For my birthday this year, Mr BIP arranged for me to have a cake with a sentence from an Alice Munro story iced onto it: “The world would be grand, if it weren’t for the people.”
It’s an interesting quotation in a year when the pandemic has made everyone both grateful for and fearful of the people nearest to us. And I was happy to share a few bits of my cake with my neighbourhood critter friends. I like to imagine they’d approve of these recent reading selections.
Edith Widder’s Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea (2021) radiated on the front cover of the New York Times Book Review this summer.
There’s enough personality and description, with memorable scenes and interesting details—all relayed in a conversational style—to keep a not-so-sciencey reader like me engaged. Because the accident Widder experienced as a young adult delayed her pursuit of a career in marine biology and shifted her specific interest in the field, talk of that aligns with the narrative (and contributes an additional layer of interest for readers who enjoy medical memoirs).
For me, the most enjoyable aspect is the critter-talk (sign me up for the saber-toothed viperfish fan club—sheesh) along with accessible explanations of gadgets and tech (like spectrometers and evolving deep-dive equipment) and a dash of playfulness (describing mucus as “the duct tape of the ocean”).
There are stats: land comprises 29% of the planet’s surface. But also some deep-thinking: “We see, hear, smell, taste, and feel only what is needed. Much is hidden, but our ingenuity provides a capacity for revealing what is concealed from our immediate senses, if only we choose to see.” Anyone with a sharp interest in only one of the aspects I’ve described might view the rest as clutter, but I was interested in the whole package.
Yan Ge’s Strange Beasts of China (2021) is one of thirteen books she’s written, six novels among them. Originally from Sichuan, China, she was named one of two future literature masters in People’s Literature magazine. She’s interviewed by Sebastian Barry here (29:22), a discussion which will probably interest writers more than readers. Both writers and readers will appreciate the Melville House interview with her, in the company of her translator Jeremy Tiang. (37:37)
In all, the beasts’ stories are intended to ponder whether and how humans and beasts are different; they have that strange aspect one experiences in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities—obviously invention, but so deliberate that it feels insulting to focus on the imaginative elements. Especially when the author is clear that she saw herself writing realism, and even debated spiritedly with one reader who saw it as magical.
Her favourite beast is the Flourishing Beast and when asked whether the novel is a love story, she says she wrote it “naively, genuinely and lovingly.”
The translator agrees that the Flourishing Beast is the heart of the book, but their favourite beast is actually the Heartsick Beast; in discussing the tone of work, they emphasize the simplicity and directness of the characters’ emotions. It’s not discussed in either interview, but isn’t it a gorgeous cover?
Natsumi Hoshino’s Plum Crazy (2008-) is an ongoing manga about cats and the people they have adopted into their cat-lives. It reminds me of Kanata Kunami’s Chi series (also for children, but with glossy pages and more stylized kitties): very little happens, mixups are resolved, disasters end quickly and happily.
You would know the author has and loves cats without these, but an added bonus are the occasional mini-chapters about her own cats and the behaviours or events that mimic/inspire story elements. They have their favourite toys, they cuddle, they jump around, they make and break agreements, they complain they’re not included in the Chinese Zodiac.
Their people are kind and well-intentioned; they worry when a new kitten stalks Plum, fiercely and relentlessly, and they try to make changes to improve challenging situations…but, of course, it’s the cats who really make all of these decisions and occasionally cast a thought to their people’s contentment. It’s sweet-natured (sometimes overly sweet, a kitten in a later volume talks in a kind of baby-talk) saga. And sometimes that’s just what I’m craving.
I waited for a copy of Darcie Little Badger’s Elatsoe (2020) for about eight months from the public library before it arrived and I realized it’s written for teens. And not the way that Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves is written for teens, with a boil of darkness maintaining a tension throughout the story. Even though there are spirits, as well as what Ellie calls paranormal creatures, and a violent death in the family which fuels the story, there’s an underlying gentleness of sorts.
Maybe it’s the lovely illustrations by Rovina Cai (which showcase my favourite relationship in the book, between Ellie and Kirby, her dog—dog lovers will love this storyline too). And even the attempts to reconcile fundamental contradictions and truths are expressed delicately. Elatsoe, a member of the Apache tribe (inhabiting the land currently called Texas), is named in Lipan for a hummingbird.
