The God of Animals: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: reining class, front pasture, round pen, Sheila Altman, Toy Boy, Polly Cain (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Significant Seven Spotlight Title, March 2007: Aryn Kyle's haunting coming-of-age novel is the kind of book that you want to share with everyone you know. Twelve-year-old Alice Winston is growing up fast on her father's run-down horse ranch--coping with the death of a classmate and the absence of her older sister (who ran off with a rodeo cowboy), trying to understand her depressed and bedridden mother, and attempting to earn the love and admiration of her reticent, weary father. Lyrical, powerful, and unforgettable, The God of Animals is our must-read, must-own, must-share book for March. --Daphne Durham

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Amazon.com
With the sure hand of a seasoned writer, Aryn Kyle has crafted a brilliant debut with her novel, The God of Animals. Alice Winston, living on the family horse ranch, a marginal enterprise in Desert Valley, Colorado, is a 12-year-old girl with more than she can handle and no one to help her cope. Polly, a classmate of hers, drowned in the nearby canal and was carried out by Alice's father, Joe, a member of the volunteer posse. Her older sister, 16-year-old Nona, eloped with a rodeo cowboy. Her mother never leaves her bedroom, a case of clinical depression. "My mother had spent nearly my whole life in her bedroom... Nona said that one day, while I was still a baby, our mother had handed me to her, said she was tired, and gone upstairs to rest. She never came back down."

Joe has little time for Alice, other than counting on her to muck out the stalls and be polite to the paying customers. He doesn't even notice that she has outgrown her clothes. What Kyle does with this scenario is never predictable or clichéd. She writes beautifully of landscapes, interior and exterior, ravaged by extremes: the hottest summer in years, followed by a deluge; a lonely, isolated girl reaching out to a teacher, Mr. Delmar, equally alienated.

Alice starts telling lies, weaving bits and pieces of other people's lives into the tales she tells the teacher. What we eventually find out about her family is more poignant and tragic than anything she can make up. Horse lore is a large part of what explains each of the people in the novel: separating mares from their foals, the way a stud is treated, breaking a horse, ordinary everyday contact. This bond is explored in depth and each person: Alice, Nona, Joe, Joe's father, Alice's mother, is affected by this closeness in a different, unique way, revelatory of each individual's character. Much more than a coming-of-age tale, Kyle told a story of compromises and dreams that will never come true. --Valerie Ryan

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10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Aryn Kyle

Q: In 2004, your short story "Foaling Season," the first chapter of The God of Animals, won a National Magazine Award for Fiction for The Atlantic Monthly. Did you have the idea for your book at the time you wrote the short story, or did the novel develop over time?
A: Three years passed between the time that I finished the short story and the time I returned to expand it into a novel. I was always interested in the characters and in the town which the story takes place, but after the story was published, I assumed I was done with them. In the aftermath of graduate school and a failed attempt at another novel, I found myself living back in my hometown of Grand Junction, Colorado, the town that Desert Valley is loosely based upon. More and more, I caught myself thinking about Alice again. I was interested in how the town had changed over the years, in the way that a tide of money and commercial culture was displacing the old families and the old ways. But mostly, I was interested in Alice's family, and in Alice's struggle to make a place for herself in a world that seems to have no place for her. The short story ended before she could really make any headway. I became curious as to where she might go and who she might become if the events of the story continued into the wider space of a novel. The story of The God of Animals starts with Chapter One, but I've always felt that the novel really starts with the second chapter.

Q: How much of your adolescence and personal experience are incorporated into your novel? Like Alice, did you ride horses growing up in Colorado?
A: Lots? None? This is a tricky question to answer. As far as lifestyle and experience, my own adolescence could not have been more different from Alice's. I didn't grow up on a ranch; didn't have a sister; my mother got out of bed and went to work every day. But adolescence is adolescence. Like Alice, I certainly know about loneliness, about longing, about regret, and about the confusion of trying to live in the world without really understanding it. Though, if I were going to be perfectly honest, I would have to admit that these are all things I found myself working through in my twenties, rather than in my teens. I did take riding lessons when I was about Alice's age, and I competed in a few local horse shows. It was such a different world from the one I'd grown up in, and though I gave it up when I started high school, I guess it made a pretty big impression on me.

