On Animals

by Susan Orlean

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Magnificent.” —The New York Times * “Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny.” —San Francisco Chronicle * “Spectacular.” —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) * “Full of astonishments.” —The Boston Globe

Susan Orlean—the beloved New Yorker staff writer hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Library Book—gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals.

“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.

These stories consider a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers—something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world’s most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world’s hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home.

Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982181550
Publisher:	Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	11,017
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Twitter @SusanOrlean.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Animalish 1

The It Bird 19

Show Dog 33

The Lady and the Tigers 43

Riding High 61

Little Wing 75

Animal Action 91

Where's Willy? 103

Carbonaro and Primavera 123

Lifelike 129

Lion Whisperer 141

The Rabbit Outbreak 157

The Perfect Beast 173

Lost Dog 179

Where Donkeys Deliver 193

Farmville 207

Acknowledgments 237

Essay Credits 239

Illustration Credits 241

Editorial Reviews

08/30/2021

New Yorker staff writer Orlean (The Library Book) delivers an entertaining and informative look at various animals in this clever collection of essays. According to Orlean, her “animalish” personality has driven her to track down critters her whole life, as well as stories of humans as animalish as she. In “Lady and the Tigers,” she profiles a tiger owner in Jackson, N.J., while “Little Wing” sees her documenting a teenager’s relationship to her carrier pigeons in Boston. The essays are well researched and showcase a keen journalistic eye, as in “Lion Whisperer,” which covers Kevin Richardson’s frolicsome relationship with lions, and “The Rabbit Outbreak,” which details the spread of a disease in rabbits across the globe. Orlean’s prose dazzles when she uses human metaphors to describe the natural world, conjuring up hilariously vivid images: Biff, a show dog, has “the earnest and slightly careworn expression of a smalltown mayor”; Keiko the whale, who starred in Free Willy, is “a middle-aged piebald virgin living as good a life as captivity could offer”; and carrier pigeons are “muttering to themselves like old men in a bingo hall.” While not all the essays land (some leave something to be desired in Orlean’s examination of the human-animal relationship), they’re nonetheless packed with spirit. Animal lovers will find much to savor. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Every essay in the book is magnificent. . . . Part of what makes this book so immensely readable is the coupling of a brilliant essayist’s friendly, funny voice with a committed generalist’s all-embracing curiosity. There appears to be nothing in the world that doesn’t interest Orlean, and she has such a companionable way of conveying her fascinations that readers can’t help being fascinated too. . . . [Orlean] is a writer who sees crucial connections between animals and people. This emphasis on interconnectedness emerges not just from one essay after another but also from the cumulative effect of the collection as a whole. Even more than the linguistic pyrotechnics, the friendly wit or the mesmerizing storytelling, that’s the true gift of On Animals.”
—Margaret Renkl, The New York Times Book Review

“Original, perceptive, and clever . . . Orlean excels as a reporter. . . . Her pages are crammed with quirky characters, telling details, and flabbergasting facts. Readers will find these pages full of astonishments. . . . Even though Orlean claims the animals she writes about remain enigmas, she makes us care about their fates. Readers will continue to think about these dogs and donkeys, tigers and lions, chickens and pigeons long after we close the book’s covers.”
—Sy Montgomery, Boston Globe

“Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny . . . Beware: Cuddling up with On Animals is even more absorbing than watching a bear rummage through a Tahoe kitchen on YouTube.”
—Rachel Levin, San Francisco Chronicle

“A close read of her new book suggests that beneath the surface variety of subjects and locales in her writing, there’s an underlying unity: heedless, headlong enthusiasm. . . . She is a moth drawn to moths who are drawn to the flame. . . . Ms. Orlean has a rare knack for finding these people, and an even rarer one for starting them talking. . . . Do not underestimate her curiosity, or the sharpness of her eyes.”
—Jeremy McCarter, The Wall Street Journal

