#oa:3.5

[youngestrunningleek]

The Rat by Günter Gross

Diversity win! The rodent psychically tormenting the last man alive is a woman!

Happy Rattober, everybody. I am posting some Rattober stuff on my art blog. I aim to draw every day, though I might not post every day and instead do some round-ups at the end of a week.

Anyway. Today’s book to review is the novel The Rat, written in 1986 by Günter Grass and translated by Ralph Mannheim. This might be my first translated rat book!

As a heads up, this review will touch on the Holocaust and themes related to treating people as vermin.

As another caveat, I read this book in 2022, more than 3 years ago. I have notes from the time when I read it, but I’d probably have different takeaways if I read it now. But I am not about to reread this book. It’s a big, hundreds-of-pages-long piece of literature with nested stories and sequences that may or may not be dreams.

So, yeah, this book is about… um… I’m trailing off already. One thing that this book is about is the author, being in a spaceship and witnessing the end of the world. He has a she-rat (the original title is Die Rättin, “The Rattess”) and she’s arguing with him in his head.

There’s rats building their own society, complete with religious schisms, after humans die off from nuclear bombs; there’s an old woman’s funeral and a lot of Smurfs; there’s fairy tale characters taking over the government; there’s the Pied Piper and a bunch of children and their Aryan rat-man offspring; there’s references to other works by Grass (sorry bro I haven’t read The Tin Drum); there’s five women researching jellyfish on this quest, who are kind of reminiscent of Annihilation come to think of it?; there’s German history and this one painting forger; there’s poetry that I didn’t really follow (but I’m sure Ralph Mannheim did his best); there’s debates about which dream is the real dream or if it’s all just a hallucination, and if it is, whose hallucination is it…

It’s a thick novel! This is probably the highest-reading-level book that I have reviewed. If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing that you will like. The nested narratives twist around and show up in each other in different ways. A book club could help, with the whole story-within-a-story-within-a-story-within-a-story part.

All this said, I did like it. It really gets into the thing that kicked off my rat obsession in the first place, so many years ago— how rats are a mirror to humanity. The book really looks into what “civilization” is, what human nature is, and what it means to be vermin. There are also stories about stories. (I promise the Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents review is forthcoming!) It has funny parts, and sad parts, and things that will make you angry, or scared, or happy. It covers a lot of themes and a lot of emotional ground.

I said this about The Coming of the Rats, as well— I find a weird solace in old books about nuclear weapons. It’s a cold comfort, but a comfort nonetheless, to know that decades ago people also worried that the world would end. And it didn’t!

Let’s talk about the German context. Some parts of it I missed, like placenames. But this book does explicitly mention the Holocaust and how Jewish people were treated as vermin. (I’m not sure if I’ll ever do a Maus review, but, yeah, similar theme.) Grass mentions being a Hitler Cub or something like that, which was startling. But what else could I expect from a German guy born in 1927? Humans are so complicated.

I wrote in my notes that it felt like panning for gold. Sometimes I could understand the book and enjoyed it, and other times I got nothing from it. There’s a reason I normally stick to children’s books.

Rats, huh? My rat obsession really kicked in during COVID lockdowns. Year of the Rat, plague overtaking the world, that sort of thing. Today, I feel like I’m a unique kind of rat loving sicko. I can enjoy the history of plague and rat-hunting, and also love the most wholesome smol fancy rats. They have high highs, and low lows. Sometimes rats are a symbol of filth, disgust, and entropy itself. But the exact same species can just as easily be the cutest thing on the face of the Earth. Or just a funny little guy from a meme. You could say the different facets detract from each other, but I think they actually enhance one another. Like humans, these different things are all true at once.

I’ll say it again— if this is the sort of thing you like, then you will like this thing. My overall rating was 3.5, and my personal rating was 3.

[youngestrunningleek]

The Mistmantle Chronicles, Book 5: Urchin and the Rage Tide

We’re going through the mists, one last time…

Today I’m reviewing the fifth and final book in the Mistmantle Chronicles.

Yeah, yeah, at this point people know the drill. There’s a lovely island inhabited with moles, otters, hedgehogs, and squirrels. Spoilers ahead. This book (written by M. I. McAllister, illustrated by Omar Rayyan, published in 2010) features Mistmantle getting hit with an awful storm called the Rage Tide. There’s also a charismatic troublemaker named Mossberry.

The first thing I have to say is something embarrassing.

This entire time, I’ve been thinking that the animals were human-sized. It was the way they talked about food. I thought, surely they’re treating acorns the way we would. They pick up sea urchins like they’re hand-sized. A fish for us is part of a meal, but for small animals one fish would be a feast for several creatures.

