109: The Penguin Lessons

Join us as we discuss The Penguin Lessons, a memoir set in 1970s Argentina that follows a young British teacher whose life changes after rescuing an oil-covered penguin in Uruguay. Find out why we loved the book and why the story of the penguin "Juan Salvador" resonated with us.

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Transcript

J Q (00:00)
Welcome to Twin Talk. This is Joy, and I'm here with my sister Angie. And today we are discussing a book called The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michelle. It was published in 2015, and if you want to listen to it on Audible, it's about six hours long. So I actually discovered the movie first. It is a movie made from the book. I absolutely love the movie. It was one of those movies that I just thought, that looks okay. It looks interesting. And I was deeply touched by the movie.

J Q (00:30)
Did a little research and found it was a book, listened to the book and told my sister about it. So, Angie, what did you think of the book? I thought the book was great. I'm really, really glad that you told me about it. And that's one of the reasons we're here is to tell you, is to share with you why we think the book is so great. Well, first of all, the book was set in Argentina during the 1970s, and Tom Michel, he was a British teacher and he just liked adventure. And he went to this private boys' school in Argentina to teach English.

J Q (01:00)
English.

J Q (01:00)
And I think that's one of the things that I love so much about the book is because me being a Spanish teacher, I've always thought how cool it'd be to go somewhere and teach English to Spanish speaking students so I get to use both languages. And it's kind of funny but it did kind of remind me of Dead Poet Society a little bit. The the movie, I don't know about the book. Yeah. But here's where it gets really good. he is on a short vacation while he's teaching in Argentina and he goes to Uruguay.

J Q (01:30)
And he's walking along the beach, and I'm gonna let Angie tell you what happens during his walk along the beach. So he's walking along the beach and he comes across all of these dead penguins. And it the way he describes it, it sounds like there was hundreds of them. And they were all just drenched in oil. And so apparently there had been an oil spill out in the ocean, and they were all laying there dead. but as he's walking along, he notices that some movement from one of those penguins, and he realizes that one.

J Q (01:59)
One

J Q (01:59)
of them out of all these penguins that have died, there's one that appears to still be alive. And so that's the story takes off from there. So he takes it back to his hotel, and if I remember correctly, he had to sneak it in in some sort of like a burlap bag or something. Yeah. And it's very hard. He has a really hard time getting the oil off of the penguin. It's not like they had Dawn dishwashing soap back then, you know. But he was finally able to get the oil off, and the penguin was not quiet.

J Q (02:28)
Cooperating

J Q (02:29)
at first. The penguin was not happy, but he said in the book, it seemed like once the penguin figured out he's trying to help him, he calmed down and seemed to cooperate more. That was the most interesting thing to me. So this penguin obviously at first is kind of hostile toward him because you know he's you know he doesn't know who this human is and what he's trying to do. And he like tr the penguin is trying to bite him as he's trying to clean him, and then and they say their claw their feet are actually kind of like sharp talons on the bottom. And he's

J Q (02:58)
He

J Q (02:58)
said he was trying to claw at him, but he said as soon as that penguin, as soon as he started cleaning him off, it was it was like he came to some type of realization that this guy was actually trying to help him, But he came very calm, which I thought that's crazy. They have that quick of a turnaround. Yeah. And so he doesn't know a lot about penguins. So he gets the penguin clean. He take now this is where I get in trouble when I watch the movie and read the book because I get him confused. But I feel like in the book he went ahead

J Q (03:25)
Once the penguin was clean, he brought it back down to the beach and tried to get the penguin to go into the water and you know just to go back to the sea. And Angie, what happened? He no matter what he did, the penguin just kept following him. He he like he would try to walk away and he'd look back and the penguin, there's the penguin fall trying to come up and

J Q (03:46)
And follow him back home. And I did watch a National Geographic documentary a while back about penguins, and they are very sociable. They once they find a mate, they mate for life. Like they keep they only have one mate, and they they can't live alone, they can't survive alone. So I Tom Michelle probably didn't know this at the time. Well, he tries to take off and the penguin just follows him. Yeah. So wherever he goes, this little penguin's just following him. Yeah, it's really cute. And so Tom goes ahead, he's I can't.

