Okay -- so I finished The God of Animals, and I'm interested in what you (Arwen, because I think you are probably the only one besides me who read it) liked/disliked about it.
To me..... it was kind of an odd dichotomy -- an "end of the innocence" story in a rural setting..... a place where there was still a posse and cowboys mingled with "catfish" because it was profitable. A commentary on the affluent -- where the lives of both people and animals are just hobbies..... disposable -- and where things are rarely what they seem.
Thoughts?
2 comments:
I think you nailed it with the idea of Steinbeck & Bloom rolled into one. One thing of note, the use of lying in the book and how the narrator is lying and yet lied to much more by her teacher. A friend of mine's g-parents horse farm where they started boarding rich women's horses (but in CT) and she said the author got that part of the story perfect - the tension between people who loved horses and people who loved horses but had lots of baggage attached. I liked this story a lot. I didn't necessarily like the narrator but could certainly understand the feeling of wanting to fit in and be normal and how that back fires. Trey actually read this first and gave it me and I let it sit on the shelf for awhile because it looked too touchy feely - I was pretty wrong about that. I feel the author did a good job building complexity without being pedantic. I kept thinking John Updike 'Rabbit' books style of writing. I gave this book to a few people this year as presents.
Did you like it?
I did like it -- I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it -- but at points it was so raw that it made me uncomfortable.
I hate to always bring it back to motherhood, but.... there was a lot there -- the relationships, the lack of relationships.... coming of age without a real parent.
I'm not a big animal person, but some of that was tough to read... even if it is just "nature"
I did like it -- again, I liked it because it was not something I would have selected for myself and that is what I'm trying to read more of --
Thumbs up
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