Wild Animus

Rating:
Summary: Fantasy
Review: Admittedly, this story is bazaar and very weird. It was a book club choice and the books were distributed free otherwise I know that I would never have read it. That said, surprisingly, I found myself very interested in reading the book while simultaneously hating the story. I could see this character belonging to the "60's that I remember (we lived in Seattle in the 60's) Non-conforming was the name of the game and different people "non-conformed" in different ways ...with one exception; a good number of them were on drugs. Those on LSD exhibited behavior that was indeed bazaar and perhaps suicidal, though for the most part they did not realize it while on the drug. The only way I can understand this man's actions is because he had a long-term drug habit. Coming from a dysfunctional family to begin with; apparently very intelligent, but unable to go forward on his own; the drugs and the also dysfunctional Lindy enabled him to live a fantasy with an inevitable ending. The author, I thought was not only a good story teller, but also a poet. I would like to read something else he writes with a story more to my liking.

Rating:
Summary: I Have Some Wild Animosity for this Book
Review: This is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. It's difficult to believe that a publisher can have read this manuscript and thought it was publishable. Why, wait a minute! The publishing house, Too Far, was founded by this book's author, Richard Shapero! Well, that explains the lack of serious editing or promotion.

"Wild Animus" is a fantasy about the 60's. By "fantasy", I mean that it is a story written by someone who knows nothing about the 60's and made things up as he went along. The main characters, Sam and Lindy, are fictional hippies who speak in stilted diatribes about enlightenment, empowerment and oppression. All written by an author who apparently has never been enlightened, empowered or oppressed.

The dialog throughout reads like someone who has never heard a conversation, and has only read bad poetry in translation. The actions are those of people who have no sense.

I canot, cannot believe anyone would consider this book publishable, let alone start his own company with the intention of publishing it. Please do not read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Insert Sheep Joke Here (and use a condom)
Review: This is just awful. I know the author travels in the Alaska wilderness, etc, but he can't write worth a damn.
Animus means "mind" or "hostility". It does not mean what this clown thinks it means.
This is about a man who goes crazy and thinks he's a wild mountain sheep. His girlfriend supports him by waiting tables while he hikes around Mount Wrangell, working up the nerve to throw himself in and hallucinating that he is a sheep, and that his girlfriend is a pack of wolves who chase him, and that inside the (volcanic) mountain there is a god who will somehow save everyone by releasing their emotions.
None of the characters seem real. The prose is turgid and wordy, adejective laden and irksome. How many times do I need to be told about a meadow full of Alaska wildflowers? And why would I CARE about this idiot who mutilates himself and dances around on a mountain. In addition, the 1960s "setting" is totally unconvincing. This maniac belongs in the men's movement, "shaman" and "power animal" craze of the 1990s. No one in the 60s talked or acted like that. The author knows nothing about LSD, which is the excuse for most of the sheep segments of the novel (sorry, can't think of something else to call them.)
I will never read anything by this guy again. No wonder the book was free. Who would pay for this trash?