Yann Martel, author of the popular novel “Life of Pi,” has written another book with animals as characters.
Henry is an author (like Martel) whose first book was a flop, his second book a resounding success, and is having trouble with his third novel. His publishers don’t understand what the book is about. He receives a letter from a person who says he needs Henry’s help with a play that he is writing and includes some scenes with the letter. Intrigued, Henry contacts the writer and finds himself in the shop of an elderly taxidermist surrounded by stuffed animals.
As Henry discovers, the characters in the taxidermist’s play are really animals. Beatrice is a donkey, Virgil is a howler monkey, both stuffed now but once very much alive. As Henry and the taxidermist continue to meet, Henry is pulled into a mysterious and dangerous world.
I loved “Life of Pi.” Not so with this novel. I didn’t exactly hate it. I just didn’t understand what it was about until Martel hits you over the head with it near the end. And even then it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I kept waiting and hoping for something special in this book to inspire or enlighten or even just to entertain me. It did none of these. Not one of my favorites.
Jan
