Carnival Wolves

By Peter Rock

Book Overview

Alan Johnson is a man ill-at-ease among people and only slightly more comfortable with animals. His story begins in upstate New York with his rescue of an injured Dalmatian who "came down out of the sky and survived the fall, showed me how gradually I have fallen--how I never touch, never really talk to another person...I am hardly a person at all." The dog heals and is returned to its neglectful owner, but Alan Johnson steals it back and heads west in search of what it means to be human. As he crosses the United States, he moves through landscapes full of animals half-tamed and people run wild: a fanatical taxidermist, a lonely woman raising tigers on her remote ranch, a tragic circus chimp named Rufus, contemporary polygamists, and the caretakers of boot camps for troubled youths. They are Carnival Wolves, manifestations of our attempts to tame what is dangerous and wild, distorted reflections of parts of ourselves. After a tortuous journey through various states of depravity--and of America--Alan Johnson ends up in California having reached a reconciliation of instincts and having found a human being he can love. A gripping, hallucinatory read, Carnival Wolves is a provocation, a plea for identification that questions the humanity of its readers and confirms Peter Rock as a unique literary talent.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038549209X
• ISBN13: 9780385492096
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Peter Rock is the real deal

This book is magic, its language like incantation--proof of a brilliant mind and hands at work. I have read it a number of times and its organization is uncanny and ingenious, how it can operate like a novel and a short story collection. The chapter entitled Death's Door is one of the most finely crafted stories I've ever read anywhere. Another chapter was lauded by the O. Henry Award folks. Do yourself a favor. Read his book and tell a friend. Mr. Rock is deserving of the recognition.

funny, provacative, insightful!

This book takes you on cross-country tour of America, shows you some believable and interesting people, in places on and off the beaten track. The people described are the mainstream america we have been waiting to be shown. Each chapter is a story that can stand on its own, which makes for great summer reading.