Animal People

by Charlotte Wood

A sharply observed, 24-hour urban love story that follows Stephen Connolly – a character from the bestselling novel The Children – through one of the worst days of his life. The day he has decided to dump his girlfriend.

On a stiflingly hot December day, Stephen has decided it’s time to break up with his girlfriend Fiona. He’s 39, aimless and unfulfilled, he’s without a clue working out how to make his life better. All he has are his instincts – and unfortunately they might just be his downfall . . .

As he makes his way through the pitiless city and the hours of a single day, Stephen must fend off his demanding family, endure another shift of his dead-end job at the zoo (including an excruciating teambuilding event), face up to Fiona’s aggressive ex-husband and the hysteria of a children’s birthday party that goes terribly wrong. As an ordinary day develops into an existential crisis, Stephen begins to understand – perhaps too late – that love is not a trap, and only he can free himself.

Hilarious, tender and heartbreaking, Animal People is a portrait of urban life, a meditation on the conflicted nature of human-animal relationships, and a masterpiece of storytelling.

Animal People invites readers to question the way we think about animals – what makes an ‘animal person’? What value do we, as a society, place on the lives of creatures? Do we brutalise our pets even as we love them? What’s wrong with anthropomorphism anyway? Filled with challenging ideas and shocks of recognition and revelation, Animal People shows a writer of great depth and compassion at work.

Genres: Fiction, Australia, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, 21st Century

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Charlotte Wood is the author of six novels and two books of non-fiction. Her new novel is The Weekend.

Her previous novel, The Natural Way of Things, won the 2016 Stella Prize, the 2016 Indie Book of the Year and Novel of the Year, was joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction.

Her non-fiction works include The Writer’s Room, a collection of interviews with authors about the creative process, and Love & Hunger, a book about cooking. Her features and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Literary Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Saturday Paper among other publications. In 2019 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant services to literature, and was named one of the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence.

Her latest project is a new podcast, The Writer's Room with Charlotte Wood, in which she interviews authors, critics and other artists about the creative process.

Reviews

[Maree Kimberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Animal People is a difficult book to review. Wood is a deft and able writer with an eye for detail that adds light and shade to the mundane, but for me the distance she puts between her protagonist, Stephen, and the reader was a little too much. Its clear this distance was deliberate, that Wood wants the reader to watch him unravel, wants her writing to make you uncomfortable as a reader at times. But I think I never really "got" Stephen. Most of the time I felt like giving him a good slap!
Nevertheless the prose in Animal People is lovely. This is a quiet book. It's not showy and (except for one instance) I felt Wood had total control of the writing at all times. She details the minutae of suburban life with precision. I felt a few of the minor characters lacked depth, particularly in the party scene, but this doesn't detract from the overall quality of the novel.
The ending was pitch perfect, which more than made up for any other small quibbles I have with this book. Recommended for those who enjoy a well-crafted, thoughtful novel.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Animal People by Aussie author Charlotte Wood is a difficult book to review. Beautifully written, the span of the book covers one day in Stephen Connolly’s life – the worst day of his life.

Starting with an unwelcome phone call from his mother, followed by the usual greeting from the neighbour’s dog, Balzac, Stephen could feel it all going wrong. As he fought his way through peak hour traffic in Sydney, in the relentless heat of the Australian summer, he knew he’d be late for work. Taronga Zoo was where he worked, though he disliked animals and was allergic to them as well. But one after another the disasters followed him, crept up on him – there would be no improvement.

His decision to break up with his girlfriend Fiona was a constant on his mind – the children’s birthday party at the end of the day something he wasn’t looking forward to. But would the crisis of fractured families, of tormented minds overwhelm this man who had no idea which direction his life was heading?

Charlotte Wood is an amazing writer – I read The Children some time back and really enjoyed it, then recently read The Natural Way of Things and absolutely loved it. So Animal People was one I had to read and I wasn’t disappointed. This author’s style of writing is different and unusual, but always inspiring. Highly recommended.

[Mish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set in the suburbs of Sydney and it tells of a single day of the life of Stephen. Stephen is a 38 year old odd ball; dislikes animals (yet he works at a zoo), unsure where his career and life is headed, and is socially inapt. Waking up everyday seems to be huge effort for Stephen and he is very distressed. On this particular day, Stephen has decided that he must do something that will turn his life around and give him freedom but in the process hurt the one person that accepts and loves him dearly.

