Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis recently won a couple of
prestigious literary awards and that book got me thinking about other adult
novels featuring animals as main characters.
As children, we were exposed to several books with non-human
protagonists; Charlotte’s Web, Watership Down, The Wind in the Willows, The
Jungle Books, Black Beauty, The Call of the Wild and White Fang come immediately to mind. As students we read Animal Farm. And who can
forget Archy and Mehitabel, the classic
tale of Archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the cat?
But there
is still adult fiction being written which has animal narrators or animals as
major characters. Here are ten titles from
Schatje’s Shelves; all would be classified as contemporary fiction.
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis features a group of
pet dogs who are suddenly given human intelligence.
Carmen Dog by Carol Emshwiller, about women
turning into animals and animals turning into women, is a feminist satire of
gender roles.
The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy is a classic quest
story featuring a herd of elephants.
A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam is narrated from
the dual perspectives of a family that has adopted a chimp and a group of
chimpanzees in a research institute.
The Bees by Laline
Paull has a sanitation worker bee as its narrator.
Shakespeare's Dog by Leon Rooke is the story of
William Shakespeare’s relationship with Anne Hathaway as narrated by his dog.
Firmin: Adventures of
a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage is about the coming-of-age of a well-read rat living in
the basement of an old bookshop in 1960s Boston.
The Art of Racing in
the Rain by
Garth Stein features Enzo, a lab terrier mix, as a narrator. In his twilight years, Enzo thinks back on
his life with a race car driver and reflects on all he has learned about the
human condition.
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann is a mystery with a
flock of sheep as the detectives.
A Night in the
Lonesome October
by Roger Zelazny is narrated by Snuff, dog-companion to Jack the Ripper.
In the same
vein, CBC recently came out with this list:
http://www.cbc.ca/books/2015/11/10-canadian-novels-to-read-if-you-love-animals.html.
Suggestions
for other titles in this sub-genre?
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