Animal's People
Indra Sinha, 20007
Simon & Schuster
374 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781416578796
Summary
Winner, 2007 Man Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-Regional Winner
I used to be human once. So I'm told. I don't remember it myself, but people who knew me when I was small say I walked on two feet, just like a human being...
Ever since he can remember, Animal has gone on all fours, his back twisted beyond repair by the catastrophic events of "that night" when a burning fog of poison smoke from the local factory blazed out over the town of Khaufpur, and the Apocalypse visited his slums. Now just turned seventeen and well schooled in street work, he lives by his wits, spending his days jamisponding (spying) on town officials and looking after the elderly nun who raised him, Ma Franci. His nights are spent fantasizing about Nisha, the girlfriend of the local resistance leader, and wondering what it must be like to get laid.
When Elli Barber, a young American doctor, arrives in Khaufpur to open a free clinic for the still suffering townsfolk—only to find herself struggling to convince them that she isn't there to do the dirty work of the Kampani—Animal gets caught up in a web of intrigues, scams, and plots with the unabashed aim of turning events to his own advantage.
Profane, piercingly honest, and scathingly funny, Animal's People illuminates a dark world shot through with flashes of joy and lunacy. A stunning tale of an unforgettable character, it is an unflinching look at what it means to be human: the wounds that never heal and a spirit that will not be quenched. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1950
• Where—Coloba, Maharashtra, India
• Education—Mayo College (India); Oakham School (England);
Cambridge University
• Awards—
• Currently—lives in southern France
Indra Sinha was born in India. His work of non-fiction, The Cybergypsies, and his first novel, The Death of Mr Love, met with widespread critical acclaim. He lives in France (From the publisher.)
More
Indra Sinha is a British writer of English and Indian descent. Formerly a copywriter for London advertising agency, Collett Dickenson Pearce, Sinha has the distinction of having been voted one of the top ten British copywriters of all time.
Indra Sinha's books, in addition to his translations of ancient Sanskrit texts into English, include a non-fiction memoir of the pre-internet generation (Cybergypsies), and novels based on the 1959 case of K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra (in which Nanavati was accused of shooting his wife's paramour), and the Bhopal disaster (the 1984 chemical spill by an American corporation which killed at least 8,000 Indians).
Animal's People, his most recent book, was a 2007 Man Booker Prize nominee and a regional winner of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
Sinha is the son of an Indian naval officer and an English writer. He was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer, Rajasthan in India, where he studied Hindi and Sanskrit; Oakham School, Rutland, England and Pembroke College, Cambridge in England, where he studied English literature. After living in England for four decades, he and his wife currently live in southern France. They have three grown-up children. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Set in the slums of a re-imagined and re-named Bhopal, India, site of the deadly Union Carbide gas leak, the novel promises to level a damning indictment against corporate greed and indifference to human suffering. And so it does, and so it might have remained, righteous and dreary. But the book achieves much more than the predictable conjuring of sympathy, outrage or mute despair, and for this the reader has Animal to thank, the irrepressibly horny and uncannily resourceful narrator, whose spine, twisted as a result of that poisoned night, forces him to walk on all fours.... An oddly arresting balance of the tragic and the comic saves Animal from becoming little more than a hapless chump through which the author can display his pity and outrage. Our narrator, four-legged bugger that he is, will shape his own destiny, thank you very much, and happily pick your pocket to boot.
Dennis Bock - Washington Post
Orphaned Bhopal slum resident Animal, who "used to be human" before an industrial chemical accident left his bones "twisted like a hairpin," narrates in a rich argot this tense and absorbing Brit import, shortlisted for the Booker in 2007. Animal, who walks on all fours, focuses on the events surrounding the impending trial of the "Kampani" responsible for the accident. He falls in with a group led by famous musician Somraj; Somraj's daughter, Nisha; and Nisha's boyfriend, "Saint Zafar," who devotes his life to fighting the Kampani and caring for the poor. Tensions mount as suspicious "Amrikan" doctor Elli Barber opens a clinic in the slums, lawyers from the Kampani arrive in Khaufpur to negotiate a settlement, and Animal, desperately in love with Nisha, copes with his desires and frustrations. While some of the supporting characters remain one-dimensional, Animal's voice—a mélange of grit, pointed social criticism, profanity and lust—brings to life what could have become a tendentious parable, and his struggles personalize the novel's grand themes of secrecy, betrayal and unexpected acts of love and kindness. Sinha balances big issues with an intimate depiction of life at its bleakest.
