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Read The Animal-Lover's Book Of Beastly Murder (2002)

The Animal-Lover's Book of Beastly Murder (2002)

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Rating
3.83 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0393323668 (ISBN13: 9780393323665)
Language
English
Publisher
w. w. norton & company

The Animal-Lover's Book Of Beastly Murder (2002) - Plot & Excerpts

Χμ... Είναι αλήθεια πως το υποτιμάς λίγο στην αρχή. Κάτι από την απλότητα της γραφής της συγγραφεως, κάτι από την ευθύτητα και την ειλικρίνειά συνωμοτουν στο να μην την παίρνεις και πολύ στα σοβαρά ή και ( ακόμη χειρότερα ) να ολίσθησεις στο ατόπημα να την θεωρήσεις προβλέψιμη. Χα! Μέγα λάθος!!! Έφαγα χαστούκι μεγατόνων με την εξέλιξη και την κατάληξη της πρώτης ιστορίας και από αυτήν και έπειτα όταν τα χαστούκια είχαν μεγαλύτερη ένταση και ενώ περιμένεις κάτι εξωφρενικό ότι έρχεται είναι εξωφρενικοτερο και σε βάζει επίπλεων και σε ένα σορό προβληματισμους αντί να σε απωθησει. Μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ το βιβλίο όπως και η επιμέλεια του από τις εκδόσεις Άγρα. Δεν ξαναδιαβάσει Highsmith και με κατέλαβε εξ απηνεις! Σίγουρα θα διαβάσω κι άλλα δικά της. Εν κατακλείδι, παρότι οι ιστοριες του βιβλίου είναι λίγο τραβηγμένες και συχνά όπως αναφέρει και ο τίτλος " κτηνωδεις" το συνιστώ ανεπιφύλακτα σε όλους!!! είναι η εναλλακτική εκδοχή της συμπεριφοράς του ανθρώπου στα ζώα. και καμιά φορά σε πιάνει μια αγανάκτηση που λες ότι ίσως και να μας άξιζε ενδεχομένως μια τέτοια ανάλογη συμπεριφορά!

tema do Desafio Literário esse mês foi "romance psicológico". Primeira coisa a fazer: descobrir o que raios é isso. Sim, disseram-me que é o romance em que a história é narrada em fluxos mentais, em que predomina o tempo interior e eu continuei com interrogações na cabeça. Comecei a ler Miss Dalloway e entendi. A história se passa no interior da personagem. Deve ser, porque no meu interior não passou nada. Leitora crua ainda, ou mal-passada, troquei o.livro por O Livro das feras. Aí sim, eu virei camelo, tive pena do rato, não confiei em momento algum no furão e achei a barata gente boa.O livro é composto de 13 contos. Na maioria deles o enredo é o mesmo: animal acuado por ser humano se defende. Os bichos podem nos machucar bastante com suas presas e garras e até mesmo com seu peso. O ser humano exerce o domínio pela astúcia ou pela maldade. Patricia contruiu personagens bem convincentes. O comportamento dos bichos não é humanizado, eles não entendem 100% do que as pessoas falam ou fazem. Parecem ingênuos e agem por instinto de preservação. O primeiro conto, "o último espetáculo de Vedete" é narrado em primeira pessoa pela elefanta, usando o tal do fluxo de consciência. Em outras histórias, a narração é feita em 3a. pessoa, mas sempre respeitando o limite de compreensão dos bichos. Em algumas histórias eles são vítimas, em outras, são violentos. Animais selvagens são só instinto. Quanto aos humanos, há os que amam os bichos, os cruéis e algumas inversões interessantes, como humanos estúpidos na história das galinhas e humanos abjetos apresentados por uma barata enojada. Patricia Highsmith foi uma escritora americana conhecida pelas adaptações cinematográficas de seus livros, todos com tramas de crimes e suspense.Fechei o livro determinada a jamais ter um furão nem um porquinho da índia e aborrecida, de novo, com baratas kafkanianas.

What do You think about The Animal-Lover's Book Of Beastly Murder (2002)?

This was well written but not at all what I expected in a book... I expected cutesy stories of clever murdering cats and maybe an older lady or two detective piecing things together. Yeah, this was not that kind of book. It was a brutal one. ("beastly murder" really should have clued me in, so I acknowledge it's all my faulty judgement...) I was surprised at how depressed I felt after each story. When I finished the book, I felt an odd heavy weight from the injustices heaped on all of the animal murderers, which drive them to these murders. Of course, I felt no sympathy for the human victims, each and every one deserved it but there was no resolute feeling of justice being served. Just a general sadness that even though these stories are fiction, I see how these daily injustices happen to animals everywhere. I'm not exactly a bleeding heart when it comes to such matters, but maybe it's from my experiences volunteering at an animal hospital that investigated animal cruelty issues, frequently. I do know people like that are out there and even though they may deserve brutal justice, it's only in fiction that they meet their untimely end... Well, that was me being way too maudlin!! Anyway. It was quite well written and from the animal perspective, it just perhaps isn't the kind of book I would add to my pleasure reading list, again.
—Marissa

A book of short tales of animals' murderous revenge on human beings. Hamsters, chickens, ferrets, cats, cockroaches, goats, pigs... you name it... exact revenge on humans that have mistreated, neglected, abused or merely misunderstood them. Many of these are excellently crafted with insight into the animal perspective. Ming the cat is the quintessential cat. The story of the cockroach is spot-on cockroach perspective. These are gruesome little stories. I have to say, though, as much as I wanted to root for the mistreated and misunderstood animals, I did not find myself cheering on their murderous deeds in order to feel vindicated. I don't know that I'm entirely let down by not exalting in the vindication of the animals, though, as it really aligns with the animal perspective of just really getting out of a bad situation and not really going overboard sensationalizing the murders.
—Sarah

Patricia Highsmith brings together in one collection thirteen tales of revenge, animal style.This is a mixed bag of quality and entertainment that ranges from the brilliant to the mediocre, the witty to the dull and the obvious to the horrific. Stories about how humans mistreat animals and the understandable mixture of reactions from the animals; fear, instinct, self-defence, murder and straight forward standing up for their rights to be treated with dignity. We're not just talking about cats and dogs but camels and elephants too. Highsmith takes an animals perspective on everyday behaviour from the human beings who dominate them and largely achieves great things.The stories can lazily be divided in to two categories, those from the animal point of view and those from the human but both ways she paints the human in a negative light. The most enjoyable of the stories are those that fall in to the first category however; the performing elephant who is mistreated one time too many, the goat with too much energy for its owners, the cat who is in love with its owner, the dog whose owner dies for example and that's ignoring stand out high point of the tale of the rat in Venice and the confessions of a New York cockroach who's going up in the world.It's the other group that I had problems with, Highsmith doesn't reach the same heights when she describes events from the human observers point of view; in these the people are much more obviously horrible and the behaviour of the animals so much more obvious and bloody, essentially meaning if you've read one of them you've read all of them. Not an ideal characteristic for a short story collection and hence the award of only 3 stars.If you're already a fan then this is a must-read, if you're new to this wonderful writer of literary suspense thrillers (amongst other things) then perhaps start with one of her more popular novels before diving in to this one.
—Tfitoby

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