We the Animals

Apr 10, 2012 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: october-reading

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 story...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Newengland rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-in-2011

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 separated by three years.

This fact ca...more 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 separated by three years.

This fact carries some weight, considering the voice of the book. It is, for a first-person plural ("we" as in the boys collectively) which transitions to a first-person singular ("I" as in the youngest son) point of view, quite sophisticated. TOO sophisticated. Author Justin Torres might take refuge in the fact that he is an adult looking back, but that wouldn't explain some of the more mature and clever words the boys mutter in the dialogue. By the rules of narrative, dialogue is embedded in time, after all.

This is one of those "vignettes strung together as an excuse for a novel" books that have increased in popularity of late. In fact, the whole time I was reading it, I kept saying, "Torres is writing a boys' POV version of Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, only not as well." The language certainly has that sometimes poetic, sometimes workshop colony air to it. Torres is a product of the famous (and, in publishing circles, self-perpetuating) Iowa Writers' Workshop (among others). He thanks many at the end, including one of his writing teachers, the famous Michael Cunningham. Surprise, surprise -- on the cover we get a blurb from this well known writer (his initials are "Michael Cunningham") that states, "we the animals is a dark jewel of a book. It's heartbreaking. It's beautiful. It resembles no other book I've read [Editor's Note: Apparently he hasn't read The House on Mango Street]. We should all be grateful for a brilliant, ferocious new voice." Apparently cut off during printing was the ending, "... who I happened to mentor, thus making him easier to discover."

Looking at Cunningham's blurb, I see that Torres comes by his penchant for anaphora honestly. Another Torres strength, when kept in check, is cascading participial phrases, sometimes in twos, sometimes in threes or fours. I'm not saying the book lacks good writing. It's in there, if you care to pan for it. What really jolts the reader, taking this book as a whole, is how it shifts from a coming-of-age story with rather violent parents (say, for 85% of the short way) to an entirely different kind of coming-of-age story at the end. That's right. In the last three or four vignettes, Torres springs some new information on us and this causes the family to act in ways that not all will buy, whether they're packing plastic or not. Honestly. I had the literary equivalent of American Express in my pocket and I was rolling my eyes. "No, no, no! In the first place, you're shifting gears too late and too suddenly. If you WANT to try and pull this off, you might need an additional 50 pp. to transition us to it." But no one listens to readers reading in a void. The writer-reader transaction is a mute one, alas.

Anyway, I guess this "new information" might be considered a "spoiler," so I'll leave it at that. What I won't leave is how it became a "spoiler" of another sort -- the type that spoils a book that was actually trying to be something.

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Oct 20, 2011 wally rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: torres

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 boys....take a bath...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Sergsab rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Alguien ha cogido un trozo de carne sangrante y la ha encuadernado. Cuando un ingenuo como yo se acerca a sus páginas, no se espera encontrar los vasos sanguíneos bombeando entre líneas. Las palabras se convierten en puro follaje para ocultar que aquello que tienes entre las manos es algo que continúa vivo, que lejos de agonizar, está luchando con garras y dientes para convertirte en una presa más. La sintaxis está asalvajada, los personajes ladran en cuanto pueden y la amenaza de acorralar al l...more

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Oct 15, 2011 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-abhor

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? C...more 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? Caucasians? If there are any black or Puerto Rican readers that loved this book, I’d love to hear from you.

The voice of the “wide-eyed” narrator is twee and over-precious, self-conscious to a point where it distracts, and beseeches the audience to sympathize. I kept hearing, “Don’t you just want to hug me? Look at how casually I present the facts!” There is no nuance to the text; the narrator abrades with ongoing exposition, telegraphing characteristics, disallowing the reader to form any conclusions through the spaces between words, the place where readers reside. As pin thin as the characters are, Torres uses an insistency to grind in the message, “Look at this poverty. Look how these kids persist despite their circumstances. How utterly they play.”

