Eating Mammals: Three Novellas
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Book Overview
In the tradition of T. C. Boyle, Steven Millhauser, and Michel Faber -- with a penchant for the macabre worthy of Irvine Welsh -- comes Eating Mammals . Gypsies, businessmen, servants, masters, and unwise children come together in three mythical tales from Victorian England. Eating Mammals evokes a lost time and place in which the realm of the magical seems almost too possible: a winged cat wreaks havoc in a Yorkshire workhouse and then in the minds of a succession of owners; a famed stunt eater introduces his apprentice, Captain Gusto, to the delicate art of devouring anything for a living; a blooming romance between two meat-pie makers leads thirty-two adorned donkeys to the altar. Wholly original and as assured as folklore, Eating Mammals marks the arrival of a very distinctive new voice.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0060591757
ISBN13:9780060591755
Release Date:September 2004
Publisher:Harper Perennial
Length:272 Pages
Weight:0.48 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"
Customer Reviews
4 ratings
It was hilarious--but also sort of gross.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
I bought the book just a few days ago and managed to read it in its entirety in just two days. The writing is excellent--quick-witted and even a little bit tongue-in-cheek at times--and the stories themselves are great. Yes, at times they are quite gross, but, really, the humor outweighs it by a landslide. This book is definitely worth a read.
EEeeewww! (and I mean that in a good way)
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
The three novellas of this book's title are: the title story 'Eating Mammals' which is about a professional eater called Captain Gusto, (kind of like Kobayashi Takeru only he'll literally eat anything), 'The Possession of Thomas-Bessie: a Victorian Melodrama' about a strange cat, born with a pair of small wings (don't worry, it's not in the least cutesy or cat-fancieresque), and finally 'The Donkey Wedding at Gomersal, recounted by an inhabitant of that place' about a rather odd wedding (I'll let you guess what exactly was odd about it). They're all good solid stories, engagingly written, but the title story takes the cake, so to speak. I don't want to spoil it, but one of the last scenes is so perfectly, viscerally, stomach-churningly written that I literally felt sick reading it. Anyone can write a gross-out scene, but this is different, it was kind of a gross-out elevated to the level of art. I recommend this book to all comers (provided they have a strong stomach) and I invite you to check out the author's first full-length novel 'Intoxicated', which I'm eagerly looking forward to reading.
Read it!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
Come on! This is a great, great read. Witty and stylish writing, but warm hearted. read it, y'all! It reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe, but funny and pacier. Cool.
True work of imagination
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
I have only read the first novella in the collection, the one for which the volume is named. As there are no other reviews on this item, I figured what the heck. I picked up this book because it looked totally different from other things I've seen. And it is. I was amazed, flabbergasted, disgusted, and touched. So all in all, you should pick it up and check it out.
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