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.
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