The prose, paradoxically, is workshopped to death, overbaked, yet undercooked, flat and borrowed. Every phrase, sentence, passage is filled with clichés and shopworn images. The prose, like the characters and voice, is derivative, a copy-and-paste fulfillment that cloyingly coated my tongue with artificial grime. This is an amateurish YA book, but rated R. The graphic parts are sure to elicit oohs and ahs, but are gratuitous, attempting the pretense of natural. The text was dull, and droned like a metronome, without the peaks and valleys that subtle prose provides.

A weak story is not strengthened by exaggeration and melodrama. It is difficult to specifically point out these problems and yet circumnavigate spoilers. But, Torres fabricated medical law as a story contrivance. I know the law and procedures, and the laws at the time of this story. (The fact that VCRs were around, even in poverty-stricken sectors, allows a rough time estimate.) He presented it as if it were the Draconian laws of the 50’s. That was irresponsible. It reduced this story from a 1.75 to a 1.25.

I suspect Torres is a one-book wonder, unless he refines his writing skills. Each chapter, or vignette, was repetitive. I learned nothing new between page 29 and page 99, other than graphic, shock-value facts, told without subtlety. (The denouement was simply UN-shocking and flaccid).

It felt like he was saying, “I’m edgy and unconventional, and that makes it literature.” He was coy and gimmicky, leaving out facts (like dates and ages) without purpose. His disjointed integration was to synthetically sway, rather than convey, another artifice that undermined the work. The finale read as if someone in the bookbinding department accidentally left out some pages, and then the editors embraced its “edginess.” Reductive, pointless, not even emotionally evocative, because he didn’t create any atmosphere, tone, or texture. What is this book about? It’s about 144 unoriginal pages.(less)

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Dec 10, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_fiction

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 or 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," but I think that's a bunk bit of...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Jo Anne B rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Oct 31, 2011 Ivan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 want to spend any...more

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Oct 25, 2011 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 literature....more

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Oct 21, 2011 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 finished the boo...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Isa K. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: galleys

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 reads that is a pleasure to go throu...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Lauren Moore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 strongly enoug...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three brothers tear their way through childhood-smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from rubbish, hiding when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn-he's Puerto Rican, she's white-barely out of childhood themselves, and their love is a serious, dangerous thing.
Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another

...more

Three brothers tear their way through childhood-smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from rubbish, hiding when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn-he's Puerto Rican, she's white-barely out of childhood themselves, and their love is a serious, dangerous thing.
Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to forge his own way in the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and incredibly powerful.

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2011: We The Animals, Justin Torres's sparse debut novel, is brimming with delicate stories of family, of growing up, of facing reality, and of delaying it. Narrated by the youngest son of a Puerto Rican father and white mother from Brooklyn raising their three young sons in upstate New York, the novel is comprised of vignettes detailing moments spent in the eye of the ferocious bubble of home. Torres paints a large picture through diminutive strokes, evoking envy for the couple’s passion and fear for just how easily that passion turns to rage. The brothers wrestle, fight, cry, and laugh as their family is torn and repaired over and over again. Torres’s prose is fierce, grabbing hold of the reader and allowing him inside the wrenching, whirlwind of a life lived intensely. --Alexandra Foster

Review

''We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It's heartbreaking. It's beautiful. It resembles no other book I've read. We should all be grateful for Justin Torres, a brilliant, ferocious new voice.'' --Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

''In language brilliant, poised, and pure, We the Animals tells about family love as it is felt when it is frustrated or betrayed or made to stand in the place of too many other needed things, about how precious it becomes in these extremes, about the terrible sense of loss when it fails under duress, and the joy and dread of realizing that there really is no end to it.'' --Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

''We the Animals snatches the reader by the scruff of the heart, tight as teeth, and shakes back and forth--between the human and the animal, the housed and the feral, love and violence, mercy and wrath--and leaves him in the wilderness, ravished by its beauty. It is an indelible and essential work of art.'' --Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

''In language brilliant, poised, and pure, We the Animals tells about family love as it is felt when it is frustrated or betrayed or made to stand in the place of too many other needed things, about how precious it becomes in these extremes, about the terrible sense of loss when it fails under duress, and the joy and dread of realizing that there really is no end to it.'' --Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