But, no. I’m the world’s biggest goof. There is a castle built in the roots of a tree. There’s simply no way they’re not to scale with real world animals.

But they do age like humans. This book (finally) gives us an exact number on the time that passes! Eight years. Our hero Urchin is full grown, with a page of his own.

The beginning is a pure delight, as it should be. If your fantasy book about squirrels doesn’t have a joyful winter solstice party at the beginning, what are you even doing? No, really. It’s so essential to show why this world is worth protecting and treasuring.

From there… that’s where the pacing gets funny. These books will not-infrequently have confusing timelines, where island-wide events happen in just a few days or a few hours.

There’s a warning about the storm during the solstice party. Meanwhile, Mossberry the squirrel is undermining animals’ belief in the monarchy and Brother Juniper. Chapter 3 has Urchin discovering that, and asking Mossberry’s followers to explain what’s going on. Chapter 4 has the beginning of the Rage Tide and the confrontation with Mossberry. And by chapter 5, it’s over.

After that, I was like… wait, what is this book about?

There’s a pair of children who are missing for a few chapters. I was never really invested. Urchin’s page leaves the island to look for Sepia, who got washed away. And ultimately it turns out there is another Rage Tide coming toward Mistmantle. But all in all, I think the confrontation with Mossberry was rushed.

Honestly, I dislike the addition of Mossberry. Book 3 already had irrational fear and mistrust being the enemy (and Linty, who mistakenly believed she had to hide Princess Catkin). After so many books where I was positively surprised by the treatment of disability… Mossberry is kind of just “evil because he’s crazy”.

He’s delusional and it’s not explained in any detail like it was for Linty. He spends most of the book in a cell yelling obscenities. There was one bit of sympathy that I liked: Padra the otter captain says that Mossberry can’t get away from himself. Anyone else can just go away, but Mossberry’s stuck with himself. But overall, it’s not ideal.

Two further notes about disability: the otter scribe Tay is described as using a wheelchair. We get no further description. I want to see how an otter wheelchair works!

Also, at the end of the last book, the squirrel Scatter got injured. She started as a maid for Lady Aspen, and even years after Aspen was revealed as a murderous traitor Scatter was loyal and carefully maintained her grave. Scatter was injured during the Raven War and couldn’t walk anymore. But unless I missed it, Scatter isn’t mentioned at all in this final book. It’s just interesting that she’s been around since book 1 but didn’t appear at all in this one. Especially since we know animal wheelchairs apparently exist!

Some notes about species equality:

Overall, this series handles it the best out of most series I’ve read. I love the balance between making species matter (otters tend to like the water, squirrels leap through trees) and subverting the generalizations (not all moles hate the water, and Hope the hedgehog is just as good at digging as the best moles). Mistmantle has an otter scribe in the beginning, but a squirrel trains under her and takes over. We see some squirrel priests, but in this book an otter is training to be the next one and it’s not unusual.

The second chapter has a discussion about captains. They want at least one captain for each of the species, but they’re also concerned that would mean not choosing the best animals for the job. So basically they’re talking about affirmative action. It’s just interesting.

In spite of being the fifth book, the book does a good job of introducing things and explaining them (which is awesome in a children’s book). McAllister really knows her stuff.

I could just be getting fonder of the books. But I really think Rayyan has been improving, book-by-book. His art’s really sensational.

To get back to Sepia, the squirrel washed away early on: she and Urchin are kinda-together in this book. In the last review, I mentioned how funny I thought it was when Queen Cedar basically shrugged and guessed Urchin might be interested in Sepia. I buy the relationship in this book— they’re two likeable characters with a lot of positive traits. Eight years is plenty of time for feelings to develop.

But it’s also interesting to me since it’s another off-screen romance. We get the eight year timeskip, now they’re in love, and even during this book they mainly just think about each other because they’re separated. These are highly platonic books, with a lot of focus on the strong non-romantic relationships.

Before Sepia can get back to the island, though, there’s a sacrifice. One of the big details of the book which I haven’t mentioned yet is that King Crispin has to trade his life for Sepia’s.

It did get me. Knowing this book series was ending, and seeing this character I’ve known for five books, made me sad.

But if I’m honest, that emotional punch is one of the big things keeping this book afloat for me. This book would be notably worse, for me, if it didn’t have that emotional aspect. And I wish the death had happened in a better book.

The books say that Crispin was actually injured ever since the Raven War in the last book. It’s weak writing. He was technically on the verge of death buying time for eight years, except no one really noticed, so…? It’s too convenient.

These are generally great ensemble-cast fantasy books, though. We see the young people growing into the next generation of adults safeguarding the island, with proteges of their own. I love that.

I also want to talk about faith. There’s a perspective in these books that I hadn’t quite seen before.

