Animal Crackers
Hannah Tinti
Language: English
Pages: 17
ISBN: 0385337442
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
giraffe market. The bulbs on their cameras send streaks through the darkness. There is a flash of Doë’s body covered with ropes. A flash of Francesco dazed and sedated. A flash of Lulu lying on her side. A flash of the groundsmen running away, their uniforms hazy reflections in the distance. With the help of Matilda, the zookeeper steps out of the golf cart. He hesitates, not because he is afraid, but because he is embarrassed at being seen in his pajamas. Matilda realizes this and hands him the
cleaners. Mrs. Minton replaced the feather pillows with foam, the down comforters with cotton quilts. She stocked up on Vicks and insisted on getting doctors’ advice. She placed her hand on Danny’s forehead, and all the while Mr. Minton’s disappointment in his son was growing, hidden away inside him like a cyst. By the time Danny arrived at the library, Ralph was already there, a center table in the reference room staked out and covered with books. Ralph Kurtz was a quiet boy with dirty
wearing makeup. Danny could see where she had missed a spot on the side of her face—a blotch of lighter skin, like the peel after a burn. “That’s me,” she said. Danny handed her the postcard. The afternoon sun was blinding against the metal edge of the jukebox, the chrome of the napkin dispensers. He suddenly felt he shouldn’t have come. Joey’s mother looked at what he had given her and smiled hard. “This isn’t his handwriting,” she said. “It isn’t even post-marked. Are you trying to be
delicate fingers, and wondered if she could ever make them straight again. Romeo leapt into the air and landed on Emeline’s shoulder. She tried to shoo him off, but Romeo knew from his fighting days how to hold on. He dug one claw into her collarbone, the other into the side of her neck, and began viciously attacking her taffy. Emeline screamed. Michael Sheehy let go of her skirt and got up from the sidewalk. He had always been afraid of birds. He held his whiskey bottle with both hands and
held on. Lucas bent over the fireplace, and she saw that he was whispering in Sarah’s ear. “Leave me alone,” Sarah said. “Face the camera now.” The photographer huddled underneath the black curtain. “Stop it,” Sarah said. “Mom, he’s pinching me.” “Just look at the camera,” said Marianne. “We’re almost done.” “But it hurts!” “Smile,” Marianne begged. She could feel Richard tightening his grip. Sarah’s chin dimpled as if she were about to start crying, and suddenly Lucas knocked the present