Charlotte Wood is a superb writer and has created a simple story but with a lot of depth, wit and compassion. Her characters are true to life, with flaws and all - I think there is a character here that we all can relate to in our own life. I didn’t warm up to Stephen at the start as he’s not a likable character. But I could see his frustration building up within him throughout the day and the humiliation he had to endure from the people around him that you couldn’t help but to feel sorry for him. I must say the build up at the end did bring me to tears and it took my breath away. I was feeling all that Stephen was feeling - the tension, frustration and emotion just crashing down on him all at once.

This is my first Charlotte Woods book and it definitely won’t be my last. Highly recommend it

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this book very strongly. I really wanted Stephen to be able to have a shower and change out of those pants, to be able to be comfortable in his life, to stop finding himself in such awful, misunderstood (often by himself) corners. To be able to stop and breathe and be OK about being him. Poor Stephen. Sometimes I want a beer and the quiet of an empty room in just the same way. I had to cry on the train while reading the ending. It's perfect.

[Helen King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, surprisingly! I was drawn to it in the first half, but wouldn't say I was loving it - I was reading with a combination of admiration for Charlotte Wood's writing, and cringing for her character. Sometimes someone can be too sensitive to everything (I know) and Stephen in this novel is an extreme example, and why it may be counterproductive. But then, part-way along, the tone changed, and I felt less anxious for him, and more aligned. What a day he, and all that he interacted with, had. I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster. Really amazing. Note - I have read The Children, also by Charlotte Wood, and this almost sits within that story, which is spread over a longer time period. I wonder if my opinion would be different without that background?









Quotes:
From Stephen's mother: 'I don't ask you for much,' she had said this morning, But it was too much. He wished he could properly eradicate her injured voice on the phone. He was so tired, already, of managing his mind, of fending off all the things that must not be allowed to burden his day'.

With the neighbour's dog: 'This mess and agony. It was a life, ending, he marvelled, just as he was beginning to understand. The point of an animal was not for it to love you: it was that you could love it. In all it's otherness, your unbelonging to its kind, it could yet receive 0 boundlessly - your love. He inhaled the dank animal breaths with his own, and he thought of his father, of his mother, how one day soon this dying gaze would be hers, endless and sorrowful. Poor creature ... It was in this abjection, he saw now - his eyes close, face pressed into the dogs's neck - that we were most animal and because of that became most human after all. We are all only hair and bone and stinking breath, and the only thing we can hope for is a fellow creature who will lie beside us in the road and stroke our flanks while we die'.

[Moses Kilolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps I should start by saying the people here in Africa are not animal people. You don't just see a person walking a dog, or petting a rabbit!, out there in the streets of Nairobi, for example. I am not animal person. I love animals, of course. But its about the culture I have grown into, animals are animals, and people are people, if all are well fed life continues. Perhaps I should adopt a puppy, keep him close, and hope I won't be thought 'weird!'

Well, perhaps the most commendable thing about this book is the beauty of the language, how each word seems to have been used just right. Each sentence is a joy to read. And at times I'd forget the story and just drift along, admiring the language. This is a story about the way people approach animals as it is about how people need each other through life. Told within a span of 24 hours in the life of man named Stephen, its about his passionless observation of people and their different loves for animals, in the zoo where he works. But all day he plots on damping his girlfriend Fiona under the pretext that he desires to be free. But in the end he realizes that the people in one's life are much more important than some preconceived notion of 'freedom!'

[Anne_MB · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning book from an unbelievable writer! So sharp and observant, funny in places, and with a cracker last few paragraphs that I read over and over, in tears and elated.

[ALPHAreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen is not an ‘animal person’. He’s not a dog-lover or a cat-lover; he is baffled by doggie sweaters and hates the itch of animal fur. At the zoo kiosk where he works Stephen observes the inanity of people cooing and ahhing at caged animals who could care less.

Stephen especially hates his perceived soullessness for not connecting with all creatures’ great and small. He hates that every day in the city he observes the cruelty between human beings – those who ignore The Big Issue sellers, or who sneer at junkies and side-step the homeless. Yet people worship their pets, they give medals to bomb-sniffing dogs and offer triple-digit rewards for lost animals.

Stephen muses on these thoughts throughout one day in a crowded, soulless big city. His head is clogged with disillusionment with the city and his life, because on this day he intends to dump his girlfriend. As Stephen goes through the motions of his crappy job and choking life, receiving phone-calls from his nagging widowed mother and controlling sister, he counts down to the moment when he’ll be free of Fiona.

