Name All The Animals (continued once more)

Having finished Name All The Animals, by Alison Smith, I've found that a lot of the characters in the book were likable. They all seemed to try to do the best thing for the people around them. Even though some of the family members seemed slightly harsh, it's hard to dislike people when you know they've gone through something as difficult as losing a son/brother. My favorite characters were Sister Aggie, Roy and Mary Elizabeth. Roy and Sister Aggie both seemed like kind, goodhearted, funny people. They both had a sense of humor and were much more understanding than Alison's parents or the other nuns. They aren't very similar, but I liked their characters for similar reasons. -Mary Elizabeth was Alison's neighbor and the sister she never had. After Roy died, she saved the newspaper article when Alison asked her to. Although she let Alison mope around in the basement for a little while, she would eventually force her to come outside, climb trees and various sorts of things to get the grief off her mind. I like that she (even though she was going through her own "teenage drama,") she continued to be there for Alison and she treated her the same as she had before Roy's death.

A character who I really don't like is Alison's mother. She is rude. I think that even though she tried her hardest to cope with her grief as well as her family's, she couldn't do it all on her own and it seemed like she refused to ask for help. I think her constant nagging at Alison to feel better and go through the stages of grief just made things harder for her. 

Name All The Animals (part two)

I think one of the reasons that the characters in Name All The Animals are so realistic is because Alison Smith is able to make a point of each character's flaws without "over-writing" them. After the death of Roy, she writes about how their reactions, and the decisions that ensue aren't always positive or healthy for anyone, but she doesn't write it in a vengeful way. Alison (as a character) doesn't judge or hold these flaws against the other characters; she just writes and views things in an honest, clear way. I think that makes the story more compelling, because you can see the characters in a different light than if the narrator was annoying and didn't like those around her (like The Bell Jar). She also makes all of the characters interesting; none of them are consistently the same throughout the novel and they often make surprising choices, which makes the story more unpredictable. The reader (or at least I) don't lose interest in any of the characters because there is always so much going on in their lives and they're always going through something. The way Alison Smith writes the people in her life makes Name All The Animals much more interesting than if she acted like the stereotypical girl of her age.

Name All The Animals

After completing the incredibly depressing (yet well-written) The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath, we asked our creative writing teacher for something a bit happier. He responded by giving us Name All The Animals, a memoir by Alison Smith which starts off with the death of her older brother. Although not exactly any happier than The Bell Jar, because the character isn't clinically depressed, the story has lighter moments and the main character is more likable. I personally like the book, although not as much as I liked The Bell Jar. I was immediately interested in it because of the title, and the book has remained equally interesting. I like that with the death of her brother the family's opinion on religion changes; Alison's parents turn to religion, but she believes God has walked out of her life and she is unable to reconnect with her faith. I'm not thrilled with the book so far, but I at least like that it's interesting and I hope the book becomes slightly less depressing.