''We the Animals snatches the reader by the scruff of the heart, tight as teeth, and shakes back and forth--between the human and the animal, the housed and the feral, love and violence, mercy and wrath--and leaves him in the wilderness, ravished by its beauty. It is an indelible and essential work of art.'' --Paul Harding, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

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Apr 29, 2013 Pat rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-of-age

Pros:
--Beautiful writing. Just gorgeous.
--Each chapter is its own story; each can stand alone
--It's a very quick read

Cons:
--The standalone nature of the chapters precludes a cohesive, linear narrative. We're given snapshots only, leading to a somewhat disjointed story with an unclear timeline.
--The ending differs in tone, style, and content compared with the earlier chapters. It's harsh and comes out of nowhere.
--The lyrical language doesn't really reflect the early story well, in my opinion. Th...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Mak rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really wanted to love this book. There was something a little strange and removed about it that i liked at first, but weirded me out pretty fast. The author was definitely on the edge of somthing big, but didn't make that final leap, instead screwing up the story with way too late and very distubing deatils. When i got to the end, i paged through again to make sure i hadn't accidentally skiped over the 30 or so more pages this story cold have used, not that i would want to read them. It seemed...more

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$Radiantfracture$

Feb 01, 2013 Radiantfracture rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thought I'd find this precious -- hearing the first chapter read aloud made me think it was going to read like a creative writing class exercise stretched out to fill a book. But no: I ended up quite liking this. The element that seemed like a gimmick, the plural first person voice, feels natural (in that way that some of the best created things feel like they just happened). (Some of the best things also show off their craft relentlessly, but this thing is not that kind of thing.)

It seems to...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Rebecca added it · review of another edition

Anything I write here would seem to betray the spare beauty and economy of this book. The characters and images were in constant, fragmented motion; like a scrapbook of the most exquisite and telling photos you have ever seen. It was a dance. Every word was chosen with extreme care and every sentence slipped effortlessly between the "real" and the imagined. If you can, consume the whole thing in one sitting. Among the most gorgeous and eloquent books I have read in many years.

"When he left, I s...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Richard Kramer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Torres, in his first novel, finds a collective voice -- a "we" -- that he uses to take in himself and his two brothers, the three of them the wild-thing offspring of a poor biracial couple who are simultaneously tempestuous and deeply depressed. The story subtly tells itself through a shift in voice, from the "we" with which it begins to the "me and them" with which it ends, just as the narrator has to define himself, has to explore his sexuality (gay), and face the paradise-busting ogre of his...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Rutger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Een moeilijke jeugd en schrijven: het is een beproefd recept. Ziektes, dood, huiselijk geweld, criminaliteit en seksueel misbruik worden keurig uitgesponnen door de getraumatiseerde auteur en de lezer is fijn gechoqueerd of ontroerd door het letterlijke verhaal.

Ook de Amerikaan Justin Torres kende een moeilijke jeugd en schreef er een boek over. Maar wat zijn debuutroman onderscheidt van andere ‘moeilijke-jeugd-boeken’ is dat hij het dwepen met het geweld van zijn vader, de depressies van zijn...more Een moeilijke jeugd en schrijven: het is een beproefd recept. Ziektes, dood, huiselijk geweld, criminaliteit en seksueel misbruik worden keurig uitgesponnen door de getraumatiseerde auteur en de lezer is fijn gechoqueerd of ontroerd door het letterlijke verhaal.

Ook de Amerikaan Justin Torres kende een moeilijke jeugd en schreef er een boek over. Maar wat zijn debuutroman onderscheidt van andere ‘moeilijke-jeugd-boeken’ is dat hij het dwepen met het geweld van zijn vader, de depressies van zijn moeder en de halve criminaliteit van zijn twee oudere broers, kan weerstaan. Torres omzeilt dit directe drama door met een dromerige en toch genadeloze stijl vanuit het perspectief van de jongste broer anekdotische fragmenten te beschrijven. Doordat de jongen geen alwetende verteller is, blijft er voor de lezer veel te gissen en word je gedwongen om mee te gaan in de prioriteiten van een zevenjarige. Het is moeilijk om een van de personages te haten, maar net zozeer om van ze te houden. Juist doordat de schrijver deze problemen niet letterlijk benoemt en ons geen gemakkelijk oordeel gunt, treden ze sterker op de voorgrond dan ooit.

