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Review
The Lives of Animals is a moral argument within a fictional framework. . . . But fiction has the power to disturb and inspire strong emotions, and this book, thoughtfully argued and committed, is certainly a case in point. -- Maren Meinhardt, Times Literary Supplement
[A] beautifully constructed, troubling, provacative book which resonates in the mind and heart long after you've turned the last page. -- Helen Kaye, The Jerusalem Post
If Coetzee . . . were an animal, he would be a fox-quick, aloof and crafty. . . . [A]nimal rights and ethical vegetarianism are natural subjects for him. The debate about them turns on questions of suffering, something to which Coetzee's sensorium is pitched with particular keenness. -- Benjamin Kunkel, The Nation
The audience of the 1997-98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton probably expected South African novelist Coetzee to deliver a pair of formal essays. . . . Instead, he gave his listeners fiction: a philosophical narrative about an imaginary feminist novelist . . . and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College. -- "Publishers Weekly
For Coetzee fans and others interested in the links between philosophy, reason, and the rights of nonhumans. -- "Booklist
Fluent, challenging lectures on the ethics that shape the human-animal relationship. . . . Coetzee takes no prisoners. . . . [An] ethical tinderbox. -- "Kirkus Reviews
An accessible, thought-provoking introduction to the issues surrounding animal rights. -- Adam Lively, The Sunday Telegraph
Coetzee's dense, witty hybrid is very welcome; . . . [he] brings a rich array of themes into play, including the differences between animals and humans, the nature of philosophy and poetry, the purpose of a university, the role of a reason and the emotions in moral deliberation. -- Ben Rogers, Financial Times
The Lives of Animals is a stimulating and worrying book. It is hard to imagine anyone coming away from it without a new perspective on our relation not only to animals but to the natural world in general, and, indeed, to ourselves. -- John Banville, The Irish Times
I found The Lives of Animals a genuinely troubling book. . . . I imagine that Coetzee feels the force of almost all the ideas and emotions that his characters express. He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals. -- Ian Hacking, The New York Review of Books
There is a general message that resonates throughout this novella, and one that I found quite compelling. It is that we often assess our relationships with animals based on whether they have human-like mental status, like rationality or self-consciousness, and if they don't, then we feel justified in using them as objects . . . I found the book deeply disturbing . . . [It] offers a passionate and compelling look at one side of the debate. -- Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature Neuroscience
A little-known but brilliant tour de force. . . . It's the most artful, thoughtful piece of writing I've come across on the subject of animal rights. . . . -- Marni Jackson, The Globe and Mail
[A] beautifully constructed, troubling, provacative book which resonates in the mind and heart long after you've turned the last page. -- Helen Kaye, The Jerusalem Post
If Coetzee . . . were an animal, he would be a fox-quick, aloof and crafty. . . . [A]nimal rights and ethical vegetarianism are natural subjects for him. The debate about them turns on questions of suffering, something to which Coetzee's sensorium is pitched with particular keenness. -- Benjamin Kunkel, The Nation
The audience of the 1997-98 Tanner Lectures at Princeton probably expected South African novelist Coetzee to deliver a pair of formal essays. . . . Instead, he gave his listeners fiction: a philosophical narrative about an imaginary feminist novelist . . . and the lectures she reads at the fictional Appleton College. -- "Publishers Weekly
For Coetzee fans and others interested in the links between philosophy, reason, and the rights of nonhumans. -- "Booklist
Fluent, challenging lectures on the ethics that shape the human-animal relationship. . . . Coetzee takes no prisoners. . . . [An] ethical tinderbox. -- "Kirkus Reviews
An accessible, thought-provoking introduction to the issues surrounding animal rights. -- Adam Lively, The Sunday Telegraph
Coetzee's dense, witty hybrid is very welcome; . . . [he] brings a rich array of themes into play, including the differences between animals and humans, the nature of philosophy and poetry, the purpose of a university, the role of a reason and the emotions in moral deliberation. -- Ben Rogers, Financial Times
The Lives of Animals is a stimulating and worrying book. It is hard to imagine anyone coming away from it without a new perspective on our relation not only to animals but to the natural world in general, and, indeed, to ourselves. -- John Banville, The Irish Times
I found The Lives of Animals a genuinely troubling book. . . . I imagine that Coetzee feels the force of almost all the ideas and emotions that his characters express. He is working and living at the edge of our moral sensibilities about animals. -- Ian Hacking, The New York Review of Books
There is a general message that resonates throughout this novella, and one that I found quite compelling. It is that we often assess our relationships with animals based on whether they have human-like mental status, like rationality or self-consciousness, and if they don't, then we feel justified in using them as objects . . . I found the book deeply disturbing . . . [It] offers a passionate and compelling look at one side of the debate. -- Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature Neuroscience
A little-known but brilliant tour de force. . . . It's the most artful, thoughtful piece of writing I've come across on the subject of animal rights. . . . -- Marni Jackson, The Globe and Mail
Asif A. Ghazanfar, Nature neuroscience
I found the book deeply disturbing. . . . [It] offers a passionate and compelling look at one side of the debate.
