Customer Reviews

Ętre the Cow

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Parable. Sattire. Existential manifesto. Etre, is a lot of things.

As the book's opening pages tell us, "This is a story about a cow. Or not." The main character, a bull named Etre pastured at Gorwell Farm, is somehow self-aware, "alone in his awareness", and utterly humiliated by the nature of his lowly existence, by his "stinking cowness." And all of this before he realizes the fate of the average cow is destined to be his too.

At the risk of sounding dramatic, I might offer that--as the title suggest--Etre is about everything it means "to be." What DOES it mean?

We all start out as Etres, innocent and curious. And this little book is about the big thing that makes us turn: knowingness; coming to the awareness of what it means to be alive. Too often it means failure, insecurity, and impotence. But then there is beauty. In a child's soft singing. In the way a tiny firefly defies the boundless dark. Beauty even in the blameless brutality of nature, with its own system of economics where "cows feed on the grass and uproot the worms [which] the egrets feed on..."

This existence, between the greener grasses Etre longs for and the slaughterhouse he wants to escape, is OUR existence, and it's what makes "Etre the Cow" hard to define or fence in.

What is not in question is the beauty of the writing, elegant in its simplicity. Think the themes of Keats, Whitman, Camus, written in the prose of Hemingway. I know, I know--it's "a book about a cow." But Kenniff makes Etre real and his struggle meaningful, not so much in spite of the cowtagonist, as because of him.

In the same way that humor makes talking about difficult things a bit more palatable, seeing the world through the eyes of a cow allows the reader to see life as it is, without judgment or sentimentality--at times harsh, at times lovely, always sublime.

Does Etre escape the cow pasture? His destiny? Can any of us? Don't be fooled by Etre's humble voice or the book's modest size. Both are asking bold and worthy questions.

Etre the Cow is a book that makes you ruminate. At first chew, it is a simple tale of a bull in a pasture, doing bullish things and leading a bullish life. One the second chew, the tale's impact becomes deeper, and really makes you think about life, not just for a bull in a pasture, but for humans in our own urban or rural pastures, going about our daily lives. This is a short book, and a relatively quick read, but like other parables (such as Pilgrim's Progress or Animal Farm) the narrative's meaning speaks of issues that are (for lack of a better descriptor) universally human. This is not a simple bucolic tale of a bull wandering around eating grass. It is a deep, dark look into what it means to be at once sentient and propelled by forces beyond one's control. It is at once touching, dramatic, disturbing and even hopeful. This book belongs on the shelf of any thinking person with a heart that sometimes yearns for more.

"The more we know, the greater our woe." It is what many of us have probably thought to ourselves at one time, or another. Our constant worries, our projections into the future, our 'what if's'...our very real awareness of mortality, can cause us great distress. Meet Etre, a bull cow who has, through some strange quirk, developed an awareness that goes well beyond instinct and rote learning.

Etre, sadly, lives in shame of his very existence, for he is not like the humans he sees every day...he is only a lowly bull. Will Etre always maintain this shame, and will he always keep his deep envy for humankind? Will Etre 'think' his way out of a brutal and horrific demise? This is a marvelous novella that in so many ways parallels the human condition, and questions if we humans are all as superior as we would believe, and whether it is true that "Ignorance is bliss."

Etre the Cow strips language down to its bare bones and wrenches heartfelt, genuine emotion from every word. Etre is all of us, the everyman, stuck in a place that cannot meet his expectations, blessed with a mind capable of dreaming up fantastic heights, and cursed with a body and circumstance unable to accommodate such ascension. Kenniff doesn't preach the evils of agro-industrial, because he doesn't have to. The horror is plain for all to see. Kenniff puts Etre's hopes, dreams, and trials on the page, pulling the reader in as the book speeds toward its unexpected and inevitable conclusion. Top-notch work from a skilled author. For kids and grown-ups alike: a lesson without being preachy.

Heart-rendering and lovely. I am recommending the book to every book-lover I know ; so happy Dr. Jane Goodall read and loved it too !

Do you dare to think outside the box, combat the norm, and defy your destiny? Do you? If you don't, it's quite understandable. Ignorance is bliss. And going with the flow is so easy.

Ętre the Cow decided that he would think outside the fence, combat the ranch, and defy the chute. He paid a heavy, heavy price...

I am a big fan of Animal Farm by George Orwell and Chicken Run by Peter Lord. Of course I had to pick up Sean Kenniff's Ętre the Cow.

I finished this novella over the span of three evenings. It is not because it wasn't a page turner, but rather it was too fascinating of a read for me to speed through it. I slowed down on purpose. Things in a cow's world happen slowly. Just imagine grazing on the same ranch day after day, after day ... And to think like cow isn't easy either. You really have to stop and smell the grass. I wanted very much to get to know Ętre, feel his feelings, and know his life as though it was mine.

This is how the book made me feel as soon as I started reading the first line, narrated by Ętre himself. I was so drawn into his world that I started to think and feel like him. It's no wonder that after I put down the book, I was haunted by his dreams and his sacrifices for days.

Ętre the Cow tells the naked truth of one cow's life, which can be mirrored in many ways by our own. Don't worry, it won't make you a vegetarian. It will however, make you think, like you have never thought before...

The author did a fine job weaving a fictional story line into an all too real situation. Wow. I experienced many levels of emotions when reading from tears, to anger, to disbelief, to love, even. I loved it.

There is nothing more terrifying than being completely powerless to alter one's surroundings. "Etre the Cow" is the story of Etre, a sentient bull aware of the world around him. Although he bares a voice, he finds that a voice is worth nothing as everything around him is rigidly determined, as his fellow cows do nothing, and his protests go unheard. "Etre the Cow" is a unique and insightful novel well worth reading and thinking about.

Etre the cow draws you into the mind of this simple animal, while allowing you to view the world through his eyes. His self-awareness, simple awareness of the world and frustration with his part in it provokes an intense emotional experience. This is a small book with a very big impact. I had a complete emotional empathy for this character.
Stepping away slightly from the emotional reaction, there are references to Animal Farm, the story has endless possibilities for metaphorical analysis and discussion. A very impressive little book.

I love Sean Kenniff. He wrote a book earlier called "Mad" which I thought was fantastic for a beginner. If you get a chance you should read it. Service was great. Book was delivered on time. Can't wait for the next novel from the good doctor.