De hoofdpersoon groeit op als jongste zoon van een sterke Puertoricaanse machovader (papi) en een blanke moeder (mami), die op haar veertiende zwanger werd van haar eerste kind. Het gezin behoort tot de Amerikaanse onderklasse. Mami werkt ’s nachts in een brouwerij, papi heeft steeds een andere baan en verdwijnt soms een paar weken. De drie zoons schelen niet veel in leeftijd en vormen een intens driemanschap, waarbij ze telkens samenspannen om zich een houding ten opzichte van hun onberekenbare ouders te geven.

De titel van het door Nicolette Hoekmeijer uitstekend vertaalde boek verwijst zowel naar het gezin als geheel, als het broederschap van de drie jongetjes. De armoede van de familie, de Puertoricaanse achtergrond van papi, de leeftijd van de zoons: alles leidt tot een bepaald soort dierlijkheid, die zich uit in agressie, dans, drank, seks en genadeloosheid. Als papi ontslagen wordt van zijn baantje als nachtwaker omdat hij zijn zoons op zijn werk moest laten slapen, begint hij op de terugweg in de auto ritmisch met zijn vuist op het dashboard te slaan. De jongens doen al snel mee en beginnen in hetzelfde tempo op hun deel van de auto te bonken, terwijl ze leuzen scanderen.

De nietsontziende hardheid van jongens in de leeftijd van zeven tot elf vormt een ander onderdeel van de wildheid. Onderling is het pakken of gepakt worden, maar als geheel vormen ze een sterk en hongerig blok, altijd op zoek naar avontuur, naar moederlijke liefde, naar trots, naar eten. De eerste zin van het boek is dan ook: ‘We wilden meer.’ Het boek kent zo vele overeenkomsten met het verhaal van de onlangs uitgekomen Belgische film Les Géants, waarin eveneens drie jongens (waarvan twee broers) in die leeftijdsgroep zich zonder ouderlijke sturing proberen te redden in een bosrijke omgeving. Ze slaan elkaar, ze maken troep, ze breken in, ze drinken, ze maken ruzie, ze trappen lol. Zoals jongens zijn.

De verteller is de bangste jongen van het stel. In de ontzag voor het fysiek van zijn papi resoneert Kafka’s ‘Brief aan vader’: ‘Hij was net een beest, onze vader, blakend en lichamelijk en instinctief; met zijn brede, gewelfde schouders (…).’ Maar hierdoor houdt hij ook oog voor de tederheid van het gezin. Vaak slaat een drama totaal om doordat iemand een grap maakt. De dierlijkheid is niet alleen maar negatief.

Maar de 32-jarige Torres is een zeer bekwaam schrijver, niet voor niets grootgebracht door de prestigieuze Iowa Writers Workshop en ontdekt door het Britse literaire tijdschrift Granta. Hij vermijdt het cliché van het gezin in de onderklasse dat het slecht heeft, maar toch heel gelukkig is met de weinige middelen en elkaar. Hij schotelt ons slechts momenten voor, zoals wanneer de zoons op de ochtend van de verjaardag van de jongste bij hun moeders slaapkamer naar binnen komen. Ze ligt daar al een paar dagen, met blauwe ogen en gekneusde ribben. De jongens verkleden zich als monniken, want daar heeft ze ooit over verteld. De verteller wikkelt zich in het gordijn. De moeder zegt ‘Mijn mooie jongetjes’, ‘de eerste woorden in drie dagen die van haar gescheurde lippen rolden, en het was te veel; we keerden ons van haar af. Ik legde mijn hand tegen het glas, voelde me opgelaten, hunkerde naar kou. Dat had ik soms met mam; dan moest ik mezelf tegen iets kouds en hards aandrukken om niet duizelig te worden.’

