Zoo Nebraska, Carson Vaughan
Zoo Nebraska, Carson Vaughan
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Zoo Nebraska
The Dismantling of an American Dream

Author: Carson Vaughan

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

Unabridged: 8 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Published: 04/01/2019

Synopsis

A resonant true story of small-town politics and community perseverance and of decent people and questionable choices, Zoo Nebraska is a timely requiem for a rural America in the throes of extinction.Royal, Nebraska, population eighty-one—where the church, high school, and post office each stand abandoned, monuments to a Great Plains town that never flourished. But for nearly twenty years, they had a zoo, seven acres that rose from local peculiarity to key tourist attraction to devastating tragedy. And it all began with one man’s outsize vision.When Dick Haskin’s plans to assist primatologist Dian Fossey in Rwanda were cut short by her murder, Dick’s devotion to primates didn’t die with her. He returned to his hometown with Reuben, an adolescent chimp, in the bed of a pickup truck and transformed a trailer home into the Midwest Primate Center. As the tourist trade multiplied, so did the inhabitants of what would become Zoo Nebraska, the unlikeliest boon to Royal’s economy in generations and, eventually, the source of a power struggle that would lead to the tragic implosion of Dick Haskin’s dream.

About Carson Vaughan

Carson Vaughan is a freelance journalist from Nebraska who writes frequently about the Great Plains. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Guardian, the Paris Review Daily, Outside, Pacific Standard, Slate, the Atlantic, VICE, In These Times, and more. Zoo Nebraska is his first book.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Amy

I'm giving this 3.5 stars only because I'm originally from Nebraska (I grew up 25 miles from the nearest town, population 310) and the author was from Broken Bow. I wanted to scream as I read the book because it highlighted several issues that frustrate me about many rural Nebraskans...well-intentio......more

Goodreads review by Dee

{Video Review: The Most Dangerous Book Review on the Internet! at [URL not allowed]} This is a story of rural America, one that laments the passage of time that causes small towns to become even smaller as they struggle not to wink out of existence. It is also the story one man’s dream, a ma......more

Quotes

“In this easily digestible portrait of small-town life, Vaughan compassionately and understatedly traces the evolution of one man’s grand vision and the petty politics that destroyed it. A thoughtful meditation that will appeal to animal lovers and readers interested in tales of small communities coming together.” —Kirkus Reviews“Journalist Vaughan skillfully narrates a resonant, at times heart-wrenching tale of small-town Americana…What could have been rote reporting in lesser hands springs to life as Vaughan dramatically revisits that grim day and the series of bad decisions that led up to it, giving a white-knuckle retelling of the rampage and the sad, even cruel, aftermath...Vaughan’s nuanced, poignant storytelling provides a sobering take on what happens when the best intentions go awry.” —Publishers Weekly“Vaughn takes into account the ways small-town politics and shifting loyalties color decisions. He deftly blends this with Haskins’s outsized vision, and how animal welfare is precariously balanced between competing interests. A fascinating small-town drama results in a heartrending read.” —Booklist

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