WE THE ANIMALS

There are no Noble Animals

Alex F.

Justin Torre’s We the Animals is an absorbing bildungsroman, which at best can be considered unique. First off, the protagonist, who is also the narrator, remains completely unnamed throughout the entire novel, making this book quite distinctive compared to others novels I have read. The book follows this unnamed protagonist along with his two older brothers, Joel and Manny, as the three grow up in an impoverished family with two psychotic parents. The novel is told in an engaging way through many short chapters, which focus on the various adventures and hardships the three brothers face. The book uses vulgar language and depicts many sexual experiences that the boys witness throughout their childhood. The language is definitely shocking and engaging but also disturbing to the point of utter disgust. Though the book has a slow beginning, the book eventually picks up through some of its engaging stories; my personal favorite being when ‘Pa uses his savings to buy a pickup truck, one that can’t even fit all the members of his family. In the beginning, the book depicts Ma as a downright mentally insane woman who is constantly confused with time and days. Though ‘Ma’s behavior is quite concerning, the brothers go along with Ma’s insanity to prevent her sadness. Pa is abusive of their children and Ma, as scenes depict his aggressive and grotesque, monster like physique and behavior, similar to the monster in Frankenstein. ‘Pa can be compared to Frankenstein, for he means well but can’t convey his intention into his actions. The novel focuses on the theme of the boys being animals but highlights the fact that the protagonist is different from his older two brothers. His brothers are considered to be “bad kids”, while the protagonist illuminates himself from the behavior of his brothers. The story takes an unexpected turn toward the end of it when the protagonist becomes mentally insane like his parents. ***Spoiler Alert*** The protagonist abruptly becomes insane, as he writes down his sexual desires about men in a notebook. His parents find his notebook, insisting that he be sent to a mental institution. Overall, the book is slow in the beginning, becomes engrossing toward the middle, and becomes downright strange toward the end. I do not feel there is a flow toward the end of the book whatsoever, as there is no foreshadow suggesting the protagonist’s hidden desires. The protagonist can also be considered to be like Jekyll and Hyde, as he depicts a two sided character, who claims he is not like his brothers but in reality, could not be more like them if not worse. I would not recommend reading this book, unless you have a craze for utterly strange novels with grotesque language. I give this book two stars for some of its unique characteristics and engaging strangeness. I am quite confused how there are two full pages of thoughtful reviews of this novel. The only review I can truly seem to agree with is “Haunting” –New York Times.

Conor B.

What initially drew me to this book was the book cover’s description as a story of “ Three brothers tear their way through childhood — smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift.” This interested me because it seemed like a more lighthearted and happy story than some of the other books we had read this year. I clearly didn’t know what I was in for when undertaking this novel. Written as a series of vignettes, each chapter tells a different story of the childhood of three brothers growing up as a lower middle class biracial family. These stories are heart wrenching, frequently involving some kind of violence being inflicted on either the boys or their mother by their father. The vignettes don’t make for the jovial novel that that the description may lead one to believe, but are nonetheless written with beautiful language. The boys try to have fun and enjoy their rough childhood as best they can but can’t help but be weighed down by the sorrow their parents feel. Torres tells a story of a family that has much passion, but this passion can translate to both intense love, and intense anguish. A common theme between all the tales is a longing to escape, with the boys mother repeatedly trying to escape her violent husband, the father wishing to escape the burdens of a wasted life, and the boys trying to escape the anger and sadness of their parents. Overall, I would not recommend this book to someone that expects a lighter book that they can read to relax, but rather to someone that enjoys beautiful language despite a very bleak and painful story.

Max B.

We the Animals is the story of three brothers growing up together in the typical hard-knock life. Manny, the oldest brother, is the leader of the three, whereas Joel, the middle child, is the rebellious one. The narrator, whose name we never learn, is the third child. Their parents’ relationship is in constant flux, and their marriage, a result of an illegitimate child, is in bad shape, though they find ways to make ends meet and provide for their children. Despite many nights alone, disciplinary whoopings, and fights, the brothers stick together through their childhoods.

