Post by Calenture on Mar 7, 2009 11:20:55 GMT
All the Little Animals by Walker Hamilton
First published 1968; Panther 1972
“Compelling, original… frightening.”
Times Saturday Review
“A little gem.”
Evening Standard
“A pop fable… Mr Hamilton has the storyteller’s gift.”
New York Times
“A little masterpiece of compassion and simplicity.”
Daily Telegraph
Bobby is a 31-year-old man with the mind of a small, frightened boy.
Mr Summers is a gentle killer who can never be caught. Together they are the most extraordinary pair ever to take pity on the little animals – or to plot a savage execution…
This one is written from memory, years after reading the book. The story opens with a truck running off the road. The driver is injured and his passenger doesn’t really have much idea how to help him. Bobby is a 31-year-old man with the mind of a small, frightened boy.
Before long, to Bobby’s relief, an elderly man, Mr Summers, arrives on the scene. Bobby has been hitchhiking from London, escaping the Fat – his name for the brutal and sadistic employer who’s made his life a misery.
Mr Summers reluctantly takes Bobby back to his home, which is little more than a hut in a wood, hidden behind high bamboo canes. If Bobby is to stay with Mr Summers he’ll have to help him with his work.
His work is burying the little animals.
Bobby was puzzled at the man’s lack of concern over the truck driver. Now he’s even more bewildered when he sees Mr Summers finding a dead rabbit in the road and burying it. The man explains that people have other people to look after them, but the little animals only have themselves.
A strange life begins for Bobby, walking the green lanes with Mr Summers, finding the animals crushed by cars and burying them. And he finds that Mr Summers is prepared to wage war on some people. The lepidopterist, for instance.
And hovering like a vulture over this fascinating, offbeat narrative, is the impending arrival of the Fat, vindictive, cruel and determined to run Bobby down and have his revenge.
I tried to find a better cover scan than this (my copy was found in a second hand shop bargain bin) but neither Amazon or eBay could provide one. The book was made into a film starring John Hurt and Christian Bale, though I haven’t seen it.