‘Animal People’ is the new literary fiction release from Australian author Charlotte Wood.

Stephen is a character from Wood’s successful 2007 novel, ‘The Children’ – about a family’s pilgrimage to see their dying father. I haven’t read ‘The Children’, but that didn’t hamper my decadent enjoyment of ‘Animal People’ – a book that is equal parts raw, funny, voyeuristic, unsettling and all together wonderful.

Stephen has an albatross around his neck as he goes about his day. He intends to dump Fiona, his girlfriend who also happens to be the ex-sister-in-law of his sister. In leaving Fiona, Stephen will also be losing her two children, girls Ella and Larry, whom he has affectionately come to think of as his own. As his day drags on Stephen’s increasing paranoia and dread at the impending dumping turns his outlook on life rather bleak. He starts to notice things, like a suspicious plastic-wrapped package lying on the floor of the bus. When he accidentally hits a pedestrian (a junkie that everyone tells him he should drive off on) he remembers again and again her head bouncing on bitumen.

Stephen’s wry observations of life in the big city are disturbingly astute. Throughout the book I was nodding along like a bobblehead, muttering ‘yes!’ under my breath at his hit-the-nail-on-the-head accuracies. Everything he muses on is so affirming and precise. Like the collective pity/relief we feel while sitting on buses and trains when the crazy person (because there’s always a crazy person) picks someone else to latch onto and make uncomfortable with their insane chit-chat.

But the worst thing you never got used to was this: the man beside him now leaned suddenly close, making Stephen shut his eyes. You never got used to being trapped into intimacy with the mad.

Stephen’s circling observations about ‘animal people’ and various dog/cat/ferret lovers are also hotly astute. Through Stephen, Wood points out the ludicrousness of certain pet-centric activities. The most accurate animal observation of Stephen’s though, is his musings on the accused awfulness of those who don’t like animals and don’t actively seek out their company;

Stephen knew he demonstrated some lack of humanity by not being a Dog Person. This seemed unfair. He was not a cat person either. He was not an animal person in the same way he was mot a musical person, or an intellectual person. One was born to these things, like the colour of one’s eyes, or the length of one’s legs. Not to be musical or intellectual was unremarkable and provoked no suspicion. But not to be an animal person somehow meant he wasn’t fully human.

Charlotte Wood’s writing is lulling and affirming. She has a keen eye for society’s inanities and flaws, and her characterizations are luscious and accurate – from our day-long journey with Stephen as we read his unravelling, to the ‘Facebook’ girls he overhears on the bus. Wood writes all of these characters with envious precision, so we piece together Stephen’s puzzle over the day, but in one line of dialogue we have Fiona’s ex-husband all figured out. ‘Animal People’ was a beautiful and poignant novel, and I’m going to make sure it’s not my last Charlotte Wood read.

[Jo Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlotte Wood’s The Children is among my favourite Australian novels: she’s just so good at the dynamics of relationships and minute social observations that give worlds of information about the people and places she captures. Woods’ writing reminds me of Helen Garner’s, in that it’s easy to read, but deceptively so: it’s rich with ideas and absolutely distinctive in its voice.

So, I was pretty excited to receive Animal People, which follows one (monumentally bad) day in the life of middle-aged man-child Stephen, as he prepares to break up with his girlfriend. Stephen was a character in The Children, and others moonlight here too, but you don’t need to have read that novel to thoroughly enjoy this one. This is at once a novel about Stephen, and his relationship with girlfriend Fiona and her two girls; and about urban life, with our relationships with animals (and all the absurdities those relationships often entail) as a recurrent theme.

Stephen works at a zoo kiosk; he is determinedly unambitious and a bit hopeless. He often says the wrong thing in social situations, he unwittingly wears chef’s pants (because they’re comfy), and must duck the exasperated attentions and expectations of his eternally disappointed mother and sister. Yet, he’s an utterly lovable character – gauche and irritating, but big-hearted. The mystery at the core of this novel is why Stephen wants to break up with Fiona: their relationship is imperfect, yes, but it’s also affectionate, genuine and touching. The answer seems to lie in Stephen’s palpably human insecurities.

Animal People may centre on a pending break-up, but it’s a romantic comedy of sorts, with some wonderful observational humour – particularly at the children’s birthday party in the final third of the novel. Thoroughly recommended; it made me laugh and cry. What more could you ask for?

