Susan Orlean is a gifted and well-read writer. I enjoyed reading The Library Book and therefore approached On Animals with eager anticipation. Less than a quarter of the way through it, my eager anticipation changed to bewilderment. How could a person who describes herself as “always a little animalish” and who states, “animals have always been my style” be so clueless and seemingly lacking in empathy with respect to the creatures with whom she claims such affinity?
Orlean s descriptions of the animals on the Hudson Valley farm where she once lived may evoke a warm feeling but those of donkeys in Fez and others in her essays may conjure other emotions.
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