“Spectacular . . . One is likely to imagine Susan Orlean’s eyes sparkling as she composed the essays in On Animals. . . . Orlean strikes a perfect balance between hilarious and informative. . . . Orlean has a gift for the indelible detail. . . . Readers fond of seemingly effortless writing about animals will savor this book.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“She relies on her powers of observation, conveyed with unflappable curiosity. . . . Orlean is committed to investigating the dizzying multiplicity of roles animals serve—employee, best friend, harbinger of climate change—and the places where those functions intersect.”
—Margaret Wappler, Los Angeles Times

“A broad meditation on how the connections we make, or fail to make, with animals mark us profoundly along our human journey . . . Orlean’s tone is conversational and self-questioning.”
—USA Today (4 out of 4 stars)

“Fabulously fun . . . Orlean is such a virtuoso of unexpected joys and delights that she can make even the story of a lost dog read like a thriller. . . . Orlean’s high-octane enthusiasm never wanes. . . . Orlean’s readers will find themselves completely diverted by On Animals’ irresistible menagerie.”
—BookPage (starred review)

“Delightful . . . Another winner featuring the author’s trademark blend of meticulous research and scintillating writing.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Entertaining and informative . . . Orlean’s prose dazzles . . . Animal lovers will find much to savor.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Vibrant . . . A revelry for readers wild for animals . . . Orlean’s deep pleasure in learning startling facts, her often wry tales about her personal life, her omnivorous attention to detail, and her juggler’s skill with words yield vivid, provocative, amusing, and wondrous stories.”
—Booklist

PRAISE FOR THE LIBRARY BOOK:

“Moving . . . A constant pleasure to read . . . Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book. . . . Orlean, a longtime New Yorker writer, has been captivating us with human stories for decades, and her latest book is a wide-ranging, deeply personal, and terrifically engaging investigation of humanity’s bulwark against oblivion: the library. . . . As a narrator, Orlean moves like fire herself, with a pyrotechnic style that smolders for a time over some ancient bibliographic tragedy, leaps to the latest technique in book restoration, and then illuminates the story of a wildly eccentric librarian. Along the way, we learn how libraries have evolved, responded to depressions and wars, and generally thrived despite a constant struggle for funds. Over the holidays, every booklover in America is going to give or get this book. . . . You can’t help but finish The Library Book and feel grateful that these marvelous places belong to us all.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“A sheer delight. . . . Orlean has created a book as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library.”
—Chris Woodyard, USA Today

“Exquisitely written, consistently entertaining . . . A loving tribute not just to a place or an institution but to an idea . . . What makes The Library Book so enjoyable is the sense of discovery that propels it, the buoyancy when Orlean is surprised or moved by what she finds. . . . Her depiction of the Central Library fire on April 29, 1986, is so rich with specifics that it’s like a blast of heat erupting from the page. . . . The Library Book is about the fire and the mystery of how it started—but in some ways that’s the least of it. It’s also a history of libraries, and of a particular library, as well as the personal story of Orlean and her mother, who was losing her memory to dementia while Orlean was retrieving her own memories by writing this book.”
—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“Captivating . . . A delightful love letter to public libraries . . . In telling the story of this one library, Orlean reminds readers of the spirit of them all, their mission to welcome and equalize and inform, the wonderful depths and potential that they—and maybe all of us, as well—contain. . . . In other hands the book would have been a notebook dump, packed with random facts that weren’t germane but felt too hard-won or remarkable to omit. Orlean’s lapidary skills include both unearthing the data and carving a storyline out of the sprawl, piling up such copious and relevant details that I wondered how many mountains of research she discarded for each page of jewels.”
—Rebekah Denn, Christian Science Monitor

“A flitting and meandering masterpiece . . . Compelling and undeniably riveting . . . This is a joyful book, and among its many pleasures is the reader’s ability to palpate the author’s thrill as she zooms down from stratospheric viewings of history, to viscerally detailed observations of events and people, and finally to the kind of irresistibly offbeat facts that create an equally irresistible portrait of the author herself.”
—J. C. Hallman, San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher

