The God of Animals: A Novel [ハードカバー]

Young Alice Winston is the endearing narrator of this coming of age debut novel, The God of Animals. Alice has seen a lot of disappointment and despair in her young life: her mother is basically an emotional cripple, refusing to leave her bedroom; her father is a pie-in-the-sky horse businessman, always looking for his big break but refusing to deal with his financial problems; her older sister, Nona, has escaped the drudgery of running the horse farm by running off with a rodeo cowboy. Alice finds herself as the destined one to help save the farm, but it's clear that she, too, longs to escape, and when the tragic death of a local girl entwines itself into her life, Alice uses the event as a springboard to a relationship with her male English teacher.

The theme of loneliness pervades this novel and Alice is indeed a heart-wrenching character. As a mother, I simply wanted to reach through the pages and enfold her; she deserved so much more than being caught up in keeping her father's dream alive while standing on the edges of the world swirling around her. I could feel her thought processes clearly and understand them well. However, Alice seems to be one of only perhaps two or three sympathetic characters in the entire novel. Perhaps life is really like that, but the relentlessness with which the author introduces flawed characters makes this a bleak story with very little hope for poor Alice. If indeed one adult in her life had been upstanding and sensitive to her needs beyond what it might earn for them, Alice might have not felt the need to turn to inappropriate measures for attention and validation.

This is a good debut novel. Kyle makes her characters and setting come alive and keeps the pages turning. The only thing missing is a sense of hope, at least through 99% of this well-written novel. My own imagination will have to supply the ending I want for Alice...and that is probably what the author intended all along. Recommended.

"God of Animals," by Aryn Kyle, is an unflinching, powerful, honest, and achingly beautiful coming-of-age tale set in the American West. The period is most likely the mid-1970s--a time before computers, the Internet, cell-phones, satellite T.V., and antidepressant medications. The story is told entirely from the point of view of Alice Winston, a lonely twelve-year-old growing up on an aging horse ranch in Desert Valley, Colorado. There are two transitions that take place over the course of the novel: one involves the ranch moving in a new direction, and the other involves Alice growing into adolescence. Both are wrought with difficulty and pain.

The ranch has been in the family for three generation, but it's fallen on hard times and may not survive. Rich suburbs are taking root everywhere and the ranchers must adapt or fail. The days of proud horse breeding are over. The new business is catering to the needs of wealthy suburban horse lovers. It's the direction and reality of modern life. There is nothing they can do to halt it.

Alice's transition into adolescence is just as inevitable and wrenching, but there's a twist. At twelve, Alice is already an adult. It's primarily Alice's body that's undergoing change, but naturally the bodily changes induce a flood of emotional and psychological changes as well. It is these that Alice has difficulty understanding, and there is no one in her life to help. Alice's mother is clinically depressed--she's barely left her bedroom since Alice was a baby. Once a star horsewoman, now she is a mental invalid incapable of parenting Alice in any meaningful way. Alice's father, Joe, is overwhelmed keeping his business afloat, and is blind to his daughter's emotional needs. He fails his daughter at every turn. Alice has had to parent herself--in almost every way, she is mature beyond her years. Alice's older sister is gone. She ran away a year ago to marry a cowboy. Alice has no friends--she's different, isolated, not like the other primarily suburban girls that populate her school. Adding to her emotional anguish, a classmate recently drowned. It's a difficult time, and Alice feels isolated, alone, adrift, and abandoned.

Alice's father, Joe, treats her like an adult ranch hand. When she's not at school, she's expected to do a man's work. Joe is a rough unsentimental realist, and is obviously trying to raise Alice in the same mold. But Alice is having a hard time remaining unsentimental. Unlike her father, she is acutely aware of the emotional side of life, particularly the emotional needs of animals. She looks at their suffering and feels that the world is as blind to their needs as it is to hers. With practiced detachment, she takes in all the everyday cruelty and abuse that often forms the foundation of ranching. Outwardly, she does not flinch, but inwardly she rails against it. Alice knows all too well that the world can be cruel and unforgiving.

Two adults eventually enter Alice's life and offer her some degree of emotional support. Unfortunately, she finds out that both are merely using her to achieve their own private agendas.

This is a simple story about everyday realities. I loved both the human and animal characters, as well as the rich acceptance of reality that underscore this humane novel. I also loved the author's fresh, powerful prose.

Don't read this novel if you are looking for a strong compelling story leading to a definite conclusion. This is not that type of novel. This is a subtle, unflinchingly honest view of life in all its complexity. It is a book about coming to terms with the reality of human isolation and cruelty. It's about making peace with the dark core of humanity.

My eyes brimmed with tears when I finished this novel--not with sadness, but with acceptance and truth.

I can't speak highly enough of this novel. I was shocked to learn that it was a debut because it is so brilliant, sophisticated, and emotional. It also happens to be one of those rare literary page-turners. I almost missed work because I couldn't put it down. All I can say is that I want more, more, more from this author. If you read one work of fiction this year, make it The God of Animals.