The book is certainly an interesting read. To me it gave off a feeling of affection between the family as a whole and unity between the brothers as children. The brothers moved together as one, talked as one, and lived as one, regardless of the fact that there were three of them. They couldn’t be broken apart no matter what, and that wasn’t going to change. Their parents though, seem less stable. Though they at points throughout the story show that they still possess love for each other, ***SPOILER ALERT --- SPOILER ALERT*** Pops often leaves home and doesn’t return for several days, and during these times Ma seems broken emotionally. At one point Ma even tries to take the boys and run away from Pops, just leaving their house while he’s gone and taking the boys with her. She tries to think of a reality where her sons and her live a peaceful life in Spain together, but eventually she gives up and returns home to her husband.

However, as they grew up, the vibe changed. Later in the book, as the narrator developed as a character, differences between him and the other two boys became apparent, and there were even hints of these differences earlier in the story. Joel and Manny are becoming gangster types, performing badly in school, getting into trouble, drinking, smoking, the lot, while the narrator is your typical goody-two shoes, getting good grades, trying to go to college, and staying out of trouble. In doing this he displays feminine qualities to his family. When the brothers are grown and nearing adulthood, ***SPOILER ALERT --- SPOILER ALERT*** we find that the narrator is gay, and once his family learns of his perversions and the way he explores his sexuality through his diary of fantasies, they send him to a mental facility because of his sexuality.

Other parts of the story are more confusing. ***SPOILER ALERT --- SPOILER ALERT*** One scene I found quite odd in particular was when the narrator was at the bus station. While waiting on the bus and telling the driver about his need to piss, the bus driver offered to “make him”. Whether this was a sexual perversion or some form of slang, I was pretty confused as to what happened and why the narrator walked home screaming “I’m made!”.

Personally, I thought the book was good. However, if you as a reader are uncomfortable with scenes of a sexual nature then the later sections of this book are going to be problematic. If you, as I did, begin to read this book because you are looking for a feeling of nostalgia and happiness that you may have shared with your family or siblings, you will find the bond between the three brothers in the beginning of the book to be relatable and pleasing.

Prepare. Yourselves.

Elizabeth S.

There is no book like Justin Tores’s We The Animals—but whether that is a

good thing is essentially up to the reader. Tores digresses in the lives of a lower

poor, uneducated, biracial American family—focusing in on the bond of three young

brothers. While this storyline is heartbreaking, it’s not what makes this book unique.

This coming-of-age novel is told in the perspective of a nameless boy, who grows up

throughout the course of his stories. Each chapter is a new lens, as they are separate,

individual memories that pool together to illustrate the story of the boy’s life. While

this narrative form sounds heartfelt and interesting, Torres takes it up a notch with

explicit language and ultimately disturbing stories.

Filled with troubling stories about rape culture, domestic and child abuse,

pornography, and intimate details of homosexual relations—the is no other word

for the novel than “haunting,” as the New York Times describes it. I was intrigued by

Tores’s stylistic approach on the struggles over lower class children; yet horrified by

his writing. If you plan on reading this book, make sure to mentally prepare yourself

for the utterly uncomfortable individual stories. I would not describe it as a “good”

kind of upsetting, where the author makes you feel for the lives of the children. It

seems to me to be the kind of upsetting that makes you wish you had stopped

reading earlier. I just did not feel that the excessive descriptions given when

describing the children watching their parents have sex, as well as describing sex

dreams, and strange pornography about sexual abuse between fathers and their

sons. I really enjoyed the book until I was so uncomfortable, that I sat there with my

mouth hanging open and squinting my eyes so that I wouldn’t have to be scarred by

Torres’s explicit details. Unless that’s what your into, I would suggest skipping those

chapters as they really have no importance or impact on the overall horrifying plot

twist at the end of the novel. Tores’s novel essentially rips away your innocence and

then tears it up into little pieces each chapter. I loved the new approach and was

excited to read it, and I even tried to ignore the foul language, but I was not

prepared for the “haunting” storylines. While sometimes these disturbing details are

interesting perspectives, I urged myself to read on—hoping for a resolution, yet was

disappointed to find the ending random and uncomfortable. I would only

recommend if your willing to take the risk—which I certainly would not want to do

again.

