Book Review: THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY by Laura Jean McKay

THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY by Laura Jean McKay (Scribe UK, June 2020)  Trade paperback, 288 pages. ISBN # 191285452X / 9781912854523  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Out on the road, no one speaks, everything talks.

Winner of The Arthur C Clarke Award, the Victorian Prize for Literature, the ABIA Small Press Adult Book of the Year and the Aurealis Best Science Fiction Book (co-win). 

Hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, and allergic to bullshit, Jean is not your usual grandma. She’s never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.

As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realizes this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its’ victims begin to understand the language of animals — first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean’s infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin.

Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species. Bold, exhilarating, and wholly original, The Animals in That Country asks what would happen if - for better or worse - we finally understood what animals were saying. 

My Three-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     I would prefer to rate this novel 3.5 stars, but Goodreads has yet to provide a way for fractional ratings. THE ANIMALS IN THAT COUNTRY was impressive is so many ways, and was headed to a 4 Star or higher rating from me - - if not for the ending.

SPOILER ALERT: Some reviews call it anti-climatic. I can't quite agree with that. The ending does have a definite sense of finality, kind of an unending spiral that it wasn't necessary for the author to become repetitive. That leaves it open to interpretation. Unfortunately, the ending didn't satisfy me. It actually depresses me. I won't go into detail why as that would spoil it even further. I think this book needs and deserves a broader audience. END SPOILER ALERT.

     Prepare to be challenged. You'll have to put a bit of effort and thought into comprehending the animal language. 

     Why should the language of animals mimic the way humans speak? Laura Jean McKay understands this, that there are limits to language, and even if animals could speak we might not understand them. Why would they process information the same way that we do? McKay writes about her animals also communicating through body language and even body odors, and hints that humans may be processing animal thoughts and language through several senses, not just hearing. I especially appreciate that the animals in this novel refer to humans not by name or gender but by "it", in much the same way that our species dehumanizes animals by calling them "it". A neat reversal here. 

     In another creative touch, humans exposed to the "zoo flu" often go mad as they are able to hear all these animals, who don't take turns speaking but emote all at once in a cacophony of sensory information. That side effect is most likely even more responsible for the state of anarchy and confusion the world finds itself in, even more so that the flu symptoms of the virus. 

     Protagonist grandmother Jean has done so many things wrong throughout her life, and has so many issues that it might seem hard to care for this character, but somehow I found myself empathizing with her situation and rooting her on. Credit the skills of the writer for having that effect on me. 

     I can't imagine how McKay will follow up a novel as creative, darkly funny, and thought-provoking as this but I welcome a new future opportunity to find out.