Animal's People

ANIMAL’S PEOPLE

by Indra Sinha

 

Nominations: Booker Finalist 2007, Dublin Finalist 2009

 

Date Read: November 15, 2022

 

I can’t lie: I was really not looking forward to this novel. Reading about a young man who is permanently doubled over and is forced to walk on all fours through the slums of India sounded so depressing. This novel is an absolute joy, even through the hardships and misery and hopelessness. You cannot help but fall in love with Animal and his people.

 

The premise is simple and all-too plausible. Animal lives in Khaufpur, a town where an American company (Kampani) had a chemical factory and one day the factory blew up, killing all in its path. Those who weren’t killed were disabled in numerous and terrible ways. Although Animal was orphaned, he survived relatively unscathed and was taken in by French nuns. Several years later, while in the orphanage, Animal seemed to get sick and the illness slowly tortured and twisted his body until his spine was bent in half and he was permanently disfigured.

 

Animal has learned to survive in a cruel Khaufpur by scams, scavenging and begging. He has also surrounded himself with a chosen family, comprised of those who are in similar circumstances. Yet one day, his life is changed forever when he meets Nisha and she invites Animal to her house for lunch. He thought she was being flippant and did not go but she searched for him the following day and insisted he come with home with her. There he meets Zafar, who has renounced his privileged life to fight for justice from the American chemical executives.

 

Everyone in the neighborhood respects and reveres Zafar. They listen and obey his plans, including boycotting a clinic that was recently opened by an American doctor named Elli. Zafar believes Elli was sent by the Americans to conduct a health study that will enable them to evade liability for the health problems they left behind. Regardless how much she insists she has come of her own will and funding, Zafar encourages the neighborhood to boycott her clinic, despite how desperately the community could benefit from her help.

 

There is a beautiful side story of how Elli falls in love with the ever-stoic Somraj, Nisha’s musician father. There is a mystical side to Animal that allows him to experience other’s thoughts and feelings, putting him in communion with others and nature. There is a lovely and profoundly sad exploration of Animal’s sexuality, a human drive that will never really be satisfied because of his disability and yet, when he is with a prostitute, all he wants is human contact and to explore her parts rather than actually have sex.

 

This entire novel is astoundingly sad, frustrating and beautiful. I fell in love with each of these characters and the ending was incredibly satisfying. Even when confronted with the one thing Animal wants the most – to walk like a normal man – he realizes that he would be trading his ability to run on all fours and his powerful arms and chest to sit in a wheelchair or hobble with crutches. Which life is better?

 

I would read this one again and again. And I am crushing hard on Sinha. Just goes to show that this project is full of surprises.