We the Animals by Justin Torres

 

We the Animals

by Justin Torres

We the Animals follows the lives of three mixed-race brothers: Manny, Joel, and the unnamed narrator (in the movie he is named Jonah). The story centers on their experiences with their often-neglectful parents who fight and love fiercely, behaviors that are reflected in the boys' behaviors toward their parents and one another.

The boys have a strong bond throughout the book, even when they are attacking one another. They are used to corporeal punishment. Their parents were very young teenagers when they had the boys and their inability to focus on their sons' needs is painfully evident as they have a tumultuous relationship of domestic violence and non-consensual sex. The parents' distrust of one another is evident, as Paps continually lets Ma down. They both contribute to the cycle of poverty by making poor decisions that keep them stuck in the life they both wish they could escape. Paps spends money they don't have and Ma keeps going back to him. None of this is lost on the boys, who play-act their parents' roles and conversations; and their own distrust of their parents often rises to the surface when they lash out at them in open and honest displays of anger and hurt.

The boys are wild and their behaviors are often encouraged by their parents. They are fierce in their love for one another. But the story takes a quick turn at the end when they are older and the family discovers that Jonah is gay and has been keeping a journal of all of his thoughts about men and what he wants them to do to him. The family confronts him with the journal and has him committed to an institution--I assume, to "fix" him. He lashes out angrily at them. But Jonah, despite their revulsion for his homosexuality, is the Golden Child, the smart one who has a chance to get out of that place and make something of himself. They show him remarkable care at the end, especially in the scene where Paps bathes him before they take him away. The whole ending is a mixture of love and disgust.

I don't know entirely how I feel about We the Animals. It was powerful in its honest depiction of poverty, love, and hurt in a family that loves fiercely through is dysfunction. I wish the book was longer, exploring more of the boys lives as teens and how they got to the point of the ending; where exactly they began to turn on Jonah, because they do end up having reviling feelings about him and his difference from them.

We the Animals gets 3.5 to 4 stars. I wanted more from it, but I respect it. The fact that I wanted more says a lot about its strength as a novel.