Q: How did you think of the title?
A: The title didn't come to me until I'd finished the book. I was starting to panic a bit, figuring that no one would be too interested in publishing a book called Novel, which is what I'd named the file on my computer. So I did the only thing I could think of--I frantically thumbed through the pages of the draft waiting for something to pop out at me. I reread the scene between Alice and Mr. Delmar where they discuss God and spirituality. Something about that scene seemed to encapsulate some of the greater themes of the novel, the uncertainty Alice has about the world, her desire to believe in something larger than herself, her fears regarding isolation and loneliness.

Q: Do you have another novel in the works?
A: Lately, I've been working mainly on short stories. It's kind of hard for me to spend so much time working on one project, then dive into another. I've needed the time to get Alice's voice out of my head before I commit to another novel. But I do have a second novel underway--I'm superstitious, though, and it seems like bad luck to talk about something while its still in the works. Mostly, my writing starts with the characters, with understanding their flaws and their desires. Plot, for me, seems to come later, after I know what my characters want, and what they're willing to sacrifice to get it.

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Aryn Kyle's Favorite Coming-of-Age Novels

Housekeeping

That Night

Thumbsucker

Ghostworld

Atonement

See all 10 of Aryn Kyle's favorite coming-of-age novels (with commentary)

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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Horses and lost love propel this confident debut novel about Alice Winston, a 12-year-old loner with family troubles in Desert Valley, Colo. Her mother hasn't left her bed since Alice was a baby; her father struggles to keep their horse ranch solvent; and her beautiful older sister, Nona, has eloped with a rodeo cowboy. Alice resists befriending the rich girl who takes riding lessons from her father, becomes obsessed with a classmate who drowns in a nearby canal and entangles herself with adults whose motives are suspect. Kyle imbues her protagonist with a genuine adolescent voice, but for all its fluidity, her prose lacks punch, and too often, somber descriptions of Colorado's weather and landscape are called upon to underscore themes of human isolation, jealousy and pain ("Tomorrow, the sun would rise and deaden the land beneath its indifference"). The coupling of female adolescence with the stark West produces its share of harsh truths, though Kyle overstates the moral: love hurts, it's a dangerous world and the truth is hard to swallow. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

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Product Details Paperback: 305 pages Publisher: Scribner (January 1, 2007) Language: English ISBN-10: 1416533257 ISBN-13: 978-1416533252 Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,095 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
reining class, front pasture, round pen

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sheila Altman, Toy Boy, Polly Cain, Tlic Cod, Bud Pope, Yellow Cap, Janice Reardon, Patty Jo, Alice Winston, Tlic God, Colleen Murphy, Jesus Christ, Desert Valley, Thc God, Valerie Hayes, Old Men, Zach Pope, Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley, Posse Grounds, The God, Joe Winston

