Walker Hamilton (1934–1969)

Good

Bobby is 31 years old but has learning and emotional difficulties and is really a young boy trapped in a man’s body. His mother owns a large department store but when she takes up with a man that Bobby calls “The Fat” things go downhill for Bobby. When she dies he runs away. Written from Bobby’s perspective this is a powerful tale marred slightly by the moustache twirling Fat who felt a little too Eeeevil to be real. Bobby takes up with a Mr Summers who sees it as his job to bury all the small animals that are destroyed by cars in Cornwall and who takes Bobby under his wing. The book is divided into several sections and each section has an illustration of a small dead animal drawn by Seb Howell. This is a book that could probably be read in one sitting (I read it mostly in queues a little at a time) and it is an affecting story.

The opening lines are - I can remember the tune, not the name of it, because I’m no good at names, but the sound of it. I’ll never forget the sound of that tune. I can’t remember the driver man’s face though, and that’s funny really, because I watched him as he died and yet his face is just nothing under black hair in my memory. Poor driver man

Overall - Written in a simplistic style with a very individual voice it is an effective little story… (plus d'informations)

A tremendous, disturbing little novel about confronting and overcoming fear. In his introduction to this long-overdue rerelease, by Http://www.freightbooks.co.uk, Alan Warner points out that

"Roald Dahl, summing up his favourite books of the year, wrote of it:

I got more pleasure from this slim volume than from all the fat novels of the last twelve months put together.

As, I hope, a soon-to-be-reader of this novel, you may encounter a little Joycean irony ( a character's name ) hidden within Dahl's praise."

I suspect Warner meant not only to point out the play on the character's name, but indeed his entire ethos. For unnerving as it is, just reading All The Little Animals leaves one feeling lighter, as though unneeded layers have been sliced through and stripped away. Harrowing, raw, poignant, poetic and brimming both with humanity and road kill. I highly recommend a few hours in Bobby's company. You'll never forget him.… (plus d'informations)

A tremendous, disturbing little novel about confronting and overcoming fear. In his introduction to this long-overdue rerelease, by freight books.co.uk, Alan Warner points out that "Roald Dahl, summing up his favourite books of the year, wrote of it:

I got more pleasure from this slim volume than from all the fat novels of the last twelve months put together.

As, I hope, a soon-to-be-reader of this novel, you may encounter a little Joycean irony ( a character's name ) hidden within Dahl's praise."

I suspect Warner meant not only to point out the play on the character's name, but indeed his entire ethos. For unnerving as it is, just reading All The Little Animals leaves one feeling lighter, as though unneeded layers have been sliced through and stripped away. Harrowing, raw, poignant, poetic and brimming with humanity and road kill. I highly recommend a few hours in Bobby's company. You'll never forget him.… (plus d'informations)