PositiveWashington PostYong explains how these senses work — sometimes down to the biochemical level — and takes us on field trips to meet the scientists behind the findings, all while masterfully weaving these disparate threads into a single narrative rope. But, as I finished chapter after chapter, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we kept falling short of our promised destination: understanding what it’s like to be another animal...This may be impossible .... Again and again, Yong tiptoes up to the precipice of another animal’s experience but never quite takes that final imaginative leap ... This is all crucial information, but it doesn’t answer the underlying question: What is it like to be a dog? ... Overall, Yong avoids using metaphors to other senses, but when he does indulge in them (or more often, when he quotes a scientist making that imaginative leap), these are the parts of the book I keep thinking about ... What Yong never really gets to, however, are animals’ inner lives ... Although An Immense World doesn’t quite plunge readers into other animals’ worlds, it does make a case for how much we humans miss — and misunderstand — when we fail to consider other animals’ worldviews. This, in itself, is a major achievement.
