A review by dana7878
The Lives of Animals by J.M. Coetzee

4.0

I don't know what to rate this book, because I read it for a class, and 100% Did Not Get It until the lecture. But damn, have I been thinking about it a lot since then.

Spoiler

Elisabeth deeply, genuinely feels that she's witnessing a massacre every day, and her colleagues respond to this desperate cry for recognition with detachment, skepticism, scorn, and pity. These were also, tellingly, my own reactions to Elisabeth when I initially read this book without context. It's so easy to poke holes in someone's argument, and I think many of us do it automatically when controversial opinions are presented in an academic format. But geez- those skeptic goggles can make us really mean. I often remember Costello's breakdown when I'm tempted to dismiss somebody's opinion because they're emotional in presenting it.

Kind of a meta way to make this point, but it stuck, so thank you Coetzee.