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Customer Reviews

126 Reviews 5 star:  (48) 4 star:  (32) 3 star:  (20) 2 star:  (12) 1 star:  (14)           Average Customer Review 3.7 out of 5 stars (126 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 62 of 68 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Debut Coming of Age Novel, June 20, 2007 By  Tamela Mccann "taminator1" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)       This review is from: The God of Animals: A Novel (Hardcover) Young Alice Winston is the endearing narrator of this coming of age debut novel, The God of Animals. Alice has seen a lot of disappointment and despair in her young life: her mother is basically an emotional cripple, refusing to leave her bedroom; her father is a pie-in-the-sky horse businessman, always looking for his big break but refusing to deal with his financial problems; her older sister, Nona, has escaped the drudgery of running the horse farm by running off with a rodeo cowboy. Alice finds herself as the destined one to help save the farm, but it's clear that she, too, longs to escape, and when the tragic death of a local girl entwines itself into her life, Alice uses the event as a springboard to a relationship with her male English teacher. The theme of loneliness pervades this novel and Alice is indeed a heart-wrenching character. As a mother, I simply wanted to reach through the pages and enfold her; she deserved so much more than being caught up in keeping her father's dream alive while standing on the edges of the world swirling around her. I could feel her thought processes clearly and understand them well. However, Alice seems to be one of only perhaps two or three sympathetic characters in the entire novel. Perhaps life is really like that, but the relentlessness with which the author introduces flawed characters makes this a bleak story with very little hope for poor Alice. If indeed one adult in her life had been upstanding and sensitive to her needs beyond what it might earn for them, Alice might have not felt the need to turn to inappropriate measures for attention and validation. This is a good debut novel. Kyle makes her characters and setting come alive and keeps the pages turning. The only thing missing is a sense of hope, at least through 99% of this well-written novel. My own imagination will have to supply the ending I want for Alice...and that is probably what the author intended all along. Recommended. 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Unflinching, powerful, honest -- achingly beautiful, February 3, 2008 By  B. Case "InquiringMind" (Redondo Beach, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)       This review is from: The God of Animals: A Novel (Hardcover) "God of Animals," by Aryn Kyle, is an unflinching, powerful, honest, and achingly beautiful coming-of-age tale set in the American West. The period is most likely the mid-1970s--a time before computers, the Internet, cell-phones, satellite T.V., and antidepressant medications. The story is told entirely from the point of view of Alice Winston, a lonely twelve-year-old growing up on an aging horse ranch in Desert Valley, Colorado. There are two transitions that take place over the course of the novel: one involves the ranch moving in a new direction, and the other involves Alice growing into adolescence. Both are wrought with difficulty and pain. The ranch has been in the family for three generation, but it's fallen on hard times and may not survive. Rich suburbs are taking root everywhere and the ranchers must adapt or fail. The days of proud horse breeding are over. The new business is catering to the needs of wealthy suburban horse lovers. It's the direction and reality of modern life. There is nothing they can do to halt it. Alice's transition into adolescence is just as inevitable and wrenching, but there's a twist. At twelve, Alice is already an adult. It's primarily Alice's body that's undergoing change, but naturally the bodily changes induce a flood of emotional and psychological changes as well. It is these that Alice has difficulty understanding, and there is no one in her life to help. Alice's mother is clinically depressed--she's barely left her bedroom since Alice was a baby. Once a star horsewoman, now she is a mental invalid incapable of parenting Alice in any meaningful way. Alice's father, Joe, is overwhelmed keeping his business afloat, and is blind to his daughter's emotional needs. He fails his daughter at every turn. Alice has had to parent herself--in almost every way, she is mature beyond her years. Alice's older sister is gone. She ran away a year ago to marry a cowboy. Alice has no friends--she's different, isolated, not like the other primarily suburban girls that populate her school. Adding to her emotional anguish, a classmate recently drowned. It's a difficult time, and Alice feels isolated, alone, adrift, and abandoned. Alice's father, Joe, treats her like an adult ranch hand. When she's not at school, she's expected to do a man's work. Joe is a rough unsentimental realist, and is obviously trying to raise Alice in the same mold. But Alice is having a hard time remaining unsentimental. Unlike her father, she is acutely aware of the emotional side of life, particularly the emotional needs of animals. She looks at their suffering and feels that the world is as blind to their needs as it is to hers. With practiced detachment, she takes in all the everyday cruelty and abuse that often forms the foundation of ranching. Outwardly, she does not flinch, but inwardly she rails against it. Alice knows all too well that the world can be cruel and unforgiving. Two adults eventually enter Alice's life and offer her some degree of emotional support. Unfortunately, she finds out that both are merely using her to achieve their own private agendas. This is a simple story about everyday realities. I loved both the human and animal characters, as well as the rich acceptance of reality that underscore this humane novel. I also loved the author's fresh, powerful prose. Don't read this novel if you are looking for a strong compelling story leading to a definite conclusion. This is not that type of novel. This is a subtle, unflinchingly honest view of life in all its complexity. It is a book about coming to terms with the reality of human isolation and cruelty. It's about making peace with the dark core of humanity. My eyes brimmed with tears when I finished this novel--not with sadness, but with acceptance and truth. 26 of 31 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Highly recommended, March 19, 2007 By  AvrilSM (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews This review is from: The God of Animals: A Novel (Hardcover) Everyone has that special shortlist of novels that they consider their favorites. They're not just good books or enjoyable reads, they are the BEST books--the ones you can't stop reading whilst also dreading that you are going to reach the last page. The ones you recommend again and again. THE GOD OF ANIMALS is now on my list. Set in present-day Colorado and featuring some of the truest characters I've read in a long time, this novel is full of subtly powerful scenes. I should have been working (and later sleeping) but I just couldn't stop reading. Aryn Kyle is an extraordinarly gifted and perceptive writer and storyteller, and I loved every word of this book. Highly recommended.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible! This was a very disappointing book. I have the unabridged audio CD - Lily Rabe's monotone voice made it even worse. Not a good read for an animal lover that's for sure. Published 1 month ago by M. Moore 2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed I was disappointed with this book because it never went anywhere. I felt there was not climax nor resolution. It was very depressing. Published 2 months ago by K. Nest 2.0 out of 5 stars Depressing and Inaccurate At the end of the book I felt as depressed as Alice's mother. I don't know why to be "realistic," books have to portray nothing but negativity. Read more Published 2 months ago by Blessedbybooks 5.0 out of 5 stars From Chicago Kyle has a true gift. Her first novel, The God of Animals, is entertaining from cover to cover, I found more time to read in one week than I had all summer. Read more Published 2 months ago by Monique T. Rub 5.0 out of 5 stars Good services, didn't care for the book I am reviewing the service by the vendor, and the quality of the process, not the book (which I didn't care for). What an amazing value! Read more Published 3 months ago by R. A. Buley Neumar 5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely first novel This is a lovely first novel--a coming of age story about 12-year-old girl, Alice, who lives on a horse ranch in Western Colorado. Read more Published 4 months ago by Mikka Blue 2.0 out of 5 stars Just Okay I didn't have a problem getting into this book but I just didn't LOVE it. I think there are so many great books out there, that reading something that I didn't love makes me a... Read more Published 5 months ago by Katie A. Kleven 2.0 out of 5 stars sad story! If you are looking for a book with a happy ending, or even a happy begining or middle, don't read this book. It's a real downer! Published 5 months ago by Tara Saunders 4.0 out of 5 stars hard-luck coming-of-age story Alice Winston is twelve years old, her shop class partner Polly has died, her teenage sister has run off and married a rodeo rider, and her mother has rarely gotten out of bed... Read more Published 6 months ago by Patti 4.0 out of 5 stars The inaccuracies are a relief. The worst part of the coming-of-age story is never the inevitable sexual violence or betrayal, or the crumbling of an admired parent before the eyes of the main character. Read more Published 6 months ago by Just_Karen Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416533257
• ISBN-13: 978-1416533252
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,095 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Debut Coming of Age Novel, June 20, 2007

