Women & Other Animals

Bonnie Jo Campbell stories are in a class all by themselves. But I thought of Flannery O'Connor as I read the stories in WOMEN AND OTHER ANIMALS. It's not a great comparison, but there are similarities. O'Connor's stories, in her books A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND and EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE were all set in the south where she grew up and the characters were often considered 'grotesques.' Well, Campbell's stories are set in her own southwestern Michigan and if the title characters in stories like "Eating Aunt Victoria," "The Smallest Man in the World" and "Gorilla Girl" aren't grotesque, then I'm not sure what is. But Campbell has added other elements that were missing from O'Connor's stories: humor and compassion. Well, I show more could be wrong about the latter. I haven't read O'Connor since college, more than forty years ago. But the humor is definitely there, evoking wry smiles and gentle chuckles. You'll find those smiles in "Shifting Gears," when two largely clueless men (and the men in these stories are ALWAYS clueless) discuss the virtues of a Ford versus a Dodge truck as they ferry one's pregnant wife to a hospital. Or in the widely disparate perceptions of breasts and their importance (as perceived by boys vs. girls) in the gently humorous "The Sudden Physical Development of Debra Dupuis."

The thing is, no matter how grotesque or different the character, Campbell always manages to make them at the same time oh-so human, seeing past the grotesqueness or ugliness, and makes the reader see this too. And this ain't an easy hat-trick when you're talking obnoxious midgets and ornery fat ladies, ya know? (Please pardon my political UN-correctness.) WOMEN AND OTHER ANIMALS was Campbell's first book of stories, but it compares well with her second collection, AMERICAN SALVAGE. This short story thing? It's not an easy art form, but Campbell's got it down cold. There are sixteen stories here and not a clinker in the bunch. I mean she is GOOD! show less

Set mostly in the upper mid-west, these stories are, as the title suggests, about women and “other animals.” This small volume of sixteen stories was Campbell’s first, and award-winning. I have previously read her other two collections and her two novels, and have highly rated them all.

Bonnie Jo Campbell portrays women as sometimes vulnerable, and other times as very definitely not so. Like any short story collection, one likes some stories better than others. The author shows exceptional skill with the short story form, her first sentences and paragraphs figuratively put you in the car, fastens your seat belt, shuts the door and the rest of the story takes you for quite a ride. Rather than give synopses of the various stories in show more this collection; I’d rather give you the title and beginnings of several of her stories…and well, see where it takes you.

“Sleeping Sickness”
A crocodile. That’s what I felt like. Hot, show, and mean. But crocodiles live in Egypt, half-submerged in cool rivers, and I was frying like an egg outside of Alexander, Michigan, near the Indiana line….

“The Smallest Man in the World”
Beauty is not a virtue. And beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is a fact like height, or symmetry, or hair color. Understand that I am not bragging when I say I am the most beautiful woman in the bar.”

“Circus Matinee”
Though Big Joanie senses something is wrong, she does not turn to look at the tiger. Instead, she places snow cones into the outstretched hands of three black-haired girls, making certain that each girl firmly gramps the plastic cup before she lets go”

“Shotgun Wedding”
Clearly this groom is more accustomed to lugging hay bales and veal calves, but with those big hands he manages to lift my sister’s veil and smooth it back prettily over her hair, revealing her face and shoulders. I feel vaguely shameful about this ritual undressing though I myself have stripped naked in all sorts of places with men whom I’ve had no intention of marrying….

“The Sudden Physical Development of Debra Dupuis”
After their first gym class, while the rest of the seventh-grade girls soaped and rinsed their poor bumps and swells, Debra tipped her head back and let the shower splash over her womanly bounty like a cleansing waterfall among serene and shapely volcanoes.

Now don't you want to know where those beginnings might take you?! show less

This is Bonnie Jo Campbell's first collection of stories, collected in 1999 but published in magazines before that. I enjoyed some of the stories in Women and Other Animals, especially "The Fishing Dog" and "Sleeping Sickness," but they were very mixed and some definitely worked better than others. It felt like Campbell was still exploring what would make a "good story." In the best, there is a real sense of place and character; the less good are still interesting, but not as compelling. I loved her most recent collection of stories, American Salvage,, so it is great to see how much her skill has improved since this first collection.