Reviews
Imagine the Genesis story of Noah carried forward into the future by Philip K. Dick: that might well serve as the basic premise behind Bill Broun's debut novel, Night of the Animals., In prose that employs a variety of British dialects, Broun composes a story that's engaging not only for its strange plot, but for its inventive use of language, too., Night of the Animals is by turns visionary, ironic, satirical and deeply remorseful. The felled woodlands, the erased species, a new Great Extinction--all happen within one long lifetime. It's a rich addition to the literature of lament, viewed with sympathy and longing., Broun's debut is a fascinating work set in a detailed dystopian future...This highly recommended, original tour de force creates a richly imagined realm that evokes Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil while maintaining a sense of wonder., Imaginative, fast-paced, thoughtful, and awash in laser-like imagery, debut novelist Broun's phantasmagorical fable vibrantly blends myth and satire to paint both a cautionary warning about present behavior and a futuristic vision of what the unbridled abuse of nature might unveil., A wonderful doorstop of a book…Broun packs his novel with futuristic invention, Chablis-dry humor and a thick, dreamy nostalgia…a story as wildly moving and singular as an animal's eyes in the dark., Through precise and eloquent prose and a hint of political satire, Broun creates a near future filled with bioelectric technology and characters with patois as diverse as their desires. Broun's novel is strange, witty, and engrossing, skipping through madness and into the realm of myth., Floating aimlessly, in and out of Cuthbert's questionable rationale and disengaged touch with reality, Broun follows the adventures of one man who is both tormented and encouraged by ghosts of his past, and of a mysterious ideology surrounding the spirit of the imprisoned animals that seeks to be free., Night of The Animals is the most beautiful, strange new novel I have read in years, and its obese, mentally ill, elderly protagonist is among the most engaging of heroes. The existence of this book in the present moment is a wonderment., It's an Orwellian, mystical affair with a peppering of environmental morality, but more than anything it's a wild, weird ride.