By	Tamela Mccann "taminator1" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The God of Animals: A Novel (Hardcover)

Young Alice Winston is the endearing narrator of this coming of age debut novel, The God of Animals. Alice has seen a lot of disappointment and despair in her young life: her mother is basically an emotional cripple, refusing to leave her bedroom; her father is a pie-in-the-sky horse businessman, always looking for his big break but refusing to deal with his financial problems; her older sister, Nona, has escaped the drudgery of running the horse farm by running off with a rodeo cowboy. Alice finds herself as the destined one to help save the farm, but it's clear that she, too, longs to escape, and when the tragic death of a local girl entwines itself into her life, Alice uses the event as a springboard to a relationship with her male English teacher.

The theme of loneliness pervades this novel and Alice is indeed a heart-wrenching character. As a mother, I simply wanted to reach through the pages and enfold her; she deserved so much more than being caught up in keeping her father's dream alive while standing on the edges of the world swirling around her. I could feel her thought processes clearly and understand them well. However, Alice seems to be one of only perhaps two or three sympathetic characters in the entire novel. Perhaps life is really like that, but the relentlessness with which the author introduces flawed characters makes this a bleak story with very little hope for poor Alice. If indeed one adult in her life had been upstanding and sensitive to her needs beyond what it might earn for them, Alice might have not felt the need to turn to inappropriate measures for attention and validation.

