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Jan 12, 2012

Lou rated it:

Three brothers three musketeers mixed race. They talk of their experiences and coming of age, their embarrassments, their fears, their joys and pain. Life in it's truest forms no fake facades, fairy tale stories. Souls that try to survive and be happy against the odds against prejudices and the concrete jungle. The family ups and downs father drinking, father hitting on ma, mum and dad just plain in love. The joys of brotherhood makes you want to be young again surrounded by siblings.
This More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2011

Newengland rated it:

We the Animals is about three "half-breed" brothers being brought up in Brooklyn by a Puerto Rican dad and a white mother. Why animals, you ask? As one might expect in these dysfunctional-families-equal-sales times, "Paps" likes to beat the ever living purgatory out of "Ma" and occasionally, for good measure, out of his little hellions, too. At the novella's (talking 125 pp., folks) start, the narrator son is, at age 7, the youngest, and the three amigos are sepa More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Oct 15, 2011

switterbug (Betsey) rated it:

I usually find something to commend on most every book I read, some aspect that strikes the right note. Sadly, this is one of two books I’ve read (to completion) in the past five years(that was hailed and cooed by the titans of publishing)that I thought was trash. This unimpressive debut generated out-of-the-gate praise because of politics, a pretense of social importance. The racial theme, the gay theme. As stereotypical as it is, it is surprisingly anointed. I have to wonder who is praising? More...

17 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2012

Ivan rated it:

A boys growing up in a abusive house. Arresting language and harrowing situations. To some small degree this was my childhood; it hurt reading it. I could identify with the perpetual anticipation of explosive verbal, emotional and physical attacks. These are people I know and lived with and coped with and loved and feared. Add that this is the story of a gay boy, and it become all too real. Reading this was like watching "Boys Don't Cry" - too real. Don't want to go back; don't More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2011

wally rated it:

this is a shorter story...125 pages a reviewer or two has said...i read it in a few hours...2-3+

the story told from the perspective of what we learn is a 7-year-old boy...(he has a birthday and his mother wants him to stay six...six plus one year, six plus two...whatever.

a strange family, strange in that the father either one dry humps the mother in the bathroom, her ass on the white porcelain sink, her back pressed into the faucet and mirror, or he focks her dearly while the More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

John rated it:

This is a real, though flawed, masterpiece. Though the author and publisher market it as a novel, except in a loose sense, this classification does not fully fit. The book, in fact, is remarkable for how it is genre-bending----maybe an epic string of prose-poems. The care used in choice of words and choice of incidents recounted is masterfully poetic.
The book is also masterful in its depth of humanity and in its right-on exploration of human experience not usually explored in serious li More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2011

Lisa rated it:

I feel like people look at small books, especially in hardcover, and pass as they think it will be nothing more than a silly little trifle. Something too quick, too insubstantial and too expensive to invest in. We the Animals might be the antidote to that sort of (silly, limited) thinking. And as a person who doesn't always love poetic/not terribly linear prose, Torres also served as a kind of antidote to my own (silly, limited) thinking.

I'm not sure just how I feel yet, having fini More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2011

Isa rated it:

This book was sitting in the pile of galleys up to my knees. It was among the books I handed over to my best friend to borrow and hopefully never return... When she saw it she told me "I think you better keep this one, it looks like something you might like."

OH BOY

This is a BEAUTIFUL, dark, funny, shocking book. It's like a Peurto Rican Catcher in the Rye if you will. Written like a series of connected, yet stand alone short stories it's one of those literary re More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

Lauren rated it:

We the Animals is a unique, beautiful, and truly disturbing portrait of a troubled family. I can't think of another novel that so convincingly depicts the desperation and insanity of abusive relationships. The family unit functions as a single wild entity, each family member unable to define himself outside of these relationships.

I was completely entranced by the undulating family dynamic (all the shifts are subtle and masterful) until the jarring ending. The narrator isn't drawn More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2012

Diane rated it:

We the Animals is a coming-of-age story about (3) young brothers of mixed-race parents, growing up in a poor, and abusive home in upstate New York. It's one of those rare stories that was just so well written, it is sure to stay with me for a long while. Unabridged on just (3) cds, or under (150) pages in print, this story packs a punch.