The connection with the land and all of its inhabitants (some monstrous) is important to the story, but its success resides with readers’ connection to Ellie. “How long would it take for the earth to heal? When would the sap on the metal-scarred tree harden into amber? It seemed odd that an act so violent and cruel could leave gemstones in its wake.” A very absorbing story that made an extremely hot summer day fly past. (But I think I would have loved it more if I were a younger reader.)
In Nick McDonell’s The Council of the Animals (2021) bear claws mark tallies into tree bark, and a cat’s claw on metal acts like a gavel to pull attention away from unproductive quarrels.
Can you feel it? There’s a lot of tension between the animals in this story, including a debate over whether the insects were disregarded or opted out.
But there’s also a shared sense of superiority in the animal community, because the rocks and trees do not even hold councils.
And the community is broader than readers might expect so, for instance, crows evoke the wisdom of the dinosaurs and krakens, as well as their rich dream life.
There’s also some word play (like discussions about domestication and “demoscratchy”) and there are unexpected troubles alongside some more predictable ones.
Alliances and disputes, betrayals and extinction, philosophy and justice: there are big ideas here, but it’s also a simple story (accompanied by classic line-drawings by Steven Tabbutt) that one can enjoy in an afternoon:
“But what is a hero? Were the Pharaonic cats as wise as myth suggests? Or were they simply shrewd rat catchers? And were the first rats to circumnavigate the globe as bold as Magellan? Or were they simply hungry stowaways?”
Have you “met” any critters in your reading recently?
Do you have a favourite critter story?
Below the Edge of Darkness is the one that calls to me from this group. I love sea creatures, and the deep sea is so fascinating and amazing. The animal book that comes to mind right away is The Soul of an Octopus – I loved it because it was also about sea animals.
I don’t think I’ve read any books about animals lately, but I just finished listening to For Jushua by Richard Wagamese and that has a story in it with lots of animals. Wagamese is such a great storyteller.
Oh, yes you would love that one for sure. I bet you’ll be able to find it on audio; she’s getting a lot of attention for her work now.
I can’t remember if I’ve read that one of Wagamese’s or not (there are a couple of biographical volumes and they’ve begun to blur for me because I didn’t read them in “order”) but I love his POV on the world.
Happy birthday! I love the line on the cake. I’m very close to being “over” people.
I’m in a wanting to read about nature phase – currently I am reading a book called Seed to Dust, which is a memoir of sorts about a man working in an English garden – he’s worked there for years and has a superficial relationship with the old lady who owns the house – and he writes about the rhythms of the garden through the year. It’s very lovely and meditative. Which means I am reading slowly.
Below the Edge of Darkness sounds good!
Hahaha Thank you. Ironically, I feel like I am closer with more people now that effort is required to keep in touch online. But when I’ve crossed the street for the dozen-th time, just trying to go for a morning walk, cuz nobody else seems to care about masks or six-feet of distance without them, then my needle registers at “over” too. LOL
I know that mood. Have we talked about May Sarton before? I find her very calming for that frame of mind, and she’s still a little bookish (being a writer) but so much about flowers and animals (and the occasional, select neighbour). And I know you’ve “discovered” Haupt. There’s also a very charming series of older books, with sketches, titled for the seasons in America, perhaps written by a husband-and-wife pair…maybe Rebecca will know the ones I mean…I think you’d love them. So helpful, eh? 🙂
Huge Sarton fan here! Plant Dreaming Deep is probably the most about gardening, though all of her journals mention it to an extent (plus pets).
Perhaps you mean Edwin Way Teale’s quartet? I’ve only read Autumn Across America so far, but I found a secondhand copy of the spring book on our travels in Northumberland so I have that one lined up.
Yes! Thank you! It was still niggling me even while reading something completely different. So, now I’m thinking I muddled his cycle with books by another writing couple…a naturalist couple, living deliberately and Waldenly, from a small press. That one I think I’ve logged somewhere. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy them myself, but just have the feeling they’d particularly appeal to other American readers yaknow?
True, I think it’s more about cut-flowers in the rest of the journals, but still lovely quiet moments of beauty. I think I say this whenever you and I talk Sarton, but I really must reread.