I think this series has a uniquely positive view of religion, while also not just being pro-Christianity. Children’s books will sometimes have Christian elements that, y’know, bring up a lot of weird questions. What does it mean if Redwall characters are talking about Satan?! Or maybe they have basically-Christianity, but with different names.

But in this world, faith truly is a positive force. The books aren’t unquestioningly saying that we should believe. It’s not “the Heart is like God and that’s why it’s good and we should believe in it”. We legitimately see the power of the Heart. Plenty of times in every book, people pray because it’s all they can do.

It makes a lot of sense, because McAllister is married to a minister. The author bio in all the books is something like “M. I. McAllister wrote the Mistmantle Chronicles, she has children, she lives in England, and she’s married to a minister.” So clearly, faith is important to her. But it’s also fascinating that someone like that didn’t just make mouse-Christianity. The books have their own faith which is very different in some ways.

Getting back to this book, in particular: one of the ideas for how to get Sepia back through the mists (since she left via water, she can’t return that way) is to bring her the Heartstone. In book two, that’s how Urchin and Juniper miraculously came back via water. They unknowingly had the Heartstone on their ship.

But, this book explains that the Heartstone isn’t just a magic relic. It’s not an exact science and besides, it would be wrong to treat the Heartstone as a tool to get through the mists.

I would never come up with that perspective. I’m not religious, so to me it really would just be a magic item for gaming the system. The books really show-don’t-tell why faith matters. It’s awesome.

On a lighter note— McAllister also seems to enjoy scenes where one character is like “I’ve failed you, my King. Take back this sword, I don’t deserve it, I’ve done such a bad job here that I have to resign”. And then the King is like “no, you’re so good at your job I won’t let you!”.

And you know what? She’s darn right! It’s so cool! Great trope!

My personal rating for this book: 4

Overall rating: 3.5

Also, I haven’t done this before, but I want to rank the series as a whole. The Mistmantle Chronicles has truly been an unexpected joy for me. These past few months have had plenty of days when I really needed stories about loyal animals who love each other. And most importantly, stories written at an easy reading level. But they also start to bring in serious themes, and they generally treat them in a positive way. I have never read a better series in this genre. I highly, highly, highly recommend them.

My personal rating for this series: 4.5

Overall: 4.5

[youngestrunningleek]

Beaverland by Leila Philip

Beavers, round two, baby!

Content warning: this review will talk about colonialism and slavery.

The meta-story here is that I recently read Beaverland (in late February and early March, 2024). But, I felt like I had to review Eager first. And, well, now it’s July, but I still read the book relatively recently! So, here it is. Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America was published in 2022. It's a nonfiction book by Leila Philip.

I got very, very excited about this book because my one big gripe with Eager was that it didn't talk enough about the social circumstances and history. This one is more aware! And on top of that, Philips is local to my area! I loved it from the start, for that reason.

I could definitely tell this was someone with a background in English, not science. It was also more focused on the fur trade.

Politics came up more than I was expecting. This book came out in 2022, rather than 2018 like Eager. (I imagine that much of the research for Eager happened before 2016.) Philips writes a lot about being a liberal college professor woman among these conservative hunters and trappers.

It was unsteadying, to me. I want simple good guys/bad guys. Us versus them. But sometimes the trappers are the also conservationists. Sometimes they're doing something I'd consider cultural appropriation, but they come from incredibly difficult life circumstances and that's what's working for them. Maybe they clash with their PETA family members and also hate the NRA. It's complicated.

I'm curious about the process of writing this book, because different chapters felt very different from each other. COVID lockdowns happened in the middle of her research, which probably didn’t help.

Unfortunately, I found the writing a bit disjointed. Sometimes I would be learning about water flow, but then find myself reading a description of some flowers Philips saw. I felt like I got interrupted.

Different chapters often (but not always) talked about colonialism in a self-aware manner, but it wasn't always treated the same. One chapter might be a history of the fur trade, essentially told from European settlers’ perspective, while other chapters really engaged with that history.

I hate to say it, but it felt melodramatic at moments. I wish it had been more concise. One of the chapters is about stone walls, which are classic features of New England. She reveals that a lot of them were made by enslaved African and Indigenous people. That was impactful for me to learn. I didn’t know that, and it’s a fact about something I considered a beloved feature of my home. Unfortunately, I felt like Philip buried the lead so it didn’t land as strongly as it could have.

I know that choosing to write from your own perspective is a choice, rather than trying to be a perfectly objective narrator. Still, it could have been done better.

All this said, I did enjoy the book. And I learned great beaver facts! I might even recommend it more than Eager. Honestly, both are great if you want to learn more about these animals.

