Animal Farm for the Vietnam War era, told from many different animals' points of view. Dr. Rat, a mentally unbalanced but eloquent lab rat who fancies himself a scientific expert, acts as an apologist for mankind's worst acts against animals--vivisection, experimentation, hunting, and slaughter--by preaching that humans are animals' superiors, that animals don't have souls, that animals have a moral duty to serve humanity as both food and grist for scientific experimentation, and ultimately that Death is the only Freedom for animals.The novel works best when exploring the viewpoints of individual animals around the world as they build toward a global gathering and when using the actions of Dr. Rat and the other animals in the laboratory as broad metaphors for revolution, communism, Nazi-style authoritarianism, brainwashing, mass communication, human slavery, scientific detachment, and warfare. It stumbles, however, in much of its personification of the animals as the author often tries to have it both ways--making animals too much like humans in his attempt to show we are all animals (or all one energy/soul, as the animals seem to believe) or trying to distance them from humans through their vocabularies and observations while still ascribing too many human characteristics or actions to animals that one would not realistically expect of them. This is easy to overlook, though, as the novel reads more like cautionary parable than doomsday prophecy.The only real bright light in this comical but dark book was a tangential story about a music conductor who manages to briefly communicate with whales. The bit about the whalesong in return was absolutely beautiful and ultimately tragic.Some of the book's elements, particularly cultural references, appear dated now and certain abhorrent practices in the book have either been curtailed or heavily protested since the 1970s. Still, I could see this book being enjoyed today by animal lovers of all kinds--so long as they can get past some of the painstakingly vivid descriptions of torture and slaughter that befall many of the animals.
An allegorical account of animal rebellion which is distrubing on multiple levels. It is an account of an uprising told, for the most part, from the perspective of a lab rat whose self-acclaimed lofty position casts his allegiance to the ruling species and its causes.On one level there are obvious symbolic parallels to the Nazi death camps and other situations where absolute control is exercised by one group over another without any sort of accountability. But more disturbing are the descriptions of actual experimental practices which, whether we want to think about it or not, are probably going on in laboratories every day.Enveloping this factual-to-symbolic continuum, the author alludes to the existence of a greater something - an undefined yet pervasive awareness shared by all in the animal kingdom - oh..., except the species that believes itself the master of all others, which appears to be oblivous to that something.
Do You like book Doctor Rat (1997)?
It was a long time ago, but this book really worked for me at the time. A combination of the lunatics taking over the asylum and Stockholm Syndrome, Doctor Rat is convinced that all of the experiments and vivsection taking place in his lab is for the good of mankind and that all of the rats should be grateful for their chance to contribute. All of the experiments are carefully monitored by Doctor Rat to make sure that just enough healthy young animals are put to death in order to justify the enormous research grants used to keep the lab open. Doctor Rat is, of course, only a rat - even if he has been in the lab longer than any of the others. A battle cry for the anti-vivisection movements and animal liberationists worldwide. This book certainly gave me one more reason to stop eating meat.
—Nick
I was really looking forward to reading this book. It won the World Fantasy award and a science fiction novel that took on animal rights as a subject could be bold and provocative reading. However, I was extremely disappointed. The book rests on a single joke, that the scientists are subjecting the animals to brutal experiments and Dr. Rat is trying to justify them to the suffering animals. Even though the book is not long it is far too long for this single joke to sustain it. I was hoping for a complex exploration of the subject with competing points of view. I do not think this novel will convince anybody to think of animal rights in anyway differently.
—Christopher Roberts
Incredible book ...incredibly hard to read, if you have an ounce of empathy for animals ...it's not a long book, but it's taken me a long time to read,each time...When it becomes too much for me, I put it down,then I later remind myself how it's so completely worth finishing ..It's dark,more then a bit insane, & once I read the comparison of Kotzwinkle to William Blake - I had to completely agree..He manages to give realistic voices to animals ..and some of it is horrific - but in a very beautiful way...I'd compare this to Watership Down but the only thing they really have in common is the anthropomorphism. This is an extremely existential book ...it has a variety of narrative styles..and if you don't want to read something that will make you angry,cry,laugh and disgusted by the entire human race & guilty for being a part of it - then you probably shouldn't read Doctor Rat.I've probably said waay too much about it already - but this book *should* be read.. The way they make us study Animal Farm.. ( Another book I could compare this to, strictly because of the humanity of the animals - but I'd say Animal Farm takes the maturity of a 10 year old to grasp - ok..I had an issue with being *forced* to WATCH the Animal Farm movie in my Florida History class. It was just lazy teaching...ok, I've vented about that & now I'll shut up )
—Abisynthe