Ok I love cats, and I’m definitely a cat person, and I do love a cat tale or two, but that manga seems almost too cat-ish for me, if that makes sense. The cute little side chapters about her cats sounds nice, but only in small doses. Below the Edge of Darkness sounds very cool, there is something fascinating AND horrifying about the creatures in the deep, mainly because we know so little about them it seems. Also, they are super creepy looking!!!!
It is very cutesy, and I felt it was only fair to mention that, because if someone unfamiliar with manga were to try it, they might think that’s characteristic whereas it’s written for kids and cutesy is part of the deal. Then again, as a counter energy to the darker reading in my stack, that was usually much appreciated. I recommend the Yotsuba! series for a lighthearted children’s manga that is sweet without being sentimental. It’s a fascinating subject, that’s for certain.
Happy Birthday! Your cake sounds wonderful 🙂
Thank you–it felt very decadent.
There’s a famous Australian novel, Man Shy, in which the protagonist is a cow. I re-read it so it could get a mention in my thesis on Independent Women in Australian Lit. and I’ve been meaning to post a review of it. One day.
That’s an idea I love. (It’s reference-only here in TO.) It reminds me of Platero and I, although the donkey doesn’t get to narrate (and quite likely it’s a totally different story and this only reveals my ignorance about how few books with four-legged creatures at their centres.
Happy belated birthday. I love that sentence Mr BIP put on your cake what a fabulous sentiment. So many of these sound fascinating. The Council of Animals sounds good, though I don’t always like to encounter animals in books, in case bad things happen.
Thank you! Yes, even as a spoiler-phobe, I think books like that should come with “Don’t worry, they all live” or “Avoid page 74, else don’t read”. Heheh
Strange Beasts of China sounds wonderful! Adding that to my library list! And yes, that is a lovely cover.
I’ve been debating whether or not to read Council of Animals. I had decided no, but now you have me thinking maybe?
I just started reading Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer. It’s early yet and I have no idea what is going on at the moment, but it keeps pulling me along with little bits and hints.
And lastly, a very happy birthday! Love the quote on your cake. 🙂
I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s strangely calming and, I would say ‘sedate’ but that sounds too formal for a sorta-magical story.
When looking for lighter, but not off-topic, eco-themed reading, it was perfect, and it got a great review in the NYT, but in another reading mood I might have been impatient. You’d know by leafing through. (Re: McDonell)
Hah, I think that’s how he wants you to feel! Did you ever see his Wonderbook? It’s a delight.
Thank you. All plant-based of course. 🙂
A happy belated birthday! I don’t think I’d known even what time of year yours was. I do like that gently misanthropic Alice Munro line. How clever of M to pull it out and have it ready as a surprise.
I had an animals theme to my summer reading a few years ago, followed by a food theme, followed by a colour theme. Each year I’ve had so many leftovers that I imagine I could probably just repeat the cycle ad infinitum. Though I might add in a flora theme for one year, or make it flora + fauna.
Let’s see, I’m about to finish a memoir by a wildlife photographer who focused on one goshawk nest during the lockdown summer. I’ve started a historical novel about a naturalist, called The Woodcock (though as of yet there have been no birds in it!). I’m reading Brandon Taylor’s linked story collection, Filthy Animals, but it’s definitely the humans who are beastly there. Fathoms, Rebecca Giggs’ tome about whales, is on my stack but is so dense (though exceptionally written) that I’m proceeding at no rate at all. And there’s an old dog in The Weekend by Charlotte Wood. So, always plenty of critters in my reading, intentionally or not 🙂
Thanks, and that’s a great way of putting it: “gently misanthropic”. He apparently had to cycle through a few quotations that the baker didn’t think could be properly iced, but wouldn’t say which, because apparently he has “other plans” for them. Hahaha
I’m inclined to poke and suggest you choose one, because it’s not much of a challenge with the stacks the size of ours, to opt for Flora AND Fauna. BUT I would probably enjoy the sense of whimsy with the twinned theme too.
What a grand assortment of sighted and absent-but-lurking critters in your stack currently. I listened to Brandon Taylor’s interview with Pamela Paul this week, about Sally Rooney’s latest, and enjoyed what he had to say about Filthy Animals (which he was queried about, kindly, at the end of his bit), but I’ve yet to read him. Long hold lists for him, as you can imagine. Even though I’ve started a few new books since posting this, still no sign of other critters for me.
