If you're expecting a fun and colorful book examining the cliffhanger serials of old, be forewarned that The Lost Jungle is from an academic publisher and has different fish to fry. Author Barefoot looks into the minutia of serials, sometimes comically spelling out the obvious in great detail, but his enthusiasm for his subject triumphs over the approach and the book is much more absorbing and entertaining than you would expect. For one thing, Barefoot's prose is accessible and generally not pretentious. Barefoot looks into the notion that serials were just for kids, and gives convincing evidence that adults could and did enjoy these action-packed cliffhangers as much as any child. With a grant from the British academy (some authors have all the luck!), Barefoot flew to the U.S. to do extensive research in various libraries. While it may seem a bit odd that money would be paid so that a writer could explore these old serials, of all things, at least Barefoot has come up with a wealth of information and successfully argues that the cliffhangers were more popular than realized and are worthy of study.
Verdict: Somehow the fun of the serials comes through despite the scholarly approach. ***.
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