Some of the beaver facts I learned: they’re best to trap in the Winter, because in the Summer their pelts are too thin, you can’t use the meat because of parasites, and besides they have kits inside the dam that would starve. Meat from beavers trapped in the Winter is dark, almost purple-red, because it has so much hemoglobin for storing oxygen. The further north beavers are, the deeper the water they need (because ponds freeze over).

Their pelts have more hairs in an area the size of a postage stamp than humans have on their entire head!

In the past, beaver meat (especially the tail) was considered a delicacy in Europe because it was considered “cold”. Christians could eat it on fast days. That’s ironic since previous civilizations had considered their tails as aphrodisiacs. (Bonus fact: did you know alligators are seafood? They’re okay to eat on fast days, too! Go wild, New Orleans.)

Humans find a pinch point in rivers and build very high dams. Beavers like to build low, and they don’t really care how long their dam is.

Maybe this review seemed hard on the book, but I truly did love it. I think it could have been so much more, and I really desperately wanted it to be better.

My personal ranking: 3 (but the first two or three chapters are a 5)

My overall ranking: 3.5

[youngestrunningleek]

Eager, by Ben Goldfarb

I’m back with a beaver book! Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter is a nonfiction book from 2018 by Ben Goldfarb.

As a disclaimer, I read this book over two years ago, in 2022, but I’m working off notes I took when I first read it.

Eager is a bit of a cult classic, in my opinion. No, it's not widely famous, but people who read this book are likely to recommend it. It’s one of those nonfiction books that really cracks your brain open and makes you see the world differently. Goldfarb makes a pretty convincing argument that beavers are on par with humans as ecosystem engineers. He even says we should call this the Castorocene (like how people call this era the Anthropocene).

I found the writing evocative and almost too wordy, which made it hard to read. He teaches about amazing biology facts, which I'll talk more about later. He also gets into their role in human history, with fur trading, and also the way their ecosystem engineering clashes with humans.

The majority of the book is about beaver believers, people who think restoring beavers to habitats could massively improve the world. There's a bucket and a half of benefits, from sequestering carbon, to increasing biodiversity, to catching damaging runoff, to refreshing aquifers.

Predictably, I wanted him to talk more about the colonization and violence of history. That's very relevant when you're talking about conservation and overhunting of species in the United States. But all things considered, it wasn't too bad.

This book might seem a far cry from Desperaux, or Redwall, or the Rats of NIMH. But one of the reasons I'm so fascinated by rodents is that they literally and metaphorically gnaw away at our world. Humans want to impose our order on the world. But as long as a space is well-suited to beavers, they're going to keep coming back, and coming back, and coming back.

We want to put roads in straight lines. We want rivers to be static lines you plot on a map. We want nature to be clean and simple, but beavers upturn all of that.

I also learned about cultural carrying capacity from this book, which is different from biological carrying capacity. Maybe a town has enough space, food, etc, for 800 deer. Long before we hit that number, they're going to exceed their cultural carrying capacity among humans, and the humans are going to get rid of them. Cultural carrying capacity is far more flexible, though. If you educate people about beavers and get them really excited, they're less likely to see them as pests.

This book is also where I learned about culverts. Culverts are unsung heroes! They're basically miniature tunnels that let water go underneath roads. And they're also extremely beaver-prone. But, there are "beaver deceivers" that you can put into dams that will let some water through.

Now that the review section is over, I can tell y’all more of the cool beaver facts from the book:

Did you know about devils’ corkscrews? Such a cool name. These are fossils from the Southwest US that look like a giant stone spiral. For a long time, no one knew where they were from. Maybe some extinct species of plant? But they were actually burrows made by paleocastor, ancient relatives of beavers!

Beavers have an extra pair of transparent eyelids, so they can see underwater. They also have lips behind their teeth for underwater chewing. Their tails can communicate by slapping the water as an alarm, plus they can regulate heat, paddle, store fat, and serve as props when gnawing. Also, do you know why beavers have orange front teeth? They're reinforced with iron! Beavers are so cool!

They are super impressive architects, too. When they're gnawing down a tree, it will usually fall toward their dam so that it will be easier to transport. They don't have to hibernate because their lodges are so warm.

And, did you know why they're called "castor" and their scent is castoreum? It's related to "castrated". People used to think beavers would gnaw off their testicles to distract hunters. In reality, beavers truly are difficult to sex. They have internal genitalia.

Oh, and have you heard about the beaver paratroopers? The US government dropped beavers out of planes because they knew how much economic benefit they could bring.

Okay, this post was 90% just listing the cool facts I learned from this book, and not a review of the book itself. But those are the notes I wrote down. Beavers are really cool.

With the caveat that this was a ranking from 2 years ago:

My personal rating is 3.5

My overall rating is 3.5