Review: Being animalish: a love story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2011
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.