An explicit story of three boys and poverty, oh and also homosexuality

Ethan T.

We the Animals by Justin Torres is the book I chose for my personal choice read. This was one of the first books I picked up, and after looking at the writing style, and other reviews, it didn’t seem like one of those slit-my-throat books that I’ve unwillingly read before. The characters in the book seemed relatable to me, as I have two brothers as well, and after the book I found most interesting was out of stock, I decided to just pick this one up and read it. After about the first 20 pages, it was evident that this book was gonna be a nice quick read, so I just stuck with it. Now it’s time for the afterthoughts. First of all, this book was infact a quick read for me, which I found quite convenient because I had a few other books I wanted to read over break as well. The quickness of this book is actually quite odd and surprising to me because, because the book was structured in a way that made it feel almost like a series of short stories. The set of characters is consistent throughout the book but each chapter almost feels like a separate event with an unknown amount of time between the last, and it is hard to identify any development in between the beginning of the book and the end. The writing style itself was not appealing to me as well. First off, and this is a warning to sensitive readers, the book is very verbally explicit. F-bombs and the like are dropped everywhere and I don’t particularly have problem with this type of writing, but it could easily shock young readers. The uses of these elements make the book seem edgy and controversial, and I think that’s is something that the author really wanted to convey, but I just seems unnecessary and pushed. The main plot of this book is the documentation of the life of three boys, White mother and Puerto Rican Father, and their growing up as a lower-class family. Each chapter is a meaningful moment in these three boy’s lives and reflects on the lifestyle they live. One overarching theme that is evident throughout most of the book is the idea of the boys being in an inescapable “hell” of being poor. The family is always limited in someway by their lack of funds, but the boys still seem to have a good time. The book then takes a unexpected turn in the end. The book ends with a weird mix of sexual abuse and ideas of homoseuality, things that I didn’t really find present in the rest of the book. I also did not really see a correlation in themes between this book and our class. This book could have been a pretty good read for the topic it appeared to be presented on, but the edginess and the explicit content mixed with the weird ending make it not really to my tasting. So if you ever see this book in your local bookstore (given that they still exist by the time you finish this article), I would recommend you skip over it and go to the next, because if you like me, you won’t like it.

Jess. S.

At first glance, We The Animals by Justin Torres, seems to be a riveting coming of age story about three brothers living in Brooklyn. However, the enticing cover does not provide potential readers insight into the utter turmoil facing this family. Upon choosing this book, I was looking for an enjoyable, easy read, that I could relate to. As a teenage girl growing up with a brother, mother, and father, living in the northeast, I thought I’d have a lot in common with this family. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting to read my life story in there, but this family is far from what I was expecting on the back of the book as well as the other highly rated books I found it among.

All in all, let me just say, I was highly disappointed. For one, each chapter had its own little story which was supposed to add up to a compelling coming of age narrative, but I found these tactic less than effective. Instead, I found that for a majority of the chapters it takes many pages just to get interesting, and then once I found myself fascinated, the chapter would end, and I’d find myself wondering what happens next with no sense of closure. Additionally, the chapters felt disconnected, and it was also extremely hard to follow a sense of time. The main character (who remains nameless throughout the book) is introduced at around 6 years old, and then at some point by the end he is well into his teenage years. I feel that I would have enjoyed the book much more had I had the knowledge of whether the many obscene scenes this boy faces are happening to an innocent child, or a more experienced teenager.