Animalish (Kindle Single) [Kindle Edition]

Susan Orlean (Author)

Book Description

The life and times of a girl who has always loved animals, or how I went from dreaming about Rin Tin Tin to having dogs, cats, chickens, fish, cattle, turkeys, and guinea fowl, with guest appearances by horses, lions, and canaries.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are animal lovers and then there are animal lovers. Susan Orlean is the latter. A longtime New Yorker writer known for her fascination with American culture, she explores yet another of her cultural fascinations in Animalish: pets and their place in our world. Taking a personal approach, she addresses her own obsession with animals (and I don't mean just cats and dogs). In her unique approach--a mixture of literature and nonfiction--Orlean allows her voice to shine through, giving readers an intimate look into one of her great personal passions. Even non-animal lovers will be hard-pressed to not say "aww." --Shirley Hong

Product Details

• File Size: 121 KB
• Print Length: 17 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004USSRIK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,562 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #19 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Humor
  • #41 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Society
  • #49 in Kindle Store > Kindle Singles > Memoirs

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Being animalish: a love story May 19, 2011

By Rett01 TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Even before the woof, meow, cluck, quack, moo and hee-haw grabbed her time and emotional core, Susan Orlean says she was always "animalish." By that she means that throughout her purposeful life animals and a personal relationship with animals has been her style.

In this Amazon Single she uses the literary short form to go on at length about her devotion and symbiosis with all things flying, crawling, hopping, swimming and prancing. You get to read about such things as her New York Moment with someone's pet rabbit named Rover. "Hop, Rover, hop!"

As a kid, Orlean shared her life with a Westie puppy and a butterscotch-colored mouse named Sparky. Off to college, Orlean set out to hook up with a boy whose main attribute would be that he owned a dog. Before that could be arranged she cashed in $300 in unused travelers' checks for an Irish-setter puppy she named Molly.

This essay is an exploration by Orlean on why she or people in general take a fancy to animals. Those animalish types, if they are self aware, understand all too well that they are probably a social minority and that their particular orientation may not be shared by the rest of the world.

Orlean says that for her personally her attraction to all kinds of animals is how she would feel if Martians landed on earth. "I would like to get to know them and befriend them, all the while knowing we are not quite of the same ilk."

She, on the other hand, is of the ilk that when a boyfriend named John surprised her on Valentine's Day by having someone named Rick drop by her Manhattan apartment with his pet lion in tow, she fed the beast a bowl of two raw chickens and then proceeded to stoke its back. Presumably the feline purred in gratitude.

That guy John knew her bent and how to build a bank of animalish good will. She and John married and ended up happy ever after in the country with a full menagerie of critters and creatures. A kid, too.

Orlean thinks that people look to animals for satisfaction because they're funny, companionable and interesting. Also because they have a purpose. Orlean's chickens produce eggs. The dog chases away unwelcome visitors. Cats keep mice away.

But more than anything, Orlean says, animals give a "warm, wonderful, texture" to life. To convey the very humanness of our love and affection for animals is, I suspect, why she wrote the piece. I'm glad she did. A little of the warmth Orlean obviously feels rubbed off on me; as I suspect it will on any reader.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pet Subject May 18, 2011

By Chinmay Hota

Format:Kindle Edition

"Animalish" is the author's progression from animal deprivation to animal indulgence. Susan Orlean always had a special affinity for pets, and she had known it early in her life. But her intense love for animals remained mostly unrequited in her childhood save for an experience with a non-resident cat, which seemed "less like a pet than a representative of some off-site cat charity who was dropping by to pick up our contributions."

Like many girls of her age, Susan also wanted a dog in her childhood, but her mummy was terrified about them and would create a scene when the animal was brought near her. "Consequently we remained dogless, and I suffered."

Now life seems to have come a full circle. Presently she lives with a menagerie of animals, comprising of one dog, three cats, eight chickens, four turkeys, six guinea fowl, one fish and two snow-white ducks. Still more animals are on their way to join her on their 55-acre property close to Taconic Mountains. A real change of fortunes about animals indeed.

The author tries to make sense of her special affinity for animals. Is it because there "have been more creatures in my orbit compared to other people?" She ultimately finds the answer in serendipity: her proclivity to find "higher-than-average tendency to find animals in my path." She beautifully recounts the story of her stumbling into a rabbit owner walking his pet on a "silver leash" on a Manhattan sidewalk, the bubbly pet protesting with regular resistance to hop on.

She has written extensively on the subject of animals, but has decided to publish her essay in Kindle Singles because she did not feel her article was suitable for The New Yorker, where she is a staff writer.

Susan has now chosen an appropriate platform to tell her tale, as the chance of her finding serendipitous readers is much more here.

Chinmay Hota
Author of 'Hits and Misses'

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars I prefer it when Orlean turns her pen on others July 10, 2011

By Debra Hamel TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Susan Orlean's essay on her history with animals is the first Kindle Single I've read. Kindle Singles are short (between 5000 and 30,000 words), reasonably priced pieces that Amazon describes as "compelling ideas expressed at their natural length." Orlean's essay is okay, but I've enjoyed other pieces by her more: I prefer it when she turns her pen on others. She has a wonderful way of entering alien worlds--a grocery store in Jackson Heights, New York, for example, or a trailer park in Portland--and describing them as an outsider. But while Orlean's entry was just middling, after this experience I am quite taken with the Singles format. It's somehow absurdly satisfying to polish off a self-contained piece of prose (that is, not one entry in a collection of essays or short stories) in one sitting.