Het zijn dit soort vreemde, maar toch herkenbare impressies die Wij, De Wilden tot een fantastisch boek maken. Soms gebruikt Torres zijn dierensymboliek iets te direct en op het einde vliegt hij bijna uit de bocht als hij zijn eigen grote persoonlijke drama in het kleine verhaal probeert te duwen, maar over het algemeen ontroeren zijn anekdotes iedereen die in een familie is opgegroeid. Zonder dat je precies begrijpt waarom.

(Verschenen in NRC Handelsblad)
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Nov 17, 2012 Owen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: want-to-buy, favorites

Spoilers

I'm not sure exactly how to describe this book. It's that good. I'm so glad I picked it up and I hope the author has more books. Plus, it's a quick read: only about 125 pages or so.

I saw this book at the library and decided to read it, with no idea whatsoever what it is about. Sometimes, that isn't good for readers and book bloggers. This is an exception. Not to sound too corny, but this is a gem of a book. That did sound corny. So the book is about a family of five, the three sons (Joe...more Spoilers

I'm not sure exactly how to describe this book. It's that good. I'm so glad I picked it up and I hope the author has more books. Plus, it's a quick read: only about 125 pages or so.

I saw this book at the library and decided to read it, with no idea whatsoever what it is about. Sometimes, that isn't good for readers and book bloggers. This is an exception. Not to sound too corny, but this is a gem of a book. That did sound corny. So the book is about a family of five, the three sons (Joel, Manny, and the narrator) and the Puerto Rican father (Paps), as well as the white mother (Ma). At the beginning of the books, the children range in age from 7 to 10. The story is about their lives, how they play and have fun and be kids. The family is living in poverty and the parents were teenagers when they had the kids. Ma and Paps work late hours and are very bipolar around the others. Sometimes they are very nice but then they become mean. We the Animals also tells of how they come to learn about life, and the good and bad things it brings.

About three quarters through the book, I was wondering when the plot was going to show. It seemed more like a slightly fictionalized story of the author's childhood. Very simple and light, not funny all the time though. Oh, but wait until you get to the end. No joke, one page to the next-an intense switch from childhood to young adulthood, and the change in plot will hit you like a train. It was so unexpected. I was reading it, smiling and then I was like "Where did that come from?" But if you think back to the middle of the book, you will realize where it came from. So then the sudden events do not seem so strange, except for when he goes to a place (that I won't name). This may or may not be due to some other things mentioned in the later chapters, ahem ahem alcohol and drugs ahem. Yes, the characters lose their innocence in the blink of an eye. After doing a little research on this book, I found that a lot of (Amazon) reviewers did not like the ending. Things like it was "selfish of the author", too sudden (which it was sudden but made the story better), and confusing. But that doesn't necessarily mean it is a bad thing.

Warning: do not read this book if you are offended by sexual acts, homosexuality, drugs or other things of that nature.

There wasn't a whole lot of plot to this book, but still, to me it felt raw, emotional, real, and unforgettable. This is definitely a book that will make you think for a long time, I'm sure. I do not know how this book has not been read by EVERYONE! It is very important. The characters were not boring at all and it had such vivid language. I highly recommend it to any person. Now, I do realize why this book will offend people. Not how the parents treat their kids, but the ending (meaning what is revealed about the narrator). But I'm asking you to please read it and think about it, this book is so inspiring and emotional and hardcore. We the Animals is absolutely on my list for best books of the year. If you read one book this year, read this (and also Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor). So many things are running through my head right now about this book. I am going to try and buy a copy for myself.
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Nov 15, 2012 John Whittemore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I typically do not like "coming of age" stories. Too often they feel forced and sentimental. "We the Animals" is an amazing exception.

