Only the Animals
Handicapped by homocentric prejudice, few humans can properly comment on themselves, or upon their species. Who else shall speak to us of the human condition? Only the animals who share our homes and beds, and serve us as beasts of burden. Humans cast them willy-nilly into the ocean depths, plunge them into the brutalities of war, or blast them into space just to see what happens.
Whether these animals are keen observers or mere brutes awaiting the next order – or their fates – ten of them inhabit the pages of Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Animals. This is no random assemblage of creatures: chimpanzee, elephant, and parrot are linked to writers, famed and obscure, spanning more than a century. Unfortunately, these associations rarely do Ms. Dovey’s animals much good.
I loved this delightful collection of short stories. Mussels ocean-hop to the hippie scene in San Francisco Bay, then are swept off into war in the Pacific. Virginia Woolf adopts, and collaborates with Tolstoy’s tortoise. Bears abandoned by their keepers in Sarajevo’s zoo are fed by citizens who dare enemy shelling to share scarce food. Their story is tragic from the start, but the bears speak to us of both human kindness and brutality. Ms. Dovey’s fecund imagination knows no bounds, and I highly recommend Only the Animals.
