Sunday, October 2, 2022

The Animals

The Animals by Cary Fagan
10/4/22; 220 pages
Book*hug Press

The Animals by Cary Fagan is a highly recommended literary modern fable.

Dorn lives in a curious tourist village and makes miniature scale models which are displayed in the local shops. He pines for schoolteacher Ravenna, dutifully visits his elderly father who treats him callously, and has a younger brother who treats him as an afterthought. His life is quiet, predictable, and unassuming. As he makes his way through his unobtrusive daily routine he notices neighbors participating in the government-sponsored "Wild Home Project" which has wild animals, like wolves, rats, minks, otters, and bear, move into the villagers homes.

The pages will fly by in this compact novel. The writing is excellent and the narrative resembles an allegorical fairy tale. The moral or lesson is conceivably along the lines of one must be their own advocate and make their own way through the world, and that wild animals are just that, wild and unpredictable, much like many people.  Dorn is a sympathetic character and readers will support him as he goes through his days encountering various characters. The final denouement, or perhaps an alternate moral to the story, may be that life requires you to be brave, take chances, and embrace change.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Book*hug Press via NetGalley.

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