J Q (04:15)
get rid of penguin so he goes ahead and he hides the penguin and brings him and that's a lot of the funny stuff that happens is when he's trying to hide the penguin in like this bird lap sack or something. I mean he has to go through he has to ride a bus. Yeah he has to ride a bus and it poops and everybody's looking at him thinking in his pants and then he has to go through customs and then one of the customs he gets through

J Q (04:41)
the checkpoint without them realizing he has a penguin but then the penguin like squawks really loud a after he passes through this checkpoint and so the the man that's manning that station he's like come with me and he takes him back there and then he's like Yeah but you gotta understand this penguin actually you know he belongs in this country. I'm taking him back to where he belongs and and the guy didn't really care. He just was wanting a bribe. Yeah. So he was like Well how much money do you have on you? And so anyway, so he's just trying to get money from him so he'll let him in the end and that's another

J Q (05:11)
story but that was that's the point too. So Tom he lives at this private boys' school because he teaches there and they give him room and board. He has to hide this penguin in his up his little apartment. But this is what's so significant to me about the book is that one small act of kindness is gonna lead to this penguin touching many lives and really profoundly affecting many people. And that's the what the rest of the book is about is how this penguin affected people's lives. I mean

J Q (05:41)
I

J Q (05:41)
mean, it's so cool to think about.

J Q (05:46)
we have no idea how even one act of kindness might have a ripple effect and affect so many people. Mm-hmm. And toward the end of the book, he even makes the, you know, he the observation that he thinks one reason this penguin touched so many students at this school is because so this was like a boarding school. Mm-hmm and so all these boys that went through a lot of them did have money, but they were still away from home. And he was talking about how so many of these boys left their family, their friends, their life

J Q (06:13)
And so they're at a new school, they're at a new place. And so this was something that it was something that they could connect with, this penguin, and just something that they could actually all bond with. love animals and that's one thing we have in common and can bond over. And I feel like he was not really connecting with his students very well and having a hard time maybe getting them engaged, but one day he just had this

J Q (06:39)
This light bulb moment, I just need to and by the way, he named the penguins Juan Salvador. Yeah, I was gonna say we need to go ahead and tell them the name of the penguin because that makes them way more personal. Yeah, he named the penguin Juan Salvador, and one day he just decided I'm gonna bring the penguin to class, and it just changed the whole dynamic of his class. I do believe that that I don't remember that being in the book. I believe that was more in the movie. I thought that actually happened. I'm not saying it didn't, but I know in the book didn't he allow

J Q (07:08)
The students have to at least come to his apartment and feed spray to the penguins. Yeah, so in the book, the boys all kind of fought over not there was a group of boys that wanted to take care of him, and he said they just took turns. He stayed on his terrace. okay. So this is where the movie's messing with me. So the boys would come to the terrace where the penguin basically lived, and they would keep it clean and keep him fed, and yeah. But in the movie, obviously they they make it look like the penguin is how he

J Q (07:38)
Connected with the boys. But I still feel like the penguin played a big part in how he became closer to the boys because they were fighting. I want to feed him. No, I want to feed him. absolutely. And so the penguin did help him form a closer, tight-knit relationship, not only with the boys, but with some of his co-workers, I believe, if I remember correctly, some of the co-workers. And what was interesting to me, and we're gonna share some of from our favorite moments from the book. To me, my favorite moments were when he would catch people.

J Q (08:07)
talking to the pink one Like he was a therapist. Yes. That was yeah. One of the there was a few moments in the book that made me laugh out loud and that was one of them. He said he's so he caught his cleaning lady talking to him one time. So Tom's sitting in his apartment and he's like one day he's just sitting there and one of the boys are out on the terrace and he was like

J Q (08:27)
one Salvador, I I hope you you have such a beautiful view up here and it's such a beautiful day. He said, But I must talk to you. I I like this girl and she's very, very pretty. He starts telling him his girl problems, you know. Yeah, he's scared to ask this girl out. Yeah. He started he's telling one Salvador, the penguin, about this girl that he wants to date and it's real it's really funny. What was can you think of any other favorite moments from the book for you? gosh, there was so many. that was probably one of the funnier moments for me.

J Q (08:57)
When he's talking to him. what about the swimming pool incident? You and you said you actually laughed out loud on that. I did. So they had a swimming pool there on the campus, and they were getting ready to drain it. So Tom is like, you know what? I really feel like it's time for Juan Salvador to get back in the water. He said, But I'm afraid if he you know has an accident or does something in the pool, he said, but I know they're getting ready to drain the pool tomorrow, so we'll go ahead and do it. Anyway, so him and some boys take him out to the pool. He tries to get him to jump in.

J Q (09:27)
And so finally the he Juan Salvador jumps in the pool and the penguins swim very, very well. And they said he literally just took off and like literally like in two strides was across the pool. They said, next thing you know, he had hit the side of the pool. they said it's like he took off like a rocket. They said, next thing you know, he just wham, just hits the side of the pool. And he said, all the boys, he said it was almost like palpable, like just the the this gas that goes out from everybody in the row. And they said, Juan Salvador comes up by the

J Q (09:55)
Water and he's shaking his head and he's like sputtering water. But they said once he kind of got over the shock of hitting the side of the pool, he was okay. They said he just took off swimming like nobody's business. And that's how Tom Michelle, after he retired, I guess he was he cleaning out his attic or going through some old boxes, and he found some old film reels of when he taught there, and that's when he came across the footage of Juvador swimming in the swimming pool. And you can see the actual footage at the end of the movie, the pin.

