Doctor Rat - Softcover

Kotzwinkle, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1497638348 ISBN 13: 9781497638341

Publisher: Open Road Media, 2014

Synopsis

This World Fantasy Award winner in the vein of Animal Farm delves into a lab worthy of a mad Nazi scientist—but run by a brilliantly sadistic rodent.

In the annals of American literature, there has never been a character quite like Doctor Rat, PhD. From one of the most indispensable storytellers in speculative fiction, this biting satire introduces a narrator of learned charm and humor, and a twisted logic that is absolutely chilling.
 
Doctor Rat is a credit to his species. A survivor of the most refined scientific experiments, now removed from the maze, he has become a valued and productive member of the academic community. When he must administer a lethal dose, he comforts his fellow rats with his compassionate slogan: “Death is freedom.”
 
But everything changes when animals worldwide begin to rebel, refusing to accept their proper places in the natural order of things: as test subjects, pets, or food. And only Doctor Rat has the courage to defend mankind from the ungrateful animal kingdom.
 
Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “dazzlingly original” and “occasionally quite beautiful,” Doctor Rat is a sly and stylish indictment of fanaticism in mice and men.
 
“A truly imaginative impresario . . . [Doctor Rat] teases your conscience with educated wit and versatile improvisation, not to mention the casual flick of the tail about to be cut off.” —Kirkus Reviews
 

About this title

About the Author:

William Kotzwinkle is a novelist, children's writer, and screenwriter. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Kotzwinkle won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for DOCTOR RAT in 1977, and he has also won the National Magazine Award for fiction.

Kotzwinkle wrote the novelization of the screenplay for E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) and also wrote an original follow-up novel E. T. THE BOOK OF THE GREEN PLANET )1985). Among his most popular titles are a series of children's books featuring the title character of the first book in the series, WALTER THE FARTING DOG (2001). To date, there are six titles in the series. Starting with the third book in the series, Kotzwinkle's wife, Elizabeth Gundy is listed a co-author on the titles. 

Review:

"Doctor Rat is dazzlingly original, witty and insanely satiric. It is also occasionally quite beautiful. "A clout from the pen of a modern Zen master of the literary world." New Musical Express
 
"It's as good as Gulliver's Travels and Kotzwinkle is very close to Jonathan Swift... a masterwork by a WAY-out writer." Readers Syndicate
 
"Doctor Rat is a fascinating book, full of deeply felt emotion, important ideas, and heartbreaking insights." Charleston Evening Post

"Kotzwinkle is a truly imaginative impresario of the might-almost-be-true and here he spins a new fable on the cyclometered wheels in the laboratory of Doctor Rat. How can you not enjoy Doctor Rat? It teases your conscience with educated wit and versatile improvisation, not to mention the casual flick of a tail about to be cut off." Kirkus Reviews
 
"A comic triumph... Doctor Rat is thoroughly anthropomorphic, very funny, and not lacking in the bite of truth essential to good satire. " The New Scientist

"Kotzwinkle is always in control. His writing has an eloquent sense of timing and brevity, and his quisling rodent proves to be an ingenious device, one that cleverly wisecracks us into a gut-churning realization of just how self-oriented and inhumane our species really is." Book Letter
 
"A faint but authentic Blakeian echo in Mr. Kotzwinkle's rage gives the book the voltage necessary to bypass insulating ideas and strike right into the emotions." The Listener

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1497638348
• ISBN 13: 9781497638341
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 198