Animal Tales

The shelves are filled with too many unread new books. Then came Christmas, and a new pile of unreads sprung up. The friends are good. Don't know how they know I either don't own the book, or haven't read it. It isn't easy to buy me books.

Gotta clear the backlog. I slowed down the pace to thumb through David Sedaris' 'Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary', chewed on each tale before moving to the next, and lingered over the illustrations by Ian Falconer. One illustration per story, and so well done. Love the expressions on the animals' and their 'clothes'.

The book is so portable that it's been brought out and read whenever I've a spare moment. 16 animal fables. Occasionally light-hearted, and very readable. It isn't exactly a traditional book of animal tales. You don't sink into their happy or sad world. For all intent and purposes, you could swop out cat, chipmunk, toad, crow, lamb, cow, turkey, rat, mouse, and whatever, for a human name. It's not about the animals or its world. It's about the humans, and our traits. (Read reviews here, here, here and here.)

Just have to mention 'The Motherless Bear' because well, I like teddy bears and real bears, and even though this is a rather sad story, it's just...life, and reality, and about counting our blessings. Also tickled by 'Hello Kitty' because it's got a cat as the protagonist (there're other stories about cats), and it's sorta about alcoholism. Heh.

There's 'The Motherless Bear', one who can't stop feeling sorry for herself, continues whining instead of taking stock of what's good left, and keeps going down the route of self-pity, and eventually, stumbles into a permanent situation that isn't at all welcome. After being so annoying, the reader might eventually feel sorry for her, for real.

Now the bear travels from village to village. Her jaws are sunken, her gums swollen with abscesses left by broken teeth, and between the disfigurement and the muzzle, it's nearly impossible to catch what she's saying. Always, though, while tripping and stumbling to the music, she looks out into her audience and tells the story about her mother. Most people laugh and yell for her to lift her skirts, but every so often she'll spot someone weeping and swear they can understand her every word.

In 'Hello Kitty', the cat develops an unusual relationship with a mouse who eventually becomes his sponsor in an alcoholism program within prison confines. Of course they start off on the wrong foot. All sorts of mind-boggling ideas in there. An excerpt from the start of the story,

It was the stupidest thing the cat had ever heard of, an AA program in prison. Like you could find anything decent in here anyway. But if it would get his sentence reduced, well, all right, he'd sign up. Dance the twelve-step, do whatever it took to cut out early. Once he was free he'd break into the nearest liquor store and start making up for lost time, but between now and then he'd sit with the sad sacks and get by with a little aftershave. The only thing he wouldn't do was speak at one of the meetings.

Good stories all. I'm terrible. I confess that when I read the title of a story 'The Judicious Brown Chicken', the accompanying image wasn't of a happy hen squawking around the yard. The associated image was of an oven and a roast on the dining table. After reading it, I laughed and went oh dear. Nope, not sharing the content of this story. You might have already guessed...it doesn't end well.