All the Little Animals by Walker Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A tremendous, disturbing little novel about confronting and overcoming fear. In his introduction to this long-overdue rerelease, by Http://www.freightbooks.co.uk, Alan Warner points out that
“Roald Dahl, summing up his favourite books of the year, wrote of it:
I got more pleasure from this slim volume than from all the fat novels of the last twelve months put together.
As, I hope, a soon-to-be-reader of this novel, you may encounter a little Joycean irony ( a character’s name ) hidden within Dahl’s praise.”
I suspect Warner meant not only to point out the play on the character’s name, but indeed his entire ethos. For unnerving as it is, just reading All The Little Animals leaves one feeling lighter, as though unneeded layers have been sliced through and stripped away. Harrowing, raw, poignant, poetic and brimming both with humanity and road kill. I highly recommend a few hours in Bobby’s company. You’ll never forget him.