J Q (10:25)
penguin lessons. But he said that's when he started reminiscing and thinking about how this penguin had touched so many lives and what a difference he had made. One of my favorite parts is where Juan Salvador would be on the

J Q (10:36)
something. And he was like they adopted him as their mascot and like he would be on the sidelines and the kids would like, you know, want to go over and stand by him and they just adopted him as their mascot, you know. It's just I just thought that was so interesting.

J Q (10:49)
But of course, all good things must come to an end. And Tom Michelle, he went on a short vacation and he left Ju Salvador in the care of like I think it was just a friend, and the friend told him, I'm so sorry, but he got sick while you were gone and he died, I didn't know how much longer you're gonna be gone and we

J Q (11:07)
just had to go ahead and bury him. Yeah, because he didn't know how when he was coming back. so there's a passage in the book and he's talking about after this penguin dies and it is so it's heart wrenching. It's heart wrenching. Thank you. And it's it is the most beautiful passage

J Q (11:25)
and it's talking about how we deal with loss and experience loss

J Q (11:30)
honestly it is one of the most thought provoking most beautiful passages I've ever read about loss. And one thing that he says in that passage he says

J Q (11:39)
Nature abhors a vacuum. Yes, thank you. Nature abhors a vacuum. And he was just talking about how in life, even when people lose their dogs or their pets, you know, how we just grow so attached to them and how it's it's not natural in nature for things to die. Right. So anyway, but it's just very it's very profound. And I think anybody listening who's lost a pet who they've been close to, they know it's a deep loss. They become practically your family members, you know.

J Q (12:05)
there are anecdotes and stories about times that he traveled in South America that didn't involve Ju Salvador and I was gonna have you talk about Yeah, so one thing about the book that's kinda interesting. You think okay, I'm gonna read this book about the penguin lessons and it's all gonna be about this penguin, but it really isn't. So a lot of the book is about his travels. And to me that was just as interesting as listening

J Q (12:27)
to the about the penguin. And he goes to the Andes Mountains and he's talking about how

J Q (12:33)
The air up there, it's the altitude is so high and the air is so thin that at night there's there's nothing in the atmosphere to, you know, come between you and the the stars. And he says it's absolutely stunning how beautiful the stars were at night. And he said in the Milky Way, he was describing the Milky Way, and he said that there's a lot of international astronomy stations up there for this very reason. And I and it's anyway, it was just really cool to hear him describe what it was like at that altitude to be

J Q (13:03)
To see the night sky, how it truly is. And I will add to that, I read about Chile, which is also in South America. One of their key attractions, and I can't even remember the name of the city now, but it's stargazing, and just for the very reasons you said it's in the desert. And they said it's gets all these visitors every year because it's one of the clearest views of the stars that you can see in South America. And so stars.

J Q (13:30)
Gazing, I guess, is a big deal in Circle Parts of South America. But yeah, this book, it's just one of those that I'm gonna remember for a long time. And Juan Salvador just made an impression on my heart, just like he did everybody else's. So you know what this reminded me of reading this when he died? Sea biscuit. I was just about twin talk, twin moment. Yeah, yeah. I was just about to say I didn't want Sea Biscuit to die. I didn't want Ju Salvador to die, but it's just a part of life. So

J Q (14:00)
It's like you read these books and then they have a way of making you get attached to it. So and are we gonna talk about the difference between the book and the movie? I just wanna point out that there is a movie and the movie does take a lot of license. There's a lot of things that happen in the book that in the movie that don't happen in the book. But I mean the general story's there, but they make it a lot more political, and I did not like that. Yeah, they the the movie is definitely more politically based. But now I gotta say this, the movie was done pretty well.

J Q (14:29)
So I love the movie, and that's why I ended up reading the book. Yeah. But then once you read the book, you're like, well, why did they make the movie so political? Yeah, exactly. And the and the actor that was in that movie, we had written his name down Steve Coogan. And he does a phenomenal job. yeah, he was amazing. But here here is my biggest beef with that. So in the book

J Q (14:50)
Tom that finds the penguin. He's twenty three years old when he finds him. And the the guy that the actor that plays him in the movie, he he's gotta be in his sixties. he looks like he's in his late fifties or sixties easy. So I don't know why they didn't choose a young man. Yeah. And then and in the movie he did an a phenomenal job.