This narrative of three wild boys and their emotionally unstable parents is both one of the most beautiful books I have read in a long time. Torres uses his brilliant prose to resurrect all the joyful and terrifying experiences of childhood. The boys in "We the Animals" are constantly being forced into situations that are beyond their comprehension, but we cannot...more

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Nov 03, 2012 John Pappas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An absolutely stunning debut coming-of-age novel from Justin Torres about the pains and pleasures of family and discovering one's identity both of and apart from the family unit. Three young boys hungry for life and threatening to consume everything attempt to plumb the mysteries of their parents's relationship, their relation to and with each other and their nigh-inscrutiable futures as they play, wrestle, hurt, plead and help each other through long days and longer nights with wild, unpredicta...more

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Oct 20, 2012 extrapulp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Succinct paperback picked up at the airport and finished during the 5.5 hour flight. The writing is focused and the words selected carefully with none wasted. The wild pack of brothers - the pull and tug of love and the fight to survive - is painstakingly drawn. Watching the boys grow up and apart - Torres spells out his own blend of magic and monsters. He furthers the spell of giving too little of oneself to others and the penalties of giving too much. The portait of his mother is the sharpest...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Chuck Lowry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Chuck by: My Friends at Faulkner House

This is another spot where half a star would be a convenience. I just did not become involved in this book, I guess because it did not present characters with whom I easily identified. There are some books that present familial relationships that are not easy but which ring true. I think here mostly, I suppose, of the intensity of the husband-wife relationship in Paul Auster's Oracle Night, or the incredible tenderness of the brother-sister relationship in Tom Piazza's City of Refuge, or the fra...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Tanya McQueen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"I used to believe we could escape," he whispered. "I had it all figured out--like when we were in the field today, I was sure that God would grab hold of those kites and lift us up, protect us."
He took my chin and turned my face toward his. "But now I know," he said, "God's scattered all the clean among the dirty. You and me and Joel, we're nothing more than a fistful of seed that God tossed into the mud and horseshit. We're on our own."
He wrapped one arm and one leg around me and was silent an...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Kristy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is powerful in the simple, no-unnecessary-frills way that the narrator recalls memories of his family growing up. They are a wild, fiercely-loving, and often volatile group when taken all together: the narrator and his two older brothers, his sometimes-absent Paps, and his Ma. Not surprisingly, he emphasizes their primal nature to make the book title meaningful literally and figuratively.

I found myself watching this family from the outside, just like the narrator seems to be observing...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Cristian Mihai rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When it comes to things that have a price tag attached, Literature being no exception, there are certain trends that come and go. In commercial fiction, this trend might be vampires one day and zombies the other. In “real fiction”; some people might call it literary fiction, there’s the trend of the autobiographical novel. Part fiction, part truth, these novels appeal to most of the best young novels out there. We the Animals is no exception.
I found out about Justin Torres’s debut novel after I...more When it comes to things that have a price tag attached, Literature being no exception, there are certain trends that come and go. In commercial fiction, this trend might be vampires one day and zombies the other. In “real fiction”; some people might call it literary fiction, there’s the trend of the autobiographical novel. Part fiction, part truth, these novels appeal to most of the best young novels out there. We the Animals is no exception.
I found out about Justin Torres’s debut novel after I read a short story of his in The New Yorker. It was good enough for me to search for more of his writing. And I found out that he had only one novel published.
We the Animals, which in terms of length stands at a meager 125 pages, makes for a very quick and easy read. But not meaningless. Dealing with the early childhood of three Porto Rican brothers, the novel is layered out in a pattern of scenes, all of them adding a bit more color and depth to the story itself; scenes that are perfectly endearing on their own, short chapters that paint a vivid picture of a perfectly naïve childhood. Eager and ambitious, the three brothers are locked in a sort of perilous and strange quest to understand the world around them. Their methods, sometimes unconventional or clumsy, sometimes getting the brothers into trouble, make this novel so great.
I wouldn’t call it a Bildungsroman, but it’s indeed a tale of discovery, maybe even self-discovery, as the narrator deals with the fact of being inherently different both from his two older brothers and his own parents. It’s not his evolution across the pages that makes this story endearing, but his own sudden realization of his nature. Human nature is reduced to a tale of trying to figure out who we are as soon as possible. And it strikes a particular truth, within the confines of the narrative itself, and the life of the reader. Because we all want to find out who we are and what we’re supposed to do. Depending on how long it takes us to figure that out, our life takes a different course.
This novel would be worth reading for just one scene. The one in which the boys are dancing with their father. It’s such a haunting and wonderful scene, a truly superlative chapter. The boys are having fun with their father, but at the same time, they’re confronted with a sort of identity crisis. What they are, they being of mixed race, is different from their father, and he does his best to show them that. They’re neither white nor Porto Rican, they’re not rich, and they’re not poor. They’re just boys who want to understand the world around them before it’s too late.
As the opening sentence goes, “We wanted more.”
(less)

