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tildahlia's review against another edition
4.0
There are so many ways that this book could have gone terribly wrong and it came perilously close to self-indulgent wankery: "managed a couple of pages of Proust". But the author was actually surprisingly self-aware and willing to bare his own shortcomings in ways that are unusual for a late 20s/early 30s guy and it made for much better reading than anticipated. I found the dissection of his relationship with his ex the most interesting/powerful part - the bits around Bafdescu served more as a device than holding standalone interest for me. The writing was skillful and unique.
samstillreading's review against another edition
4.0
Fever of Animals is a difficult book to categorise, but boy is it addictive reading! I would sit down and intend to read for 20 minutes and find myself still reading an hour later. It’s a book that has you asking questions and reflecting on your life and the world the whole way through.
I’m going to try to explain a little about the book, but it’s difficult as it goes off on different tangents – trust me though, the whole thing just works. As the reader, I wasn’t sure at times what was true (is there really a painter called Emil Bafdescu? Am I just an uncultured idiot?) and what was fiction. (I did Google Emil but couldn’t find anything – is he so underground that I am just too uncool to find him in the mainstream?) I think this is made more complex as the story is told from the first person point of view of Miles. But is it Miles the author? Or another Miles? Or a combination of the two? Anyway, the story begins as Miles is on a plane. He’s there to bury his father. He starts to reflect on a number of different things in a stream of consciousness – the death of a person who was the last one to speak that language, his failed relationship with Alice and how the surrealist painter Emil Bafdescu disappeared many years ago. After he returns home, Miles reflects on family, Melbourne and life in general. The story with Alice is told in glimpses from their meeting to the ending of their relationship. And in the background is Emil. Is it a co-incidence that Emil is a surrealist painter in this story which feels like it is slightly surreal, drifting in the breeze itself?
You may think from my description that Fever of Animals is difficult to follow. It’s not at all. It’s delightful to get caught up in Miles’ beautiful prose. It’s lyrical and beautiful yet sometimes contains such profound truths that you wonder why you haven’t thought of it before. Miles’ thoughts on grief and relationships and how they link back to Emil and that glimpse of his one painting in Melbourne are well crafted. It’s also amazingly interesting – I never thought that I would care about the searching of a particular painter. Miles the character makes it all seem worthwhile, almost a noble cause even though he freely admits he has no idea where he’s going with this! In particular, I loved Miles’ reflections on his time with Alice. They’re brutally honest and don’t always paint him in the best light but the end of their relationship is spellbinding to read, even if it’s not always comfortable.
Fever of Animals is beautiful, an almost mystical debut. Miles Allinson is clearly an author to watch for!
Thank you to Scribe Publications for this copy. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
I’m going to try to explain a little about the book, but it’s difficult as it goes off on different tangents – trust me though, the whole thing just works. As the reader, I wasn’t sure at times what was true (is there really a painter called Emil Bafdescu? Am I just an uncultured idiot?) and what was fiction. (I did Google Emil but couldn’t find anything – is he so underground that I am just too uncool to find him in the mainstream?) I think this is made more complex as the story is told from the first person point of view of Miles. But is it Miles the author? Or another Miles? Or a combination of the two? Anyway, the story begins as Miles is on a plane. He’s there to bury his father. He starts to reflect on a number of different things in a stream of consciousness – the death of a person who was the last one to speak that language, his failed relationship with Alice and how the surrealist painter Emil Bafdescu disappeared many years ago. After he returns home, Miles reflects on family, Melbourne and life in general. The story with Alice is told in glimpses from their meeting to the ending of their relationship. And in the background is Emil. Is it a co-incidence that Emil is a surrealist painter in this story which feels like it is slightly surreal, drifting in the breeze itself?
You may think from my description that Fever of Animals is difficult to follow. It’s not at all. It’s delightful to get caught up in Miles’ beautiful prose. It’s lyrical and beautiful yet sometimes contains such profound truths that you wonder why you haven’t thought of it before. Miles’ thoughts on grief and relationships and how they link back to Emil and that glimpse of his one painting in Melbourne are well crafted. It’s also amazingly interesting – I never thought that I would care about the searching of a particular painter. Miles the character makes it all seem worthwhile, almost a noble cause even though he freely admits he has no idea where he’s going with this! In particular, I loved Miles’ reflections on his time with Alice. They’re brutally honest and don’t always paint him in the best light but the end of their relationship is spellbinding to read, even if it’s not always comfortable.
