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Loading... You're an Animal, Viskovitz (1998)by Alessandro Boffa
I got this from a first-year reading list. Strange book where in each chapter Viskowitz becomes a different animal and he and his girlfriend (wife?) behave in the way the author envisions the animals would be have. Not much of a story line, probably intended to just prompt discussion. Consider what happens when they are mantises?! (  ) MurphyWaggoner | Apr 21, 2013 |  Completely unreadable. Has the author ever read La Fontaine? Anatole France's "Penguin Island"? Aesop? Even Maeterlinck? This is adult Italian animal humor, like Roberto Benigni meets Isabella Rossellini's "Green Porno." A good test of the absence of a sense of humor. (  ) JimElkins | Aug 4, 2009 | Oh, this is very funny. The terminology is extremely scientific so you have to kind of stumble over the various words for animal reproductive organs and just imagine where they are located. However, that adds to the fun. This is erotica in code, sort of. The one where Viskovitz becomes a praying mantis is my one of favorite. I won't give away the punchline, but it had me giggling in the cafe at work which prompted questions that made me blush when I had to answer. (  )1  Zmrzlina | Nov 11, 2007 | I didn't finish this book. It is a cynical Russian author. The book is quite clever and the natural histories as metaphores for the human condition are unique, funny and interesting, but it is simply dirtier and more cynical than I desire to spend my time on. (  ) MrsLee | Nov 13, 2006 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0375405283, Hardcover)From Italy, a wildly modern riff on Ovid’s Metamorphoses—a whirlwind of ironic fables in which the central hero, Viskovitz, continually changes identities in pursuit of his one true love.A snail with two sexes, a parrot who speaks of love, a dormouse who has erotic dreams, a police dog who’s a Buddhist, a microbe with an inferiority complex, a lion in love with a gazelle, a chameleon hoping to find himself, an intestinal worm, a dung beetle . . . Viskovitz is each of these animals and many more, possessed by their behaviors, their neuroses, their vanities. And the gorgeous and impossible Ljuba, the object of Viskovitz’s desire, is in turn a sow, a bitch, a gazelle. There is an animal passion between them that lasts from story to story, but it is the fullness of the human condition that is portrayed most vividly in these hilarious metamorphoses. Dazzling beginnings lead into plots full of surprises, ranging from slapstick to Western, from cautionary tale to thriller. Scientific jargon is turned into wordplay and witty aphorism; theatrical reversals and philosophical insights abound. You’re an Animal, Viskovitz! is a triumph of comic inventiveness and intelligence unlike anything we’ve seen before. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:30:55 -0500) "From Italy, a wildly modern riff on Ovid's Metamorphoses - a whirlwind of ironic fables in which the central hero, Viskovitz, continually changes identities in pursuit of his one true love." "A snail with two sexes, a parrot who speaks of love, a dormouse who has erotic dreams, a police dog who's a Buddhist, a microbe with an inferiority complex, a lion in love with a gazelle, a chameleon hoping to find himself, an intestinal worm, a dung beetle . Viskovitz is each of these animals and many more, possessed by their behaviors, their neuroses, their vanities. And the gorgeous and impossible Ljuba, the object of Viskovitz's desire, is in turn a sow, a bitch, a gazelle. There is an animal passion between them that lasts from story to story; but it is the fullness of the human condition that is portrayed most vividly in these hilarious metamorphoses."--BOOK JACKET.… (more) |
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