CRAZY LOVE

Versatile Martin (Cul-De-Sac, 1997, etc.) returns with an alternately rewarding and sappy love story set amid the head-on collision of animal-rights beliefs with the utilitarian morality of livestock farmers.

Bear is the dumb brother, or so people think. They also think it’s crazy that he runs his farm all by himself, runs it well at that, and has such an odd connection to his animals, who are said to speak to him, even though he must routinely slaughter them. One day, Bear sees two men torturing a cow in a field. He goes to investigate and is eventually followed by Katie, a city woman and animal-rights activist visiting farm country while she recuperates from surgery. The two become an immediate team, joined in defense of the cow against resident bad guys Scrudde and Coote, and the incident inaugurates a romance once Katie gets rid of her fiancé and Bear overcomes the awkwardness of having been alone for 32 years. It’s a bumpy road—there are arguments, and Katie is later attacked by Scrudde and Coote—but eventually a partnership is formed and Bear’s farm is converted to a massive animal shelter. The very character of the local farm country begins to change as surely as Bear’s humble poet self emerges from within, and the many heartbreaking tales of cruelty to animals are sure to wrench a few stomachs. Although the narrative voice is omniscient, it seems as affected by what it describes as readers are supposed to be, a tactic that risks the sentimental and sometimes compromises the narrator’s authority with distracting subjectivity. The prose isn’t particularly artful or lyric, but it’s jubilant, innocent, and happy in the way of Bear, whose speeches are smart and moving.

PETA, ready your Kleenex.