Publishers Weekly
Last year's Man Booker Prize winner is a story with a message: Animal is a teenage boy who lives on the streets of the Indian city of Khaufpur. He goes around on all fours since his spine is badly damaged; he cannot walk normally. As an infant, he was one of the thousands of victims of a poison gas leak at an American-owned company, here just called "the Kampani." Animal also lost his parents "that night" (as the local people refer to the horrible event). Animal has a lively mind and a way with words, some of them angry and profane, some of them bitterly funny, as he gets caught up in the struggle of those in Khaufpur who seek long-delayed justice from the Kampani. Sinha, who frequently contributes to bhopal.net, has clearly based his story on the human and environmental disaster at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in 1984. The result is a gripping novel that also reminds us of a continuing real-life tragedy. Recommended for all larger collections.
Library Journal
Take a feisty young cripple, connect him to one of the world's worst industrial disasters, and you have Sinha's extraordinary, incandescent second novel, a Man Booker Prize finalist. Thousands died after an explosion at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, in 1985. The British-Indian Sinha uses the catastrophe as a springboard; it's now years later, but residents of Khaufpur (his name for Bhopal) are still dying from poisons as they battle the Kampani (the company). Grim material, but this is not a grim novel, thanks to Animal, Sinha's narrator, a 19-year-old Khaufpuri. Abandoned on the night of the accident, he was raised in an orphanage; at age six, pains twisted his spine, forcing him to walk on all fours. He left the orphanage for the streets; the name Animal (a child's taunt) became his badge of pride. Smart, tough, sneaky, horny and improbably upbeat, Animal is an astonishing creation with a bawdy, layered narrative voice, seasoned with scraps of French and Hindi. His story is inextricably linked to that of his wounded yet still hustling city. The plot revolves around the campaign against the Kampani waged by Zafar, a saintly young college graduate beloved by the poor. The other main characters are Zafar's sweetheart, Nisha, coveted by Animal, and her father Somraj, a famous singer until the poisons destroyed his lungs. Zafar's campaign is complicated by the arrival of Elli Barber, an attractive American doctor opening a free clinic. Suspecting she is a company stooge, Zafar imposes a boycott. Meanwhile, Animal is working to detach Nisha from her man, and why not? He's capable of devotion; he's got a fine torso; and he's hung like a horse. There's a gripping climax as company lawyers arrive and Zafar's hunger strike threatens to kill him. A double triumph for Sinha: The plight of the world's powerless has seldom been conveyed more powerfully, while Animal is destined to be one of fiction's immortals.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What does Animal mean when he says he "used to be human once"? What does being human mean to Animal? What does Animal believe it would take for him to "become human" again? Does Animal get his wish?
2. Who is Khã-in-the-Jar and what does he want from Animal? What do Khã-in-the-Jar and the others like him represent for Animal? How are readers to understand and make sense of Khã-in-the-Jar?
3. What is the significance of names in the story? How do the names of individuals and things both suggest and obscure their meaning or value? What is the significance of the book's title, Animal's People?
4. As outsiders, both Zafar and Elli attempt to help the people of Khaufpur. Compare and contrast their approaches. What are the costs and benefits of each? With whom did you find yourself most sympathetic? Why?
5. What does Animal mean when he says that time does not exist for the poor? Why must all things be "now o'clock"?
6. Who or what is Kampani? What do Zafar's dream and Elli's confessions reveal about Kampani?
7. Animal, Ma Franci, and Zafar conceive of "that night" and its repercussions in unique and specific ways. Detail how each understands and makes sense of the events of "that night" and why the disaster occurred. How does each believe "that night" should be resolved for the people of Khaufpur? With whom do you find yourself in most agreement? Why?
8. What happened during the night of the factory fire? What is the significance of the mysterious woman clad in burqa with a broom? What parts did Animal, Ma Franci, and others play in that fateful event? What did the fire mean for the community, for Animal? What rolewill it play for them in the future?
9. To what does Elli, Animal, and Somraj's discussion of music and its relationship to promises refer? What do the music and promises metaphors tell us? What do they tell Animal? Do these metaphors continue to resonate for Animal at the end of his tale? Why or why not?
10. Animal's People has been described as a book that "has its roots in unspeakable tragedy, but manages to stay upbeat, darkly funny, and utterly devoid of self-pity." Do you agree with this statement? Discuss some of the key elements of the story that validate/invalidate this claim.
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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