This review was first published at www.readings.com.au.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlotte Wood is an impressive Aussie author. The ANZ LitLovers book group has read and enjoyed discussing both her novels, The Submerged Cathedral and The Children. (See my review of that one at http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200...). Wood is a sharp and witty observer of human frailty, and her mastery of characterisation is superb.

Character is what drives Animal People. Readers of The Children will remember Stephen: he is the loser, the ‘hopeless’ one, the one who dithers about going nowhere. In a dynamic family Stephen was a drifter and he drove his siblings to distraction. Charlotte Wood has made this character and a single day in his so-ordinary life the focus of Animal People. Perhaps contrary to expectation, it works perfectly.

To see the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...

[Leonie Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a wonderful, humane, sensitive book; heartbreaking, deeply pathetic and inspiring. Wood's refusal to judge, just observe compassionately, make her a formidable writer. I felt I knew the places, and to some extent, was the people, she wrote about. Her verbs in particular are just so very good- for instance, the ferret 'wafting' and 'rolling' - make the most inconsequential details memorable.

[Kirstie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlotte Wood is one of my favourite new discoveries - I can't wait to read the rest of her work. Animal People is a gorgeous essay on emotional distance or closeness and how we fear or embrace that - through the lens of the (to the protagonist) unfathomable closeness of some people with animals. It has a lot to say about compassion and unconditionality and builds to a lovely denouement.

[Gail Chilianis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of a single day in the life of Stephen..I was captured by the descriptions and events. I was totally holding my breath during the child's temper tantrum at her birthday party..the volcanic explosion and the aftermath! I feel like re reading this book again some time. Charlotte Wood's earlier novel The Children is in my to read list. .the main character, Stephen, was taken from this book.

[Michelle Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and a half stars. I really loved this book - just a story about a 'real' persons life. With this style of book I often find myself reading and waiting for something 'big' to happen when I wish I could just relax and take more time to appreciate the great writing. I loved the ending!

[Monique Mulligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Precise, thoughtful and subtle.

[Bronwyn Keane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This realistic story makes you sit in comfort and discomfort as an observer of the events portrayed and the relevance to our society and personal lives. It is impossible to stay detached from making connections to ourselves as we witness the unfolding of the protagonist’s day alongside the characters with whom he interacts.

And all throughout the main message is woven carefully and inherently, through example and explicit statement.

[Steve lovell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen is a fine name – in fact, an extremely fine name. It is derived from the Greek 'Stephanos', meaning 'wreath' or 'crown'. Some have interpreted this to mean 'kingly', but a more appropriate 'translation' would possibly be 'encompassing', just as a wreath encompasses the head. In Ancient Greece a wreath was traditionally presented as a reward for victors in contests such as the original Olympics – these being certainly more pure back then than the travesty they are today! As a name Stephen first appeared in Homer's 'Iliad', with St Stephen a martyr of significance in Christian history. Back in the Middle Ages the name was actually pronounced Step-hen. Its shortened form 'Steve' first came accepted in the mid 1800s. Stephen reached its zenith of popularity in the United States in 1951. 1951 was a sensational year for Stephens. After that it began a long decline that continues to this day. In the UK in 1954 it was the nation's third most popular name – today, there, it doesn't even rank in the top 100. There has only been one King Stephen of the English (1135 – 1154) – he did such a mediocre job there's never been another. He embroiled the nation in a long civil war fighting sis Matilda for the right to reign. Much of his time was spent plotting for his son Eustace to succeed him, no doubt hoping for a long line of Stephens and Eustaces – obviously it never happened. There have been a few more King Stephens in European countries. The name also did better at the Vatican with nine Stephens as Pope. Stephen VI was a particularly ghastly character who oversaw one of the grisliest events in papal history. This Stephen had his predeccessor Formosus' rotting nine-month-old corpse dug up, redressed in his papal vestments and seated on the throne so he could be tried. Somehow the corpse hadn't built much of a defence, and Formosus was found guilty of what were likely bogus charges. As punishment, three of Formosus' fingers were cut off (the three fingers on the right hand used to give blessings). The corpse was then stripped of his sacred vestments, dressed as a layman, dragged through the streets and dumped in the Tiber River — where he was finally able to rest in peace. It's a wonder any Stephens followed him. There have been many more Stephens famed in recent times for worthier reasons, but drop the appellation into Google and it takes a while to find any other than 'King' and 'Jobs'.

