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richardleis's review
5.0
Lydia Millet explores through her shorts stories in the collection Love in Infant Monkeys the harm we cause animals and also the ridiculousness of celebrity. Only one of these stories is outright fantasy; the rest have as their initiating kernel a true story about a person and animals. She crafts from the truth fictions that are both darkly humorous and emotionally wrought. Every story is great and I particularly loved the unexpected transcendence of the animals in "Girl and Giraffe," the unresolved response to the question posed in "Sir Henry," the interweaving dialogues of "Chomsky, Rodents" and the indictment in "Love in Infant Monkeys." The "Walking Bird" that ends the collection is a fairy tale and also a warning about how we treat animals, with a Twilight Zone-like twist that is at once so gentle and easy to miss and also incredibly powerful. The animals in these stories are just as much people as the human characters. They tend to be noble and martyred, but Millet manages to give them more complexity than that, evidence of her level of craft.
mayormccheese's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
ridgewaygirl's review
3.0
Love in Infant Monkeys is a Pulizer Prize shortlisted book of short stories by Lydia Millet. The stories are all very different, yet joined together by the conceit that each story features both an animal and a famous person, with the people ranging from Noam Chomskey (gerbils) and Jimmy Carter (rabbits, of course), to Madonna (pheasants) and a Sharon Stone impersonator (komodo dragons), to Nikola Tesla (pigeons) and Thomas Edison (an elephant). There is an odd, distanced feel to many of the stories, with several being narrated by a third party or presented as a historical report.
The first story in the book, Sexing the Pheasant, was, for me, the weakest of the collection and had me mildly disliking the book for the first half, before Millet finally won me over. The title story benefitted the most from the distant narrative style; without it, the story would simply have been too much to bear reading.
I'm left less that impressed with Lydia Millet's writing, but when I first picked up this book someone told me that this is her weakest collection, so I'm inclined to try her again. The conceit of having each story be about someone famous and an animal is clever, but not clever enough to power an entire book. A few of the stories, such as Jimmy Carter's Rabbit, Love in Infant Monkeys and the final story in the book were very good.
The first story in the book, Sexing the Pheasant, was, for me, the weakest of the collection and had me mildly disliking the book for the first half, before Millet finally won me over. The title story benefitted the most from the distant narrative style; without it, the story would simply have been too much to bear reading.
I'm left less that impressed with Lydia Millet's writing, but when I first picked up this book someone told me that this is her weakest collection, so I'm inclined to try her again. The conceit of having each story be about someone famous and an animal is clever, but not clever enough to power an entire book. A few of the stories, such as Jimmy Carter's Rabbit, Love in Infant Monkeys and the final story in the book were very good.
isabellduh's review
4.0
Unique read! A series of short stories about interactions between celebrities/historical figures and animals. Each story is embellished from a real event.
Light, enjoyable, well-written, made me laugh, and about celebrities and animals. What’s not to like.
Light, enjoyable, well-written, made me laugh, and about celebrities and animals. What’s not to like.
strrygo's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
just so hit or miss, didn't feel cohesive because it's thematically consistent but does not track in its execution across the stories, would have much preferred this if the distance between man and animal was kept consistent, or at least if the changes felt like they offered something, but stories where i wanted more of the animal kept them on the periphery and stories where the life of the person the animal was being attached to felt like it should matter(because otherwise what's the point...) were just mentioned as what seemed like an afterthought, even in the stories i preferred :[ real standout was tesla and wife, i could've read that removed from the context of the collection and still enjoyed it just as much, maybe even more !!
✧ favorite: tesla and wife
✧ favorite: tesla and wife
lauuwz's review
dark
funny
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty
dinahn's review
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
ipoppycat's review
funny
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
sarahreadsaverylot's review
3.0
It was ok. I'm not sure how I feel about her use of 'celebrity', though I can see why it would be popular. Some of the 'animals as innocent victims of violence' scenarios felt a bit trite/forced, but then other times it was incredibly insightful and brimming with feeling. Particularly enjoyable were "Sir Henry" and the title piece. Her simple prose and first person narration sometimes work and sometimes don't, but it's worth checking out, especially if you are an animal lover.