Fever of Animals is beautiful, an almost mystical debut. Miles Allinson is clearly an author to watch for!
Thank you to Scribe Publications for this copy. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
glitterkitter's review against another edition
2.0
I did not mean to read this a second time. I did not even realise I was reading it for a second time until I finished it and came on here to log it.
It was boring and felt forgettable while I was reading it. And I guess that was true of the first time I read it too. :/
It was boring and felt forgettable while I was reading it. And I guess that was true of the first time I read it too. :/
vickydaddo's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Literary fiction with themes of grief, love, art. No plot but some interesting insights into people.
cherryc0la's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
amooseinwater's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
ellelouisea's review against another edition
4.0
Half-way through this book, I was almost certain I'd be adding it to my list of all-time favourites. The prose is beautiful; it flows so naturally that you almost aren't aware you're reading, while simultaneously you are struck by his skilled wordmanship and poetic turn of phrase. I felt a deep, knowing ache as the character Miles pondered his existence and the dissolution of his relationship with Alice. Part 2 lost me a little, I'll admit, as it delved more seriously into the issue of Emil Bafdescu - fascinating, but a more tiring topic with less flow and less pull as a reader. Part 3 almost took me back to the highs of the beginning, but fell short. I'm left with a murky, somewhat distasteful feeling after closing the final page. I think that this was the point, however. I'll need some time to mull this one over, I think.
iamnaomifaye's review against another edition
3.0
I bought Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson at Perth's Writers Festival in 2016. I watched him and a few others on a panel about introspective characters (so on-brand for me). After years sitting on the bookshelf, I finally picked it up to read.
Lead character Miles, who shares many of the same traits as real-life Miles (it’s a memoir/novel blur), travels to Europe with the hope of piecing together the life of surrealist painter, Emil Bafdescu, who strangely disappeared in a forest in 1967.
As Miles travels, he remembers the end of his last relationship and the death of his father 5 years ago. We go back to when he lived in London with his ex-girlfriend, his travels through South America and his return to Melbourne to see his dying father.
Fever of Animals is a subtle book— there’s no big epiphanies or grand narrative turns. Artistic inquiry is interspersed with the introspection of a grieving person who’s trying to make sense of his past – my cup of tea.
I suspect others may think Fever of Animals is self-indulgent but I enjoyed it. It’s clever in a way I can’t quite articulate yet. I’ll give you keywords instead: introspection, loss, regret, art, travel, inquiry. A nice slow read!
Lead character Miles, who shares many of the same traits as real-life Miles (it’s a memoir/novel blur), travels to Europe with the hope of piecing together the life of surrealist painter, Emil Bafdescu, who strangely disappeared in a forest in 1967.
As Miles travels, he remembers the end of his last relationship and the death of his father 5 years ago. We go back to when he lived in London with his ex-girlfriend, his travels through South America and his return to Melbourne to see his dying father.
Fever of Animals is a subtle book— there’s no big epiphanies or grand narrative turns. Artistic inquiry is interspersed with the introspection of a grieving person who’s trying to make sense of his past – my cup of tea.
I suspect others may think Fever of Animals is self-indulgent but I enjoyed it. It’s clever in a way I can’t quite articulate yet. I’ll give you keywords instead: introspection, loss, regret, art, travel, inquiry. A nice slow read!
scribepub's review against another edition
It’s thrilling to read writing like this. Panels of visual perfection strung throughout give sustained lapidary brilliance … There’s a lot of learned conversation about art and art history … [and] some tender and anguished inquiries about whom we love and why … Underneath all of this is the eternal question about how to be authentically yourself in the world … [A]n extravagantly good novel. Not only does it have assurance and authority, it is made with that remarkable magical force of authenticity.
Helen Elliott, Saturday Age
A “voice-driven” narrative par excellence, at the heart of which is a sensually evoked life … Allinson's distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief, and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
[An] exceptional first novel … full of art and ideas, and yet so intimate that it feels like a conversation with a dear, intelligent friend … masterful in its treatment of time and memory, and filled with such clarifying moments of observation and insight that it is heartbreaking to reach the final page. This is an exquisite, painterly novel, and Allinson is a writer destined for a cult following.