Happy birthday! I like the sound of the deep sea book. I tend to avoid books about animals as they’re so often put in just to be hurt or killed, so that’s the one that appeals to me, I have to say. I do like books about nature in general and have a good few of them on the TBR at the moment.
TY. I hear you. There’s a very popular show that debuted last season and even though topically I didn’t think I’d enjoy it at all, I ended up loving it. So I was super excited to watch the second season and there’s an off-camera moment in the season premiere where a dog is killed, through a bizarre set of gone-all-wrong split-moment decisions, and I turned it off and haven’t looked back. Maybe I will change my mind, or maybe I will re-watch the first season, or maybe I’ll just enjoy one of the many other good television series instead. It’s the kind of “throwaway” narrative construction that I am stubbornly unwilling to forget.
YES! We watched that show too and were devastated, esp as they’d been so kind with the admin guy’s elderly cat in S1 (I was convinced there’d be some horrible joke when he mentioned it but no, just an affecting scene later as part of a bigger thing). We did, nervously, continue to watch and it’s not mentioned again, but I thought it was really badly considered and it’s made me love the show a lot less. It does get better again, but there must have been a better way to bring in the “Doc” character, which is what it was for. However, a favourite character has an excellent and powerful activist story arc which redeemed it a lot for us.
Hah, I wondered if anyone who’s following the show would pick up on those vague references. Thank you for not revealing the title, so it doesn’t spoil anything for anyone else. (Anyone itching to know can message one of us backchannel!)
Exactly, that’s what I’d hoped for too. In another mood, I might have watched on as well, because I suspected it was not going to carry forward, and it’s good to know that it’s not a shift in tone that continues to cast a shadow.
Maybe I will give it another try at some point, with your comments in mind.
Happy birthday!
The last book I read with creatures in it was Guilty Creatures, a British Library Crime Classics anthology. It was particularly good! 😀
Hahaha Perfect!
What a lovely idea for a cake!
*muffled cake consumption sounds in the register of gratitude*
Dear BIP, it was your birthday, but you have given me a present — this blog, for obvious reasons. My belated wishes for your birthday. I hope the day was memorable just like the wise cake, and may this year be full of words, adorable critters, peace, and joy. <3
The public libraries here are trying hard (more about that in my blog that I have been writing forever) to cater to the needs of readers like me who like classics and contemporaries, but for the libraries to purchase some beautiful books mentioned in your blog, it’s going to take a few years, and by then, I would be compelled to buy the books, and I am worried about my book-buying-budget that I am constantly breaching. As for the books on gorgeous nonhuman animals parading here, my first choice to devour is ‘The Council of Animals’. I love the intersection of big ideas and a simple story, and – give me a moment to make sure my dog isn’t shoulder-surfing – I want to befriend ALL the cats.
I finished reading Jane Smiley’s ‘The Strays of Paris’ a couple of days ago. It wasn’t in my radar when I found it humbly sitting on the New Arrivals shelf at a bookstore here. There was a horse, two mallard ducks, a crow, a dog, and a rat on the cover. How could I walk past that section without running my hands on the cover and heaving a deep sigh! How could I walk out without buying the book! I don’t freely recommend the book for two reasons: it’s for everyone, and it’s not for everyone. Now, I am Jane Smiley’s fan.
None of my current reads features critters. Life seems more banal than it already is. 😛
Thanks kindly for your sweet message, Dee. Lovely wishes. And thanks for recommending the new Jane Smiley book, which I see I marked TBR but I had forgotten it. She’s a favourite though. And I bet you’d find her book about writing very interesting. You have a lot of wonderful reading ahead of you with Smiley. If you ever decide to read one of hers that I have missed along the way (which is actually more than I thought, now that I’ve checked, scattered throughout her career), I’ll happily tag along. I’ve always meant to read her Greenlanders and the book she edited about Icelandic sagas (not mythology or culture that I’m familiar with).
Hahah, I hope your act of disloyalty was not taken overly personally by your loyal companion. You’ve already thought a couple of nice thoughts about cats recently, and those cat-thought-pictures you have in your brain won’t have gone unnoticed. Could be that there is a log of marks made with dog claws, that should have been recorded in McDonell’s story too!
It’s funny how themes emerge and recede in our stacks. There are still dozens of books in my stacks right now, in various stacks of contemplation and immersion, and not one of the others features critters. Banal indeed. 😉