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Summary: Biting sarcasm proves hilariously funny.
Review: I loved this book. I for one, have never been dumped...(well ok once.. but who cares?) and so it's not as if I'm being bitter in taking the female point of view here. But, this book does just what it is meant to. It's not as if Zigman is saying ok... all men want "New Cows" She's just making a joke out of the tendency that guys have to break off a relationship, not explain why...and go on to another one. It's supposed to be funny... not socially revealing. People... lighten up! This is a great book and it kept me in stitches most of the way through. It's almost "Seinfeldish" in it's humor. Mooo!!
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Summary: The flaw in the theory
Review: Zigman presents a social theory that borders on not only male bashing, but male anialation. Her whiney heroin and her troop of fellow-dumpees complain their way through this novel, extolling the "New Cow Threory" while overlooking one great flaw in the arguement: half the women that Eddie is pursuing and the narator herself are just as self-possessed and as narcississticly absorbed in their own needs as the Jane Goodalesque narrator claims all men are. Their just absorbed in a different way.The one major fault of this book is that it stereotypes all men as sexual compulsives and all women as emotionally self-centered. Yes, getting dumped is a horrible experience, as is realising that the dumper is moving on with his or her life. But Zigman would have us believe that all women deel with the experience by becoming vengeful, borderline alcoholic couch potatoes, and all men turn into sexual predators to cope with their loss. Aside from this one major fault, the novel does have an amusingg premise, though the narrator's obsession to unlock her boyfriend's motives for dumping her even months after the fact comes accross as pathetic and needy, not amusing or empowering. In addition, her boss's relentless campaign to book Kevin Costner on her talk show seems dated and wholely unreasonable for a show in need of ratings.
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Summary: An American "B. Jones Diary" with zoological proof
Review: Don't take this one too seriously...... if the bees do it why don't humans. Please read Richard Dawkins "The selfish gene" for a theoretical discussion of why men behave the way we do!
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Summary: Been there, done that.
Review: Oh please. Another bitter, boring, been dumped story. The "cleverness" of the prose sustained my interest for about twenty pages, after that, my annoyance was the only thing that kept going. I've heard that men feel insulted by this book. I don't blame them. As a female, I'm apalled by how my gender is treated. The women in this book are whiny, self centered, self absorbed, and spend more time bashing the male sex, than actually trying to do something positive about their own lives. After being dumped, Jane plops herself down on a ratty couch, drinks copiously, and complains to her friends about how badly she's been treated. Then, after reading a couple of books on psychology, evolution, anthropology, and agriculture, she comes up with this "new" theory: Men are biologically incapable of committing. Ho hum. I heard this new theory in Psychology 101. But apparently the magazines and the newspapers that exist in the world of the novel are gullible enough to find this theory brilliant. And speaking of gullible.... Jane, after dating a man for less than two months, gives up her great apartment to move in with him. Two months! Get a clue, lady. Had "Animal Husbandry" at least been well written, I wouldn't have felt so cheated. But in chapter one, the character tells you what is going to happen in the book, and if you didn't catch it the first time, she repeats it throughout the chapters, and if after finishing the book, you still missed what happened, you can always go back in read the chapter titles, which tell you exactly what will occur in each chapter. I'm tired of reading books, reading articles, seeing television shows about unhappy single city women. I am a single city woman, and I manage to at least find some happiness in my daily life. When I get dumped, I do manage to go on, and I do manage to believe that men are not slime. Furthermore, this theme/plot has been handled much better by "The Heidi Chronicles" (Wendy Wasserstein! ), "50% Off" (Karen Salmanson), and "Selling the Light of Heaven" (forgot author's name, but its a lovely book). Read one of those three books, but don't waste your time on "Animal Husbandry."
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Summary: I recommend this book to everyone.
Review: Having taken a course in college on this subject of human behavior, I was interested in reading this story. It, although not hard-core intense reading, was excellent. It puts into words everything we feel when in a relationship and makes sense. I have recommended this book to all my friends, male and female to enjoy and finally understand our behavioral quirks.