The story is narrated by the youngest brother, just 7, whose name is never revealed, a boy who seems to adore his older brothers just 9, and 10, More...

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Feb 17, 2012

M rated it:

Growing up is never easy, especially in Justin Torres's novella We the Animals. Three brothers, Manny, Joel, and our unnamed protagonist, are growing up in a poor Puerto Rican household in Brooklyn. Their mother works night shifts at a brewery, attempting to feed her young sons. Their father, Paps, is keeper of the heritage; he also seems to lead a very odd lifestyle that includes long disappearances, strange jobs, and less-than-stellar decisions. The book follows the protagonist as the boys fig More...

0 comments like

Feb 05, 2012

Sara rated it:

I sat down and read this little number in one go, which I think worked for this book until the ending. The flow was effortless until "The Night I am Made", which may or may not have been intentional on Torres' part, I have no idea.

What to say about this book. I can understand the hype. I don't know if I agree with the hype, but I understand it. Torres' writing is lyrical and quite lovely. It did evoke emotions from me, though mostly feelings of disgust, distaste and distres More...

0 comments like

Jan 25, 2012

Bennett rated it:

Grade: C+

L/C Ratio: 80/20
(This means I estimate the author devoted 80% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 20% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Dysfunctional family relationships
30% - Reality of poverty
20% - Coming of age
10% - Brotherhood bonding

I imagine there is an early draft of We The Animals that is a little more captivating and a little more accessible than the fin More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2012

Susan rated it:

“Quiet was as close to happiness as we would ever get”

When I was younger, I had the very naive idea that most families were pretty much like mine. I’m older now, and I no longer think that. Told from the perspective of the youngest son of three sons, We the Animals is the story of a profoundly dysfunctional family. It’s not without joy and not without love, but these people are very messed up. The interracial parents exhibit the kind of passion that is frequently explosive. The More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

James rated it:

This swift, spare Bildungsroman is a portrait of the gay artist as a young Latino. Three brothers--Joel, Manny, and the unnamed narrator--are raised in upstate New York by two Brooklyn expats--a white Mami and a Puerto Rican Paps. Pregnant at fourteen, they went to Texas to get married. The mother works in a brewery, the father as a night watchman (briefly). For most of the novel, the brothers seem to be one character. At times they are described that way--their silhouettes in a window make up a More...

0 comments like

Dec 26, 2011

Denise rated it:

We the Animals is a fierce, gut-wrenching ride through growing up. The three boys alternately cry, battle, and love their way through a childhood dominated by the loud, abusive, and yet close and loving relationship of their parents. Wildly exuberant, the three boys fight their way into adulthood with many missteps and triumphs along the way. In the end the narrator, the youngest boy, will have to step out of the shadow of his family and find his own path.

Wow! A gorgeous, intense, co More...

0 comments like

Dec 19, 2011

Michele rated it:

The writing is beautiful. The brevity is a plus. You can slip in and out of Torres' world in two hours. You may feel as if your skin's been peeled off in strips afterward.

But you still want more.

The prose poem chapters are tiny, deliciously cadent jewels that detail the grotesque and glorious life of a dysfunctional family. There is love within the walls of that house, but never enough and too often it devolves into brutality or push-brooms after it sweeping up the shrapnel o More...

0 comments like

Dec 14, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

this book is still with me today. i can't explain the simplicity of the story arc yet the complexity of it all also.

the protagonist begins his story at age 7. he is growing up in upstate new york with two older brothers and parents that are in their mid-twenties. the oldest son is conceived when his mother is only 14. but that's not the focus of the story.

the focus is how this youngest son is a part of a pack while also being apart from this pack also. it's about finding More...

0 comments like

Dec 10, 2011

Michael rated it:

Pretty damn tremendous.

A lyrical evocation of a strange, violent, impoverished childhood, with the rough edges sanded off by language so that the whole book has the feel of a fever dream. The chapters are each self-contained short stories, more of less, each like a stiff shot of whiskey, each a glimpse of some event in the lives of a poor family growing up in Northern New York a few decades past.

Some readers complain about the language being "over workshopped," bu More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2011

Jukka added it

We the Animals - Justin Torres

Interesting though perhaps somewhat overhyped. (Don't let me stop you from reading this though, it's short and good.)

