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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You cannot remain untouched by Animal,
By
This review is from: Animal's People (Paperback)
The central character, who is also the narrator of this story, is the force which gives the novel its incredible emotional power. Animal, so named because his twisted back forces him must walk on all fours, was the victim of a toxic gas leak from a foreign-owned company in the Indian town of Khaufpur. Animal is crass, obsessed with sex and self-interested enough to slip drugs into a love rival's drinks. Despite this he is an earthy, funny, self-aware and thoroughly likeable character and a brutally honest narrator.
It is perhaps not possible for someone who has not lived through such horrors to truly understand what it must be like for those who have, but getting to know Animal allows us to come as close as we are likely to get. Animal's dealings with the foreign `doctress' Elli also give us a window of understanding that opens onto the chasm that divides most readers from Animal's world, not just because we have not experienced the kind of atrocity he has, but because we are affluent and privileged. This is a book about cynical exploitation by big business of the situation in less affluent countries. It is about the corruption that hampers the fight for justice and compensation for the victims and it is about the lack of any true understanding by outsiders of the real plight of those who live in `the kingdom of the poor'. It is also a book which brings all this alive in a very visceral way. Noone could be left untouched after reading this novel.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating,
This review is from: Animal's People: A Novel (Hardcover)
It's rare to come across a book with a truly original voice, but that occurs in Animal's People. The protagonist, Animal, is a brilliant, damaged young man who had survived most of his life by his raw intelligence. Because of this -- because of the harsh environment he has grown up in, the abuse he has suffered, etc. -- it is jarring to hear him speak and think like a "normal" person. And yet he does. Animal, despite his apparent madness at times, is one of the most fully developed HUMAN characters I have seen in a novel.
Beyond the wonder of experiencing Animal, the reader is taken on an adventure through the hells of an insubstantial legal system. Justice is a major theme in the book, but the story leaves the reader wondering just how one is supposed to obtain justice if it cannot be obtained through the courts or the government. Should one resort to violence? Peaceful protests? And at what point should one give up on the search for justice?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A deceptively light serious read !,
This review is from: Animal's People: A Novel (Hardcover)
Indra Sinha's Booker shortlisted novel "Animal's People" takes as its subject the aftermath of a chemical contamination disaster in India that has poisoned, maimed and destroyed whole communities including its self-named central character Animal who due to a deformed back is now reduced to walking like an animal on all fours. Serious issues of government corruption and cover up from inducements offered by unscrupulous multinationals, western perspective of third world realities as seen through the eyes of liberal journalists, etc are dealt with in a vernacular ridden narrative - shades of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" - that reads like a post-apocalyptic comedic nightmare.
The pidgin-like language is initially hard to get into - what a bother to consult the large glossary of hindi words at the back of the book - but you soon get used to it when read fast. Animal's sex deprived sex obsessed psyche is funny and touching to a point but it is the essence of his surviving humanity beneath his deformed shell that draws its sharpest contrast against the rest of normal humanity and their unconscionable acts. Sinha's characters are never less than fascinating - there's the Mother Theresa type figure of the French nun driven mad by the catastrophe, the courageous educated local hero willing to sacrifice his life for justice, the female love interest in a three ( no, make that two and a half) cornered love affair, the romantic musician, and not least of all the righteous doctor from the first world taking up the cause of its victims. The story gallops along nicely until stalled by an overlong clinic boycott episode before quickly regaining pace and building up to a thrilling climax which has each side lined up against the other for a fight to the death. Having said that, the drug induced dream like sequence just before the end is rather confusing and nearly ruined it for me. Sinha tells a serious story but his tone is comic and satirical throughout. Animal's cultural misunderstanding of the significance of a kiss between the western doctor and her visiting husband is a hoot. "Animal's People" is so life affirming and has so many great moments you cannot fail to be charmed by it. A highly recommended read.
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