modoc the greatest elephant that ever lived

At the center of the book the author publishes a meager number of photos telling us that they are ones he has been able to collect over the years from the few that exist of Modoc. There are other ways in which the account simply doesn't add up. Events in the lives of Modoc and Bram simply cannot be reconciled with the internal timeline of the book or the external timeline of history. Except for an early mention of Bram (and thus Modoc's) age as sixteen when they left their native Germany and a reference at the end to their being at least 70, the lacks any mention of dates and historical context (not even WWI or the rise of Nazism and WWII in Germany, where Bram's Jewish mother, we are led to believe, continues to live unaffected).

Soon, though, inconsistencies, omissions, and implausibilities began cropping up so frequently I became more and more convinced that, far from being a 'true story of the greatest elephant that ever lived,' the book is a work of fiction, misleadingly (and unethically) labeled as fact, no doubt to improve sales. In spite of the ham-handed quality of the writing (okay, I thought at first, the author is an animal trainer so the book's awkward style can be forgiven), I found the story at first engaging.

Modoc the greatest elephant that ever lived