Wild Animus was originally released in 2004, so I presumed was at one point a big seller. However, Amazon.co.uk are selling the original at a meagre £0.01, and the re-vamped version, including the CDs, from the bargain basement price of £5.50.
If you were to read the blurb on the back of Wild Animus, and I do urge you to as it’s a hoot, you would find yourself even more confused as to what the book is about and what audience it is aimed at. The prominent review is by Climbing Magazine, and the feature extract is “The sweetest kiss leaves a chest wound” – what does this all mean?
I have a theory, profoundly based on the following two lines, “To tell his story, Shapero has crafted a new art form that intricately interweaves book and music. Contained in this box is the complete storytelling experiment: a novel, Wild Animus, and three CDs, The Ram, The Wolves and Animus.”
Within the above lines the word “experiment” leapt off the page with some force. Particularly as I was reading the book in an attempt to work out why they might be giving it away free at the Students’ Union. Now, we are a generation that have been technological guinea-pigs several times; the mobile phone and Facebook to name just two. Wild Animus was already giving me flashbacks to long forgotten evenings, sat listening to Roald Dahl tapes and reading the book simultaneously, when we were what, five or six?
Is this what authors now think we want to read/hear? I sincerely hope not because the only word I have been able to think of to describe it is “tosh”.