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Apr 22, 2012 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

Yes, it's well written. But I was conscious all the time that I was reading A Work of Art—that the story of these three boys growing up had been filtered and refined retrospectively by the eye, ear, and pen of the youngest, the "I" at the core of its largely first-person-plural narration. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it means we receive the story, not via someone the protagonist's age, but via an adult whose primary concern is making art: it comes as material, not experience. And...more Yes, it's well written. But I was conscious all the time that I was reading A Work of Art—that the story of these three boys growing up had been filtered and refined retrospectively by the eye, ear, and pen of the youngest, the "I" at the core of its largely first-person-plural narration. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it means we receive the story, not via someone the protagonist's age, but via an adult whose primary concern is making art: it comes as material, not experience. And the experience is and should be what attracts a reader to these stories (they are strung together into a novel, but they can all stand alone quite well). The nature and expression of the bonds among brothers—moreover, brothers whose "Paps" is Puerto Rican and whose "Ma" is white, with all the differences that implies in views of masculinity and male roles—is fantastic material for a book. It shouldn't need to be told in the first person; it shouldn't matter that it culminates in a life and career for its narrator that tears the family apart. Frankly, I don't care and I don't want to know who the narrator becomes as an adult: I want to hear about the kids.

The last story, "The Night I Am Made" (the longest in the book, the only one with subsections of its own, the only one with a real plot involving multiple events, not just event + epiphany)—that last story is where we're suddenly thrust into the narrator's adult, first-person-singular perspective. It tells the events and revelations which spell the end of the family unit, particularly the unit of "we" three brothers. It's a good story too, and it tells of an experience worth reading about, from the perspective of its more-or-less adult protagonist. (We can't help but suspect that protagonist is a version of the author. Is this really a novel, or is it a memoir?) But after 17 tales of the brothers-as-unit, it's an unwelcome shift. Joyce managed a smooth transition from the child's perspective to the adult's, and specifically the adult-as-writer, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Sure, he was Joyce, but that means it can be done, and I didn't see it happening here.

I'd love to read the same stories told by Manny or Joel, rather than Justin.

(The book overall is remarkably similar to Malick's The Tree of Life, and the film has the same flaw: the Sean Penn character forces an adult perspective which is unnecessary and unwelcome, especially when the child's perspective has been presented so well. But, unless you're a very slow reader, the book will go faster!)(less)

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Apr 07, 2012 Nine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

[Originally reviewed for The Skinny magazine]

An autobiographical account of a childhood in upstate New York, We The Animals tells the story of three mixed-race brothers born to very young parents, growing up in a volatile household with little money and less stability. Torres' words sear through the pages, bringing to life the crunch of boots through snow, the tension that envelopes every member of the family when a parent is stressed, the narrator's private fears about his own difference, and t...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Jann Barber rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some books can say a lot within a small framework. This is one of those books. It doesn't have what one normally considers to be a plot, but it is the story of three brothers, Manny, Joel, and the unnamed youngest, born to a white mother and Puerto Rican father. The mother was 14 when she had her first son; the next two came when she was 15 and 17. Ma and Paps lived, loved, and argued passionately. Paps would disappear, leaving Ma to deal with the boys. She would crumble. He would return. There...more

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