THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

I was a fan of this book (by Sheila Burnford) and the movie when I was younger (NOT the early-’90s Michael J. Fox/Sally Field-voiced atrocity where the animals talked to each other, but the nearly dialogue-free 1963 version—I had an abiding love for all the obscure classic live-action Disney movies and would always rent them on video when given the opportunity). I even, embarrassingly in retrospect, performed an excerpt from it as a Declam piece in eighth grade. I loved animal books, and this was one of the few in which the tears jerked were happy ones—no wrenching death scenes here.

I hadn’t revisited it since then, and upon rereading it for book group, I was pleased to discover that it’s still good. Burnford didn’t write it specifically as a YA book, and I think it shows: it’s short and the story is simple, but except for the focus on animals there’s little here that screams “hey kids” (yeah, two of the pets’ owners are children, but the POV dwells more on the adults). The vocabulary is sophisticated and the tone realistic, occasionally—in that no-nonsense midcentury way—grimly so. One thing I hadn’t remembered was how violent parts of the book are; of course narrative drama requires the lost pets to overcome hardship and obstacles on their trek, but the middle of the book feels like a series of bloody cage matches: Dog vs. bear! Dog vs. dog! Cat vs. lynx! Dog vs. porcupine! It started to feel a tad repetitive. By far the best elements of the book are the descriptions of the Canadian wilderness and the animals themselves (pet owners will particularly appreciate this accuracy), plus the gorgeous illustrations by Carl Burger. For the most part, Burnford admirably resists anthropomorphizing (not only do the animals not talk to each other, but they aren’t even referred to by name most of the time, just as “the old dog,” “the young dog,” and “the cat”) and excessive sentimentality. Yet did I still cry during the big reunion scene at the end? Yes. Yes I did.