This is a good debut novel. Kyle makes her characters and setting come alive and keeps the pages turning. The only thing missing is a sense of hope, at least through 99% of this well-written novel. My own imagination will have to supply the ending I want for Alice...and that is probably what the author intended all along. Recommended.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unflinching, powerful, honest -- achingly beautiful, February 3, 2008

By	B. Case "InquiringMind" (Redondo Beach, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The God of Animals: A Novel (Hardcover)

"God of Animals," by Aryn Kyle, is an unflinching, powerful, honest, and achingly beautiful coming-of-age tale set in the American West. The period is most likely the mid-1970s--a time before computers, the Internet, cell-phones, satellite T.V., and antidepressant medications. The story is told entirely from the point of view of Alice Winston, a lonely twelve-year-old growing up on an aging horse ranch in Desert Valley, Colorado. There are two transitions that take place over the course of the novel: one involves the ranch moving in a new direction, and the other involves Alice growing into adolescence. Both are wrought with difficulty and pain.

The ranch has been in the family for three generation, but it's fallen on hard times and may not survive. Rich suburbs are taking root everywhere and the ranchers must adapt or fail. The days of proud horse breeding are over. The new business is catering to the needs of wealthy suburban horse lovers. It's the direction and reality of modern life. There is nothing they can do to halt it.

Alice's transition into adolescence is just as inevitable and wrenching, but there's a twist. At twelve, Alice is already an adult. It's primarily Alice's body that's undergoing change, but naturally the bodily changes induce a flood of emotional and psychological changes as well. It is these that Alice has difficulty understanding, and there is no one in her life to help. Alice's mother is clinically depressed--she's barely left her bedroom since Alice was a baby. Once a star horsewoman, now she is a mental invalid incapable of parenting Alice in any meaningful way. Alice's father, Joe, is overwhelmed keeping his business afloat, and is blind to his daughter's emotional needs. He fails his daughter at every turn. Alice has had to parent herself--in almost every way, she is mature beyond her years. Alice's older sister is gone. She ran away a year ago to marry a cowboy. Alice has no friends--she's different, isolated, not like the other primarily suburban girls that populate her school. Adding to her emotional anguish, a classmate recently drowned. It's a difficult time, and Alice feels isolated, alone, adrift, and abandoned.

Alice's father, Joe, treats her like an adult ranch hand. When she's not at school, she's expected to do a man's work. Joe is a rough unsentimental realist, and is obviously trying to raise Alice in the same mold. But Alice is having a hard time remaining unsentimental. Unlike her father, she is acutely aware of the emotional side of life, particularly the emotional needs of animals. She looks at their suffering and feels that the world is as blind to their needs as it is to hers. With practiced detachment, she takes in all the everyday cruelty and abuse that often forms the foundation of ranching. Outwardly, she does not flinch, but inwardly she rails against it. Alice knows all too well that the world can be cruel and unforgiving.

Two adults eventually enter Alice's life and offer her some degree of emotional support. Unfortunately, she finds out that both are merely using her to achieve their own private agendas.

This is a simple story about everyday realities. I loved both the human and animal characters, as well as the rich acceptance of reality that underscore this humane novel. I also loved the author's fresh, powerful prose.

Don't read this novel if you are looking for a strong compelling story leading to a definite conclusion. This is not that type of novel. This is a subtle, unflinchingly honest view of life in all its complexity. It is a book about coming to terms with the reality of human isolation and cruelty. It's about making peace with the dark core of humanity.

My eyes brimmed with tears when I finished this novel--not with sadness, but with acceptance and truth.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Highly recommended, March 19, 2007

By	AvrilSM (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The God of Animals: A Novel (Hardcover)

Everyone has that special shortlist of novels that they consider their favorites. They're not just good books or enjoyable reads, they are the BEST books--the ones you can't stop reading whilst also dreading that you are going to reach the last page. The ones you recommend again and again. THE GOD OF ANIMALS is now on my list. Set in present-day Colorado and featuring some of the truest characters I've read in a long time, this novel is full of subtly powerful scenes. I should have been working (and later sleeping) but I just couldn't stop reading. Aryn Kyle is an extraordinarly gifted and perceptive writer and storyteller, and I loved every word of this book. Highly recommended.