor E. Frankl|2782].
Rating: 4.75. This rating is objective, my personal experience of this book after completing it and thinking about it is probably a 5. ( )