A coming of age story, the stressful kind, told as a collection of vignettes stitched together, with some dried blood where there should be more of the story. The parts left a mystery, are perhaps too painful to tell, to the extent that this is memoir (the cover says novel) -- and i can respect that.

The language and More...

0 comments like

Nov 13, 2011

Linda added it

I'm going out on limb in stating that once again, in a short period of time, I've read a book that others liked and I didn't. I know many of the reviews both on Library thing and Amazon are wonderfully glowing. Thus, I'm in the minority regarding my perceptions.

The positives: The writing is powerful; the images are strong; the descriptions are vivid.

The negatives: The writing is intense, and perhaps images of extreme poverty and violence are simply not what I enjoy reading a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 28, 2011

Sheila rated it:

Three brothers, the unnamed 7-year-old narrator, Joel, and Manny (both slightly older) .. the three sons to a white mom and a Puerto Rican father who can barely take care of themselves, let alone three sons. As the boys watched their parents through love and war,

Lacking basic care such as food and shelter.... the brothers go about their days wearing hand me down clothes tied with cords, entertaining themselves through make-believe war games, exploring their environment, and trying to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 19, 2011

Mark rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 15, 2011

AG rated it:

Here's a review in keeping with the half-baked animal theme supposedly running through this "novel": this book is horseshit. As both a homosexual and a publishing professional, I am ashamed that this is what is considered laudable queer literature these days. This is an intermittently interesting but preciously overwrought series of writing exercises in that unpleasant, twee, self-fellating "MFA style" we know and hate, haphazardly strung together so it eventually gags on its More...

2 comments like (11 people liked it)

Oct 13, 2011

Jaime rated it:

We the Animals by Justin Torres consists of only 125 pages. While the novel is short on length, it is definitely long on style. We the Animals is Torres' debut novel that takes readers deep into the hearts of a mixed and mixed-up family. Torres is no stranger to the literary world. He received a Rolón Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists and is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His writing has previously appeared in Granta, Tin House, and Glimmer Train. He is More...

0 comments like

Oct 10, 2011

Jo Anne rated it:

Very disappointing. This book did not work. The writing was choppy, disjointed, and incoherent. Sometimes authors do this to seem unconventional and unique having some profound insight that makes them seem worthy of greatness. In reality, they are just bad writers. The subject matter was ripe with stereotypes that were quite offensive. A poor Puerto Rican family filled with abuse, violence, and sex. Parents having sex in front of their three young sons, a mother beat up with two black eyes, pare More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 10, 2011

Rick rated it:

We the Animals is one of the most gripping pieces of fiction I've read in a long time. At just 128 pages it packs quite a punch. When it ended I was sure I must have been missing pages. There had to be more!

This is the story of three brothers raised in a household where dysfunction reigned supreme. With a white mother and a Puerto Rican father, the boys maintain their identity as darker than their mother, but not as dark as their father. This describes their skin color and demeanor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 09, 2011

Melissa rated it:

I chose Justin Torres’ We The Animals mainly because like the novel I’m working on he stated that his narrative had no linear through-line. That it wasn’t plot driven as much as conflict driven, meaning that you turn the pages because of the constant presence of two opposing desires. He’s said that there is no plot.
I am dealing with similar delights and challenges. This story is told in first person from the point of view of one of three brothers. The novel begins fast and choppy. T More...

4 comments like

Sep 12, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

I finished reading the novel this afternoon on my back porch among an extended family of potted plants, looking out on their wild cousins.

It’s a short book and I read it slow. I read a chapter before a meal, a chapter on the bus going into the city, I read a chapter in the morning drinking my cup of coffee. I read it quietly and slowly and during the day.

I didn’t read it at night. I quickly understood that reading this book was the opposite of going to sleep. I knew I wou More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

tina added it

I really like the title of this book. As many probably know, in Spanish poor kids are often refered to "animalitos," both sympathetically and derogatively. By translating these three words as a title, the author conveys the narrator's family, his mixed culture, and his struggle with identity. What's nice is Torres never abandons his theme.
I wouldn't compare this book to Cisneros. While the prose is simple, the substance differs. Cisneros work, as I recall, felt tremendously g More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)