J Q (15:06)
They spent like twenty minutes showing how he tried everything in his power for that penguin not to come home with him. Yeah. And that really wasn't. He even tried to take it to a zoo. Yeah. Yeah, he did. But he realized immediately that it wasn't. And then when he went to the zoo, it was like very small cages. The penguins didn't look healthy. They looked depressed. And so I could totally see that. Yeah. That part of the book was sad to me when they talked about what the it was like for the penguins in the zoo. So I I recommend the movie and I also

J Q (15:33)
recommend the book and that that brings us to our rating. Angie, how many Ju Salvadors do you give the penguin lessons? I would definitely for for the genre and it's a memoir about a penguin I mean honestly

J Q (15:48)
It was just very, very well written and it was very interesting. Even when he wasn't talking about the penguin and travels in South America. And and I gotta tell you, I know I'm getting off track here, but you know what I loved about this book? It was so different than anything we've ever read. Yes. Okay, so we're actually getting to see a piece of the world that w otherwise we would never know anything about. You know, he talked about s in South America about staying out on the plains with these gauchos, these cowboys and how they were eating armadillas by the by the

J Q (16:18)
The fire at night, and how you know, and talk about just how rough and tough they were. And then one night he stayed with this family who was as poor as a family can be, but yet they welcomed him him into their home even though they had nothing. And you know, he it's all these memories and friendships that he made. It was very, very it was a touching book. I just want to emphasize this with whoever might read this. There are some beautiful passages in this book. He is a

J Q (16:46)
Good writer. very good. And knowing he was an English teacher and taught English and poetry and writing, you know, obviously he must be halfway decent at it, or he's teaching it probably. So saying all that, I'm gonna give the book a four and a half. wow. Yeah. I mean, and I rarely give a book over a four. Wow, neither. So I mean, I just thought it was really, really good. Very well done.

J Q (17:08)
Brace yourself. no. Get the confetti ready. Are we gonna say cinco? I'm about to give the book Cinco One Self. my goodness! we need a special bell when we when we give a five. Kind of like they do the confetti on the show. Yeah. Because just what you said, it's different. You learn about history in the 70s, and I know it's because I'm a Spanish teacher and this is one of what's one of my bucket list things as to maybe to teach in a different country one day. But man, it

J Q (17:37)
Checked off everything for me, and of course, loving animals, and it was so well written. I'm giving it five one salvadors and bonus, you are the first to know, Angie. Uh-huh. So at my school, we are allowed to like do book clubs and stuff. We have teddy, we have one period a day where we help tutor and do things like that. But on Thursdays, and if Fridays are open, we are allowed to kind of do fun stuff, you know.

J Q (18:04)
Anything that we can tie into our curriculum. I'm gonna have a book club this year, and this is gonna be the first book we're doing. that is awesome! Yes, we are gonna do the penguin lessons. I don't know. I might have one student sign up, I might have two, I might have zero, I might have fifty. I you just never know. But this is the book that I've chosen as our first book. That is so awesome. we'll have to do a follow-up and let everyone know how that goes. Well, and if I can get parents permission, and if I can get any

J Q (18:31)
Kids interested and they want to come do a podcast with us. Would you be okay with that and getting their thoughts and ideas on the book? Yeah. And wouldn't it be cool if we could get Tom Michelle as a guest on our podcast? yeah. I don't know where he lives, how old he is, if he's a nice guy or not. I mean, come on, how bad of a guy can you be if you're taking a penguin? Yeah. I I'm gonna play devil's advocate here. So I've been doing research on getting people on podcast, and their fee for being on a podcast is unreal. I looked up the guy that wrote

J Q (19:01)
Mark the Mark Twain biography and it was astronomical. there was a lady that actually reached out to me saying that she would do a podcast with us on one of her books. I'd never even heard of her, and her fee was eight hundred dollars. That is and I was like, my gosh. So Tom Michelle, if you're listening, we are we're amateurs. We're super fans. We're super fans, we're amateurs, we don't have any money, but you have an open invitation.

J Q (19:28)
To be on our podcast anytime you want. Yeah. And maybe even tell us some stories we don't know. Yeah. And and for all you who are listening to this and this panting is driving you crazy. I took some pictures just now while Joey was talking, and I'm going to post the culprit of all this panting. So you so when you see him, you'll go, he's so cute. We'll just put up with all the sound and through the audio. So anyway. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking your time with us.

J Q (19:58)
I just love the book. I recommend you read the book and watch the movie. You'll get two different experiences from the same thing. Okay, well thanks so much for joining us and we will see you next time on Twin Talk.