Charlotte Wood's Stephen, as he appears in 'Animal People,' was no luminary like King or Jobs. He was more akin to the kingly Stephen – that is, significantly mediocre. He didn't deserve the love of his Fiona and knew it, feeling he was a square peg in a round hole – not so much with her and her girls, but certainly with her extended family, her ex and her friends. For this sequel of sorts to 'The Children', Ms Wood takes the 'day in the life' approach, accomplishing that hard ask reasonably successfully. It certainly is an eventful twenty four hours for our anti-hero. The time span is made up of encounters with all sorts of the weird and wonderful. There are deranged neighbours and their pets. There's the spaced out junkie he manages to run over on his way to work. There's Russell, his best mate and possibly Wood's best creation, who betrays him in the end. Then there are the accursed professional development gurus – oh so familiar to me after forty years of excruciating team building PDs. The one our Steve is forced to partake of certainly takes the cake though. Thank She above that I have never had to participate in a 'Coyote Canyon' in cowboy gear. It is also the day of Fiona's precocious daughter's birthday. Stephen is quite fond of both her offspring and very fond of Fiona. – and go figure, Fiona is also very fond of him! Oh, this is also the day he decides to split with Fiona.

At times I felt I was in Moodyland – as in the tele series; at other times it smacked of 'The Slap' – ripper pun, eh! As for its time frame, it is not as successful a novel as Gail Jones' excellent 'Five Bells' – too much occurred for it to be remotely believable. Nobody, with the slightest iota of common sense, could have had such an ogre of a day as the one Steve tried to bat away with grog – with unfortunate consequences.

The book speeds along at a fair crack and I was engaged until the very last page, if not enraptured. I am coming to dislike overly truncated endings. As with several I have read of late, I needed a slower denouement, or at least an epilogue, so I could stay with Mr Mediocrity just a little while longer. As with Tsiolkas ' masterpiece there were some truly odious characters, with Wood milking them for all she was worth – Belinda and Richard come to mind. And I do trust that Balzac survives.

It's a thumbs up from me.

[Brauton Heathwilliams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow Burn novel that follows a painfully average man that really is not spectacular by any regards, the descriptive language that surrounds him and other characters is fantastic and I really appreciated that from the author! The slow burn leads up to a moment of incredibly uncomfortable intensity that has you cringing quite a bit, and finishes off humbly and sweet. While the storyline itself isn't strong it's done purposely because we are following an average day in the life of somebody ordinary. The end of the novel restores a level of respect to the oddities and mundane qualities of people; without turning the main character into someone who has heroically redeemed himself.

I would cite this novel to others as a strong example of powerful character writing, especially if someone who is so painfully average~

Thankyou for the read.

B

[Norlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don't know what to say after reading this book. It definitely isn't your run of the mill 'happy' sort of story, in fact it was pretty depressing.

A look at Stephen's life in a day as he psyches himself up to break up with his girlfriend Fiona. What this book does do is make you feel. You can feel the agony of the 'simpleton' Stephen as he faces different scenarios in this one day. It also makes us think about people and society in general - compared to animals, who by the way might be as similar to us than we really think.

While I was actually struggling to finish this book - yes it was THAT depressing! - it did make me want to find out if and how he managed to give up on his relationship. The ending? I'd like to think that this man with heart was redeemed in the end.

[Kris V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordered this book from the Australian publisher as the US no longer prints it and was interested in learning more about the author as I recently borrowed her latest novel. The language proved to be quite colloquial in that I felt transported and yet found my eyes skimming to get to the end of a sentence. I admire her creating a protagonist who is capable of being empathetic while following his own neurotic path in life. It's an unusual setting and my main question in the end is whether there are any valuable lessons to be learned. Of course, that's rarely the point with art, but as it touches on veganism and animal activism I think it's important that there is that effort, at the very minimum subtextual.

[The Bookshop Umina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Charlotte Wood's writing - she can take very ordinary moments in a day and add real import to them. This novel follows a single day in the life of Stephen - a character from the earlier novel The Children.

Stephen is a difficult and flawed character - he is unhappy in his job and second guessing his relationship, which seems to be the only bright spot in his life. The day that we are witness to is a pivotal one for Stephen, but also one in which many of the incidents are very familiar to us.

