After finishing Animal Crackers by Hannah Tinti, my first reaction to it was to ruminate on how cute it was. It is a whimsical story collection, with talking animals, and stories that twists the boundaries of cause and effect. These stories reach out to the reader and try to tug at the heartstrings and at the brain stems of its readers, but do fall slightly short of greatness. The best thing I can say about this collection of stories is how eager it made me want to read Tinti’s only novel The Good Thief, which I will do next year. With recommendations by Dan Chaon and others, along with a really cool story line, it looks like it will kick a lot of ass. Now, the collection I just finished did have a few really good moments that made me glad to have run across her name randomly in the bookstore. The title story on paper seems lame, but the idea of giraffes pretending to be dead during a zoo’s opening hours to protest their condition actually comes off as being very original and very funny as well. She switches gears for her next story, Home Sweet Home, which starts out with a seemingly coldblooded shooting of a couple during dinner preparations, until Tinti turns the story inside out, revealing how everyone involved is not so innocent, and how actions reverberate the most to the ones closest to us. Many of the other stories, some of which involve animals that are just as smart as humans, range from being good at best, and forgettable at worse. It is a solid collection that is a very good introduction to Tinti’s style and should, like it did me; inspire others to read The Good Thief. Not a great book, but I can still recommend it.
Rating: 4/5
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