by Paul Russell
For some reason, I have always avoided books with AIDS themes. AIDS was always a depressing subject where I was sure everyone was going to die of. I didn’t want to emotionally get attached (though I know this is crazy) to characters that were terminally ill. I perhaps wrested with my own mortality and depression and I didn’t want to make me feel any worse than I already did.
However, in all this avoidance I finally managed to finish War Against the Animals by Paul Russell. I had prejudices against people with AIDS or in fact any gay person at all. I know, I know, I was self-deprecating when I thought that. I wanted an ideal gay life or love story to read that didn’t involve murder or death. Gay life had to have some kind of happy ending. Yet, alas, life does not have a happy ending, usually the happy ending is as mundane as harvesting that first tomato in your garden, or following your crush in to the bedroom and closing the door. Nothing had to be said. Happy endings are always going to be different. And this novel did have a happy ending, but not overly obvious, which I loved.
The story focuses on two main people, Jesse Vanderhoff and Cameron Barnes. Cameron Barnes has AIDS and lives in an idyllic farmhouse with sprawling gardens next to an foreboding cemetery. The two meet as Cameron needs help to renovate a dilapidated chicken coop in his backyard. Cameron reflects on his youthful days, and Jesse explores the differences in the people he knows and the people moving in to his town. The town they both live in has seen major changes as the current town folk tries to keep their town from changing. Jesse goes through some analyzing of his own life and his own feelings about who his family wants him to be, and who he wants to be for himself.
The great thing about this book is the way Russell is able to take the reader in to the mind of the characters on their journey of discovery. There are hints along the way that make you learn about the true personalities of each of the characters. A sly grin, or the shifting eyes away from the problems. I really felt this book gave me such emotional satisfaction that it was okay if I did not know what was going to happen. I read this entire book in one sitting and I loved every minute of it.
I learned something about myself. I learned that I didn’t like change like how Jesse didn’t, the reason why I didn’t like the change was more than the change itself, the main issue was about losing who I was, like Jesse felt. He felt that he was losing who he was and who he was supposed to be. In the end, something that I haven’t be able to do, Jesse found his way and found his own voice. I still have found that, my own voice and it made me feel a bit jealous. I was actually jealous of a fictional character!
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the emotions one goes through when they finally learn that life isn’t want it was supposed to be.
Review from Entertainment Weekly Aug 15, 2003
The plot — an affluent, ailing middle-aged gay man hires a pair of muscly working-class brothers barely past high school to renovate his Hudson Valley home — could go a lot of different ways: porn, violence, stereotyped culture clash, or poignant friendship building across sociological boundaries. And in his fifth novel, Russell (The Salt Point) indulges in a bit of each. But the overarching mood of his well-observed story is one of inevitability and growing dread. Once he introduces the players — Cameron, a rueful man facing his own mortality; Jesse, an inarticulate, straight-or-is-he? lost soul; and Kyle, a thug willing to use brother Jesse as a sexual pawn if a possible inheritance is at stake — all Russell has to do is pull their strings. When the author stops puppeteering, though, his characters and their plights are resonant and touching.
