Whether you’re an animal lover or not, this book is disturbing to read. There is detail description of animal experimentation.

The writing is everywhere matching the craziness of Doctor Rat. There no clear plot until 50% of the story. Relying heavily on it massage of animal cruelty.
The dark is hard to get in to with the gruesome descriptions. I like dark humor but, this was off putting.

Points:

Characters: 4/5

Plot: 2/5

Writing: 2/5

Total: 8/20= 2 *stars* ( )

This book defies easy description by the plain simple fact that it transcends itself, over and over.

I mean, it starts out with Doctor Rat, a grant-subsidized scientist performing experiments on other animals in a way that seems like a diatribe against animal experimentation, but along with his poetry and his singing, he goes well beyond that kind of tale by out-doing the sheer evil of the Nazi scientists in WWII, becoming an anti-revolutionary bastion, and out Darth Vadering Darth Vader.

Did I laugh my head off at the point where he had his commentaries about human musicians pulling a David Attenborough on the whales while they waxed rhapsodic about how smart they were? Yes!

But when we get to a full revolution (remember, this book came out in 1977) of the animals versus the humans, with Doctor in his finest, most horrific mode, this book becomes a full world-war as tragic, scary, and bats**t insane as any of the best war documentaries. It's bloody, full of truly terrible biological warfare, and when whole battalions of elephants get... hey! Well... no spoilers... it's... brilliant. Disgusting. And amazing.

This satire goes WELL beyond its humble beginnings and skewers everything it touches.

Oh, and it makes a good case to stop castrating rats. Just imagine... if this one rat had not been castrated, then so much tragedy could have been avoided...

( )

too dark for me.

Dr. Rat, incarcerated in an animal experimentation facility at a university, has been driven insane by his treatment and is now a sycophant and cheerleader for the researchers, although they don’t realize it, since he’s a lab rat. He’s probably the only rat that quotes St. Thomas Aquinas: “Animals have no soul!”

As he rules over the lab, in his mind anyway, animals across the globe are gathering together in vast meetings, drawn, compelled by an unknown force. They are just waiting for man. When man does come, disaster results. In the lab, the animals are revolting too. Dr. Rat is the only one on the side of the researchers.

It’s easy to read Dr. Rat as a blistering polemic against the mistreatment of animals by man, mainly through now disgraced animal research. And maybe this book helped the cause, but it also is darkly hilarious and a wonderful story, both Kotzwinkle trademarks. ( )

Very clever & funny - includes a bit of wisdom, too. Recommended for fans of Vivian Vande Velde and maybe Sharon Shinn. ( )