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Summary: a real page-tuner for anyone in her or his 30's who's single
Review: Let's all keep in mind that this is fiction. If Laura Zigman had wanted to write a feminist male-bashing manifesto she would have written an essay. No doubt it is autobiographical to an extent but what work of fiction isn't? (p) I'm disappointed that some findthis book trivial, though it's not surprising. Jane Austen, a brilliantly insightful woman, who managed wit and irony with most delicate detail was too subtle for many who consider matters of the heart to be trivial. Surprisingly, though, Stendhal was never accused of being trivial, no matter how many seduction scenes were in his novel.(p) It's quite funny to find people who thought the book wasso repulsive but, um....managed to finish it. (p) "Animal Husbandry" is as bitter as it is funny. Anybody who's out there in their thirties and unattached (for whatever reason) will find Jane Godall's story cathartically funny though painfully familiar. It's so easy in this day and age to hear people say "get over it". What does that mean? That feelings of loss and pain can be overcome simply at will? If it were so easy, no male or female in the world would suffer from heartache. The whole point of this book, in my opinion, is HOW she "gets over it". She channels her obsession through creativity, curiosity and humor which are the best "buoys" I know in real life. She also has a little help from her male and female friends. (p) Granted, the ending was a little too weak for me. I would have appreciated it if Ms. Zigman had carried on a little longer about her final insight on "...the place where memory and experience and love and grief meet to form acceptance...". I got the picture but I didn't want to finish the book. (p) Expect more work to come from many authors, male and female, on love matters. Universally, in the history of literature, it is the number one theme of all times. Does that say something about human nature, monkey scientist or not?
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Summary: dead-on, wonderful
Review: I picked up this book with trepidation: I DON'T like Ally McBeal. Nonetheless, I could not put it down. I only wish I had had this book when I was going through one of these situations (I think I've been a victim of at least three male disappearing acts) instead of now when I'm in something of a stable relationship. But who knows...? I'll keep it handy in case I turn around one day and my beloved is strangely missing.....
Rating: 
Summary: Light or superficial? -- You decide.
Review: What the author forgot was that most relationships break up because the woman decides it's over. For all the "research" she includes, she forgot that sociological fact. And that men generally take a longer time to get over it. So the premise for this talky, entertaining, yet light and superficial "novel" is wrong. Oops. Women are not the true blue, right thinking folks, with those bad men being the ones we must figure out -- Why, oh why, the author asks, do these men love and leave women? It's funny she does not consider that it is women who are so concerned with relationships, it is woman's magazines that are, from cover to cover, concerned with attracting and enticing men. It's women who talk about relationships so much, are a bit more objective, are less likely to be drawn into a carefully constructed seduction. And then hurt later. That's what the careful university studies find, again and again -- that most often it is the woman who decides to break up, and that most often the man takes longer to get over a break up (no wonder). But is that what the author finds? Nope. The author's view is that women are the good guys. The book is an examination of why those darn men might get into a three month relationship and then decide to break up and break a heart. Forget about those Harvard studies that show it's men who take longer to get over a relationship breakup. For all the "research" that is salted throughout the book, we end up with a one-sided view of why those bad men just keep leaving women. Darn those bad men. Guess what? In reality there's a small percentage of men (and women!), who find it very easy to attract members of the opposite sex, and who do just that. They have fun in their teens and twenties and maybe beyond, dating and seducing the rest of us and, yes, loving and leaving us. And breaking some hearts. That's about it. It's got nothing to do with men having a monopoly on this behavior. And it doesn't have much to do with cows, either. The authors goofy theories about cows and other animals have nothing to do with what is really going on, but if you want to have some light fun reading a little diary about a young woman with a job in New York who had a fling, fell in love, got dumped, and went through a bunch of kinda nutty thinking about why it all happened, have a little fun.
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Summary: If you like "Alley McBeal", you would LOVE this book!
Review: This book reminds me of my favorite TV show, "Alley McBeal". It is witty and funny and makes you cry. Each character is so real and so funny, I can just picture this book turn into a love comedy movie. I want to see Calista Flockhart playing Jane Goodall! Laura, I am waiting for your second book!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother!
Review: This is a vapid, insipid, unsatisfying read. It is surprising how little depth there is to this book, surprising because the idea is somewhat interesting. The execution, however, is insulting, especially written by someone who worked in publishing. Not one effort put into writing a good sentence. It was like reading someone's high school journal.
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