This is a cleverly written novel with a wry humor that invites us to look at ourselves and the people we dismiss.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlotte Wood is excellent at crafting rich sentences to bring to life complex scenes and characters. This book is certainly a good example of that, but I found it lacking in story and plot. It focuses on one day in the life of Stephen, from The Children, who is depressed and drifting along in life with no real idea what he's doing, but managing to hurt those he cares about anyway. I thought he was whiny and self-absorbed and not very enjoyable to read about, but at least the book is short and sweet with plenty of excellent writing and thoughtful observations on human nature.

[Teena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a spin-off of "The Children", and is based on Stephen, the character I liked least, so when I started reading Animal People I was a bit disappointed. However, the concept of the whole book happening over one day was appealing and I felt I really got to know the character and to like him, flaws and all. Wood is an excellent author who is obviously very interested in family dynamics and people in general.

[Merrilyn Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - what a lovely book...a day in the life of Stephen..on a journey of discovery as he moves through his day toward what he thinks the culmination will be, but which isn't. A thoroughly enjoyable read. I read the first half of the book over a couple of evenings then finished the second half in one sitting. Highly recommended.

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read only like the 1st quarter but I'm never going to finish it, basically because it's super boring. I hear the ending is really good? Don't care. Be interesting enough at the start so I actually care.

[Bronwyn Rykiert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I put this loosely under family because in actually though most of the story centres around the main character, who is someone I did not like at all. I managed to finish this book but it did not do it for me. I have to admit we had 3 members of our book club who actually did enjoy the book.

[D.M. Cameron]

The power of a great writer. When I started this book, I couldn't relate to Charlotte Wood's protagonist Stephen. To be honest, I didn't particularly like him, but by the end of the book I was crying for him, with quite a few laughs at his expense along the way. All in the course of a day. Wow.

[Min · Rating 1 out of 5]

More like a wankfest of the author's observation than character development. Very flat story.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sequel to The Children, but for some reason Wood focuses on Stephen, the wettest and least interesting of the three. Mandy is now divorced from Chris, no surprise, but Chris marries Belinda, and awful egocentric bullying health naturist vendor. Whereas Chris admired Margaret the mother for not interfering her children’s lives, she now interferes big time in Stephen’s, driving him between love and hate and most avoidance. Cathy is still a vague figure but she too harrasses Chris for his neglect of Margaret. Chris is inexplicably loved by upper middle class Fiona and her two little girls who see Stephen as their Daddy although he rudely refuses to live with Fiona, preferring his scrubby very dirty little place in Norton. This is a bad day in the life of Chris. He hits a junkie with his car, works in a fast food kiosk at a zoo and hates the work, especially scrubbing out rancid fat, which make him stink. In that state he goes to the girls’ fairy party in an upper class suburb, Richard Fiona’s husband appears and bullies everyone especially Stephen. Chris appears with the awful Belinda, who has bullied Chris into subservience. In fact Wood herself goes on and on, heavily sarcastic about many of the characters at the party, that seemed to have no point but for Wood to show how she can create ghastly characters and delight in bagging them (‘she looks about 47…’) . Much skipping here, even though the title signalled these animal people, not animal lovers but animalistic shits, whereas the animals at the zoo and the big Alsatian next door to Stephen are all nice: that’s the switch. Chris feels he is the wrong class for Fiona and runs from the party. He returns home in a surprise ending. You can recognize Wood’s writing here, much vivid detail, strong characters with appropriate dialogue, but it seems to me to be wasted on such an unlovely plot and central character. Stephen has a few redeeming features, but he has appalling judgement, tortures himself with irrelevant thoughts and as Richard said, he sees himself as ‘such a fucking loser’. I’ve ordered more of Wood so I hope she drops this superficial nastiness and goes back to her The Children style.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A great read about one day in the life of Stephen, a 39 year old who works as a washer up at a Sydney zoo cafe. He has had a girlfriend for one year, Fiona, who is a divorcee with two daughters. Stephen gets on with the daughters. During the day he faces many ordinary urban day events, in the shopping centre, in the traffic, on a bus, at a work team-building event and being around people he dislikes. Stephen is in many ways a loner who just wants to be free. He decides he will tell Fiona at the end of the day that he wants to end the relationship. Stephen is a flawed, yet compelling character.

There are lots of descriptions of everyday life. For example, his neighbours dote on their dog, Balzac, but have no time for homeless people. Stephen wanders through a shop full of 'luxury' dog products. He notes that zoo visitors want to believe the animals are noticing them.

It's a short novel, but filled with intelligent comments on ordinary day life. I found it a compelling, engaging read.