A review by boob
Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide by Charles Foster

informative

3.0

This novel was definitely out of my “comfort zone” of what I usually enjoy reading but it was interesting, if odd. 

I think the most “useful” thing that came out of reading this book was the chance to at the world through someone else’s perspective (the author, not the animals). The author goes very in depth into his logic and ways of thinking, so much so that it feels like I am stepping into his mind. It is always interesting to interact with someone quite different from you. 

I also liked how this book was very descriptive and full of imagery. I am an imaginative reader and there is a plethora of descriptions of nature and the author’s experiences in this novel. The author’s description are very vivid and well written.

I feel like I did not have any “major perspective changing” takeaways from this book. 

I do not believe in recommendations because everyone is different. I would hate to deprive someone of a piece of media they may find great joy in simply because I did not like it. Instead, I like to present my takeaways of the style and content of the book so you may draw your own conclusions on if it interests you or not.

The premise of the novel was a little odd. I would not qualify this book as a “wholly non-fiction” book, that is, one of those novels that you may read for pure factual information. 

There is a lot of mental gymnastics, of imagining the perception of an animal but not quite (we are the animal but we cannot be), of almost philosophy and many theories (the origin of consciousness, mind theory, what is animal and human). This means this book is chock-full of the author’s opinions and outlook on things. 

The author is a man that “lay in a backyard in Bow, foodless and drinkless, urinating and defecating where I was” (page 21) in order to mimic the fox. I feel like this line shows the sort of character the author is and the style of the novel. This author is unashamed and not afraid to get dirty to achieve his end goal. 

The author also writes very confidently. He sounds like he knows what he is talking about (though he concedes many times that such is not the case) but this may influence the reader to take his word for granted.