10/01/2021

When a writer pairs their passions with their work, it shows. Inspired by her lifelong love of animals, Orlean (The Library Book; The Orchid Thief) has spent decades researching and writing about animals, as well as caring for creatures of her own. This collection of previously published essays (which appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and Smithsonian Magazine) covers subjects as diverse as homing pigeons, keeping backyard chickens, and a New Jersey woman with 23 tigers in her yard. Orlean's writing is energetic and her joy in the subject matter shines through in the introduction, where she discusses her early love for animals, and in each essay. Readers who have long appreciated her writing will enjoy having her past essays compiled here, accompanied by illustrations. The original publication dates of the essays appear only in the back matter and not next to the essays themselves; this might confuse readers who are encountering one of the essays for the first time and don't know its historical context. For example, Orlean's 2002 essay about Keiko, of Free Willy fame, ends with him frolicking in open water (the killer whale died in 2003). VERDICT Fans of Orlean's prolific writing will be happy to have these favorites in one set.—Elissa Cooper, Helen Plum Memorial Lib., Lombard, IL

Library Journal

Susan Orlean has a thing about animals, particularly those that might be kept as pets. In this entertaining book, which she narrates herself, Orlean investigates our intense love of the domesticated animals who steal our hearts, be they chickens, dogs, donkeys, or lions. Orlean has a flattened, nasal voice that is nonetheless engaging. She reads clearly at an unrushed pace with a downbeat delivery that suits the book’s funny situations and quirky, occasionally bizarre, characters. The woman with tigers in rural New Jersey is definitely bizarre, while the owners of the show dog are a tad quirky. As for Orlean herself, she is thrilled when the post office calls to say, “You have a package here, and it’s clucking.” A.C.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

Susan Orlean has a thing about animals, particularly those that might be kept as pets. In this entertaining book, which she narrates herself, Orlean investigates our intense love of the domesticated animals who steal our hearts, be they chickens, dogs, donkeys, or lions. Orlean has a flattened, nasal voice that is nonetheless engaging. She reads clearly at an unrushed pace with a downbeat delivery that suits the book’s funny situations and quirky, occasionally bizarre, characters. The woman with tigers in rural New Jersey is definitely bizarre, while the owners of the show dog are a tad quirky. As for Orlean herself, she is thrilled when the post office calls to say, “You have a package here, and it’s clucking.” A.C.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

★ 2021-07-15
The beloved author gathers a wide-ranging selection of pieces about animals.

“Animals have always been my style,” writes Orlean at the beginning of her latest delightful book, a collection of articles that originally appeared in “slightly modified form” in the Atlantic, Smithsonian, and the New Yorker, where she has been a staff writer since 1992. The variety on display is especially pleasing. Some essays are classic New Yorker profiles: Who knew that tigers, near extinction in the wild, are common household pets? There are at least 15,000 in the U.S. Her subject, a New Jersey woman, keeps several dozen and has been fighting successful court battles over them for decades. Lions are not near extinction, however; in fact, there are too many. Even in Africa, far more live in captivity or on reserves than in the wild, and readers may be shocked at their fate. Cubs are cute, so animal parks profit by allowing visitors to play with them. With reserves at capacity, cubs who mature may end up shot in trophy hunts or in stalls on breeding farms to produce more cubs. In “The Rabbit Outbreak,” Orlean writes about how rabbit meat was an American staple until replaced by beef and chicken after World War II, whereupon rabbit pet ownership surged. They are now “the third-most-popular pet in the country, ranking just behind dogs and cats.” Readers may be aware of the kerfuffle following the hit movie Free Willy that led to a massive campaign to return the film’s killer whale to the wild, and Orlean delivers a fascinating, if unedifying account. The author handles dogs like a virtuoso, with 10 hilarious pages on the wacky, expensive, but sometimes profitable life of a champion show dog. Among America’s 65 million pet dogs (according to a 2003 report), 10 million go astray every year, and about half are recovered. Orlean engagingly recounts a lost-dog search of epic proportions.

Another winner featuring the author’s trademark blend of meticulous research and scintillating writing.

Kirkus Reviews