Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Winner of the World Fantasy Award
"DOCTOR RAT is dazzlingly original, witty and insanely satiric. It is also occasionally quite beautiful. Kotzwinkle's tale is a dizzying montage...from scenes of gross black humor in the experimental lab to idyllic glimpses of the animal kingdom. Designed to shock us into ecological awareness, Kotzwinkle's lab experiments are hair-raising."
--Los Angeles Times
A bloodcurdling novel in the spirit of ANIMAL FARM and 1984, DOCTOR RAT is a trip through a laboratory worthy of a Nazi mad doctor, except this doctor is a wisecracking rodent who could have been played by Groucho Marx. The London Times called DOCTOR RAT, "a splendidly nutty animal Magnificat with echoes of William Blake."
"Mr. Kotzwinkle is a first-rate fabulist."
--The New York Times
Synopsis
This World Fantasy Award winner in the vein of Animal Farm delves into a lab worthy of a mad Nazi scientist--but run by a brilliantly sadistic rodent.
In the annals of American literature, there has never been a character quite like Doctor Rat, PhD. From one of the most indispensable storytellers in speculative fiction, this biting satire introduces a narrator of learned charm and humor, and a twisted logic that is absolutely chilling.
Doctor Rat is a credit to his species. A survivor of the most refined scientific experiments, now removed from the maze, he has become a valued and productive member of the academic community. When he must administer a lethal dose, he comforts his fellow rats with his compassionate slogan: "Death is freedom."
But everything changes when animals worldwide begin to rebel, refusing to accept their proper places in the natural order of things: as test subjects, pets, or food. And only Doctor Rat has the courage to defend mankind from the ungrateful animal kingdom.
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "dazzlingly original" and "occasionally quite beautiful," Doctor Rat is a sly and stylish indictment of fanaticism in mice and men.
"A truly imaginative impresario . . . Doctor Rat] teases your conscience with educated wit and versatile improvisation, not to mention the casual flick of the tail about to be cut off." --Kirkus Reviews