You'RE an Animal, Viskovitz

Alessandro Boffa

ISBN 10: 0375405283 / ISBN 13: 9780375405280

Published by Random House USA Inc, 2002

About this Item

In this wickedly hilarious collection of fables, Alessandro Boffa introduces us to Viskovitz and his never-ending search for his true love, Ljuba. As he changes from a lovelorn lion to a jealous finch, from a confused dung beetle to an enlightened police dog, Viskovitz embraces his metamorphoses with wry humor and an oftentimes painful sense of self. As an ant, Viskovitz fights his way to the top where his egotism calls on the colony to create a monument to his greatness out of a piece of bread. As a sponge, he is horrified by the inbreeding in his family--I'm my own mother-in-law --and yearns for a change in current so he can mate with Ljuba, who lies downstream. As a mantis, he asks his mother what his father was like, only to hear, Crunchy. A bit salty. High in fiber. Unfortunately, when he meets Ljuba shortly thereafter, he follows his father's fate. And as a scorpion, his uncontrollably deadly efficiency meets its match in Ljuba and finds no way to escape this intolerable, sinister happiness.

Seller Inventory # CIN0375405283G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: You'RE an Animal, Viskovitz
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375405283
• ISBN 13: 9780375405280
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

From Italy, a wildly modern riff on Ovid’s Metamorphoses—a whirlwind of ironic fables in which the central hero, Viskovitz, continually changes identities in pursuit of his one true love.

A snail with two sexes, a parrot who speaks of love, a dormouse who has erotic dreams, a police dog who’s a Buddhist, a microbe with an inferiority complex, a lion in love with a gazelle, a chameleon hoping to find himself, an intestinal worm, a dung beetle . . . Viskovitz is each of these animals and many more, possessed by their behaviors, their neuroses, their vanities. And the gorgeous and impossible Ljuba, the object of Viskovitz’s desire, is in turn a sow, a bitch, a gazelle. There is an animal passion between them that lasts from story to story, but it is the fullness of the human condition that is portrayed most vividly in these hilarious metamorphoses.
Dazzling beginnings lead into plots full of surprises, ranging from slapstick to Western, from cautionary tale to thriller. Scientific jargon is turned into wordplay and witty aphorism; theatrical reversals and philosophical insights abound.

You’re an Animal, Viskovitz! is a triumph of comic inventiveness and intelligence unlike anything we’ve seen before.

About the Author

Alessandro Boffa was born in Moscow. He completed his studies in biology in Rome, and now divides his time between Italy and Thailand. This is his first book.