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Guests | January 18, 2012

Alexis Smith: IMG In the Kitchen with a Deadline

2 comments By Alexis Smith

When I have a writing deadline approaching, you'll probably find me in the kitchen. It's horrible, I know, but when I work with a deadline, I tend... Continue »
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Love in Infant Monkeys

by Lydia Millet

Love in Infant Monkeys Cover

ISBN13: 9781593762520
ISBN10: 1593762526
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Synopses & Reviews

Review:

"It makes a bizarre kind of sense to pair animals with celebrities, as the PEN-USA Award — winning Millet does in her new collection, since both tend to provoke our sympathy while remaining fundamentally alien. This disconnect proves a fascinating subject for stories where David Hasselhoff's dachshund (which is 'not his fault') inspires meditations on mortality, Noam Chomsky holds forth on hamsters, Jimmy Carter spares the swamp rabbit, and Thomas Edison is haunted by the elephant he electrocuted. Millet's apprehension of interspecies rapport is particularly sharp in 'Sexing the Pheasant,' where Madonna's remorse at shooting a pheasant (while hunting in Prada boots, naturally) is mainly symptomatic of her own self-regard. For sheer line-for-line delight, nothing beats 'The Lady and the Dragon,' where a Sharon Stone look-alike is lured to the bedside of an Indonesian billionaire who plans to make the movie star his concubine. Millet's stories evoke the spectrum of human feeling and also its limits, not unlike the famous naturalist in 'Girl and Giraffe,' who watches as lions and giraffes live out the 'possibilities of the world' while hiding in the underbrush: 'being a primate, he was separate forever.'" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Lions, Komodo dragons, dogs, monkeys, and pheasants — all have shared spotlights and tabloid headlines with celebrities such as Sharon Stone, Thomas Edison, and David Hasselhoff. Millet hilariously tweaks these unholy communions to run a stake through the heart of our fascination with famous people and pop culture.

While in so much fiction animals exist as symbols of good and evil or as author stand-ins, they represent nothing but themselves in Millets ruthlessly lucid prose. Implacable in their actions, the animals in Millets spiraling fictional riffs and flounces show up their humans as bloated with foolishness yet curiously vulnerable, as in a tour-de-force Kabbalah-infused interior monologue by Madonna after she shoots a pheasant on her Scottish estate. Millet treads newly imaginative territory with these charismatic tales.

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Matthew Holley, May 21, 2010 (view all comments by Matthew Holley)
One of the most interesting books I've read in a while. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, all of these stories (except the last one) are about a famous person (Madonna, Jimmy Carter, Sharon Stone, Thomas Edison, etc) and an animal of some sort (pheasant, rabbit, Komodo dragon, and elephant, respectively). Some are quite quirky, others are suprisingly moving. A very quick read. I'd heard that Millet is a very well-regarded writer, and I'll certainly read more of her work now.
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radsemior, May 16, 2010 (view all comments by radsemior)
I wish to read this book as animals are my passion. I am not familiar with Ms. Millet's work and certainly plan to be.
Inter-action between humans and animals is too under-rated.
Last Monday I stepped out of my car to find a dragon fly on the ground, intact, alive but not "feeling well." I carried it cupped in my hands to a nearby day surgery for animals and the reception desk simply said "we don't treat those kinds." It was free to fly away at times but did not. I then took it for people to see where I was headed (Curves gym) and cupped it while we moved about. After the viewing I went outside and opened my hands and it flew away beautifully. I am a level 1 Reiki therapist and I belie.ve it got the energy/healing it needed.
susan howe
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781593762520
Author:
Millet, Lydia
Publisher:
Soft Skull Press
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Subject:
Animals
Subject:
Short stories
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2009
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
20090931
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
208
Dimensions:
8 x 5 in 6 oz
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Love in Infant Monkeys New Trade Paper
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Product details 208 pages Soft Skull Press - English 9781593762520 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "It makes a bizarre kind of sense to pair animals with celebrities, as the PEN-USA Award — winning Millet does in her new collection, since both tend to provoke our sympathy while remaining fundamentally alien. This disconnect proves a fascinating subject for stories where David Hasselhoff's dachshund (which is 'not his fault') inspires meditations on mortality, Noam Chomsky holds forth on hamsters, Jimmy Carter spares the swamp rabbit, and Thomas Edison is haunted by the elephant he electrocuted. Millet's apprehension of interspecies rapport is particularly sharp in 'Sexing the Pheasant,' where Madonna's remorse at shooting a pheasant (while hunting in Prada boots, naturally) is mainly symptomatic of her own self-regard. For sheer line-for-line delight, nothing beats 'The Lady and the Dragon,' where a Sharon Stone look-alike is lured to the bedside of an Indonesian billionaire who plans to make the movie star his concubine. Millet's stories evoke the spectrum of human feeling and also its limits, not unlike the famous naturalist in 'Girl and Giraffe,' who watches as lions and giraffes live out the 'possibilities of the world' while hiding in the underbrush: 'being a primate, he was separate forever.'" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Synopsis" by ,
Lions, Komodo dragons, dogs, monkeys, and pheasants — all have shared spotlights and tabloid headlines with celebrities such as Sharon Stone, Thomas Edison, and David Hasselhoff. Millet hilariously tweaks these unholy communions to run a stake through the heart of our fascination with famous people and pop culture.

While in so much fiction animals exist as symbols of good and evil or as author stand-ins, they represent nothing but themselves in Millets ruthlessly lucid prose. Implacable in their actions, the animals in Millets spiraling fictional riffs and flounces show up their humans as bloated with foolishness yet curiously vulnerable, as in a tour-de-force Kabbalah-infused interior monologue by Madonna after she shoots a pheasant on her Scottish estate. Millet treads newly imaginative territory with these charismatic tales.
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