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HE IS WAITING at the gate when her flight comes in. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
HE IS WAITING at the gate when her flight comes in. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Powerful . Penetrating . Disturbing . Reading Coetzee is sometimes like walking through a desert strewn with broken bottles and barbed wire . Even so , the result is invariably uplifting and enriching . And so , no less , is The Lives Of Animals , Coetzee's latest work . Couched in the form of fiction , and with a searing compression that resembles Samuel Becketts later prose , Coetzee skilfully probes the complex subject of animal rights . The prose is beautifully clean and lucid , excoriating at times . The vexed question of whether animals have a soul and a conscience and therefore deserve rights on the same footing as humans , is the driving force behind the narrative . Alluding to philosophers such as the currently feted Peter Singer , and poets the novel proceeds in a loosely dialectical fashion and is challenging ,thought-provoking and intensely moving . It is a fascinating accretion on Coetzee's body of masterworks on the nature of power and servility . Enjoyable and educative at the same time .
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the most fantastic books I have ever read. No wonder it won the Booker prize. A brilliant, concise, compassionate, inspirational look at our perception and treatment of other, non-human animals. Quite literally life changing.
3 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Coetzee explores in this work the sentiency of non-human animals in a mostly one-sided way. The argument ranges from the philosophical (can animals reason?) to the controversial (comparing animal slaughter to the gas chambers of the Jewish holocaust).
It seems bizarre dressing up what is actually an ethical dilemma up in fiction especially as the novella is in one part monologue and the other dialogue with very little narrative interruption- this means that Coetzee's personal opinions are hidden on the subject. Although I personally believe a move to defend the rights of animals is a commendable and correct stance to take I feel Coetzee is, in effect, "tricking" the reader through using a fictional setting. The format also debases his work, as people are less likely to take a fictional account as seriously as an essay or lecture.
For what at it tries to achieve TLOA is a success- it moves the reader into questioning the ways in which humans abuse animals. However its short length means these issues are never explored in detail and its main points can be found in most factual books that deal with the subject of animal rights. A few ideas are Coetzee's invention for the purpose of this novel but it is very difficult to understand which ideas he is criticising and which he believes in. There is very little intervention of a plot so there is very little reason to read TLOA for purely literary purposes.
Effectively this is an exercise on animal rights that doesn't add much to the subject and a work of fiction with very little plot or characterisation. For Coetzee fans and those studying animal rights in depth only.
It seems bizarre dressing up what is actually an ethical dilemma up in fiction especially as the novella is in one part monologue and the other dialogue with very little narrative interruption- this means that Coetzee's personal opinions are hidden on the subject. Although I personally believe a move to defend the rights of animals is a commendable and correct stance to take I feel Coetzee is, in effect, "tricking" the reader through using a fictional setting. The format also debases his work, as people are less likely to take a fictional account as seriously as an essay or lecture.
For what at it tries to achieve TLOA is a success- it moves the reader into questioning the ways in which humans abuse animals. However its short length means these issues are never explored in detail and its main points can be found in most factual books that deal with the subject of animal rights. A few ideas are Coetzee's invention for the purpose of this novel but it is very difficult to understand which ideas he is criticising and which he believes in. There is very little intervention of a plot so there is very little reason to read TLOA for purely literary purposes.
Effectively this is an exercise on animal rights that doesn't add much to the subject and a work of fiction with very little plot or characterisation. For Coetzee fans and those studying animal rights in depth only.
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