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    Animal Crackers: Stories
    Animal Crackers: Stories
    Animal Crackers: Stories
    Audiobook5 hours

    Animal Crackers: Stories

    Written by Hannah Tinti

    Narrated by Laural Merlington and Dan John Miller

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    With bravura storytelling, daring imagination, and fierce narrative control, this dazzling debut introduces that rare writer who finds humanity in our most unconventional behavior, and the humor beneath our darkest impulses.

    In these ten strange, funny, and unnerving stories, animals become the litmus test of our deepest fears and longings. In the title story, an elephant keeper courts danger from his gentle charge; in "Miss Waldron's Red Colobus," a headstrong young woman in Africa is lured by the freedom of the monkeys in the trees; in "Talk Turkey," a boy has secret conversations with the turkeys on his friend's family's farm; in "Slim's Last Ride," a child plays chilling games with his pet rabbit; in "Gallus Gallus," a pompous husband projects his anger at his wife onto her prized rooster.

    This fresh, inventive debut will introduce Hannah Tinti as one of the most gifted writers of her generation. Enter her world at your own risk, and you will come away bewitched.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJun 1, 2009
    ISBN9781423385288
    Animal Crackers: Stories
    Author

    Hannah Tinti

    Hannah Tinti grew up in Salem, Massachusetts. Her short story collection Animal Crackers was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her bestselling novel The Good Thief won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and an American Library Association Alex Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Tinti is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning literary magazine One Story.

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    Reviews for Animal Crackers

    3.5/5

    48 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I only read one story, How to Revitalize the Snake in Your Life, but holy cow does this short story creep up on you! I so want to spill the beans and spoil the ending, but I can't! I must not! Suffice it to say this story will punch you in the gut and you will like it. Our protagonist is a former medical student who starts a wayward relationship with an edgy artist. You know from the first two sentences of the story that her relationship is doomed but what you don't realize (until it's way too late) is that this same woman has serious issues. There is a reason why she is a former medical student. When aforementioned edgy artist abruptly vanishes from her life he leaves behind a red tailed boa constrictor in her apartment...and for awhile things are good. Until they aren't. Like medical school, there is a reason why edgy artist Fred says "don't let the snake out of the cage." I'll leave it at that, except to say that when Fred returns for his snake three months later, things are decidedly different at the former medical student's apartment.
    • 4/5
      A gripping short story collection. An animal plays a role in each story, though it isn't always the focus of the story. Each story scratches the edge of the strangeness of the human condition, maybe connecting our psychological and emotional needs to our animal nature.
    • 4/5
      A good collection of intriguing and disturbing stories. Out of the stories there were two I thought were dull and unintersting but having enjoyed nine out of the eleven I was pleased to have read them. Animals were a tenuous link for one of the stories but other than this it was an enjoyable few hours of reading. I read a story a night, spreading out the entertainment. I'd happily seek out other work by this author and would be interested to see if she could maintain the quality of writing over a novel as opposed to short stories.
    • 4/5
      I picked this book up a few years ago and read it quickly thereafter. Animal Crackers was Tinti's first book. It is not a book of sunshine and happiness - it's a darker work. That being said, it was a wonderful and entertaining read nonetheless. It was a joy to see that she has her first novel out (The Good Thief) and she's getting a lot of recognition for it.
    • 4/5
      In her collection of short stories titled Animal Crackers, Hannah Tinti deftly juxtaposes the innate qualities of the animal world with those of humanity. Like Arthur Bradford’s collection Dogwalker, Tinti presents a selection of dark and forlorn stories musing upon the question of what it means to be an animal, or rather if humans are actually civilized enough to be called animals.Unlike most of the animals in her stories, there seems to be something just not right about the human species. She skilfully hints around the prevalence of sociopathic behavior in her human characters, suggesting it may be more innate, and thus common, whether exhibited in unattended little boys or refined hitmen, than we would like to admit. We’re more interested in self-absorption than the self-preservation exhibited by her non-human characters.It’s a curious contrast. Her non-human characters, including easily bored pet snakes, wild red jungle chickens of Southeast Asia, mobilized and striking zoo giraffes, Slim the ragdoll white rabbit, and stuffed museum bears exhibit just as much, if not more, personality and civility we would normally expect from ourselves.
    • 4/5
      An interesting collection of short stories - some disturbing, some funny, all interesting. A running theme of missing or lost pieces runs through the stories. Missing body parts in "Animal Crackers"; missing eveidence in "Home Sweet Home"; losing a friend after running away in "Talk Turkey"; missing rooster in "Gallus, Galuus"; lost hope in "Bloodworks". All unique and well-written stories.A great debut collection.