Emily Bitto, Stella Prize-Winning Author of The Strays
As this fever-dream of a novel veers between the quotidian and the nightmarish, it asks vital and difficult questions about the role of art, politics, madness, identity and intimacy … [a] deeply impressive debut.
Veronica Sullivan, Books+Publishing, Five Stars
[A] cerebral novel, passionately invested in the intellectual and cultural value of artistic production … From Balaclava and St Kilda to London, Berlin, Venice and Bucharest, Allinson’s novel ranges far and wide, anchored by the all-encompassing interiority of its unsettled protagonist’s first person narrative … Disparate timeframes, geographically distant locations and even different textual modes are seamlessly woven together, inviting the reader to reflect on the different ways a novel can take form — and indeed, the different forms a novel can take … [Fever of Animals] moves effortlessly between the streets of Fitzroy or London and a world of haunted Romanian forests and fevered dreams.
Sophia Barnes, Sydney Review of Books
Allinson is unashamedly a serious writer, in the mould of dark luminaries like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Walser, and perhaps W.G. Sebald … Fever of Animals takes itself seriously, like good art should do … and it takes you seriously. All it asks is that you take it seriously back, and to do so is pleasurable and challenging and nourishingly sad.
Sam Cooney, Readings Monthly
Heartfelt, darkly comic, and nothing short of extraordinary. Allinson’s novel is a rarity — fearless, finely judged and alive with mystery.
Andrew Croome, Author of Midnight Express and Document Z
[Allinson] has a distinctive and rare authorial voice, one that is alive with wit, intelligence, and energy … An outstanding new talent.
Toni Jordan
This is the book on everyone's lips right now … Offbeat and superbly written.
Tessa Connelly, Canberra Weekly
Weird, audacious, paradoxical and strange … Fever of Animals consistently invites us to question its claims to authenticity: what exactly is the difference between great fiction and a tremendously compelling lie, a hoax? … [A] fruitful collaboration of the critic and the fiction writer … full of bizarre, uncalculatedly stunning moments … somewhere at the intersection of lying and lyric.
Joshua Barnes, The Newtown Review of Books
The play between truth and fiction, between the writing self and the self written, is one of the great pleasures of Fever of Animals … audacious, clever, and original.
Catriona Menzies-Pike, Australian Book Review
[A] moody, multilayered character study … from an author who is also an artist … Each moment of personal revelation is buttressed by beautifully crafted descriptions of art. Two pages are spent lovingly viewing a Caravaggio in a hot, hostile Naples, while Miles remains oblivious to his disintegrating world … At its best, Fever is a Nabokovian portrait of the artist as a broken man.
The Saturday Paper
Allinson’s novel has a dreamlike quality … Random memories float to the surface at unexpected moments. The narrator’s perspective seems hazy, clouded as it is by grief, longing and a gnawing personal disappointment … [The book] demonstrates a devastating knack for conveying the nuances of bereavement … [E]rudite and intriguing.
Weekend Australian
Despite the studied diffidence of much of its prose, this is a tightly wound and self-referential novel … abundant with references to literature and fine art … Allinson is especially good at the space that solitude allows for the hollow accounting of self-perception.
James Tierney, Kill Your Darlings
A fresh, innovative tale … Conundrums abound as the ambiguity of the author-like protagonist and his heartbreak intersects with the surrealist’s obscurity and unsolved disappearance.
Sunday Star Times
Allinson’s distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
Helen Elliott, Saturday Age
A “voice-driven” narrative par excellence, at the heart of which is a sensually evoked life … Allinson's distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief, and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
[An] exceptional first novel … full of art and ideas, and yet so intimate that it feels like a conversation with a dear, intelligent friend … masterful in its treatment of time and memory, and filled with such clarifying moments of observation and insight that it is heartbreaking to reach the final page. This is an exquisite, painterly novel, and Allinson is a writer destined for a cult following.
Emily Bitto, Stella Prize-Winning Author of The Strays
As this fever-dream of a novel veers between the quotidian and the nightmarish, it asks vital and difficult questions about the role of art, politics, madness, identity and intimacy … [a] deeply impressive debut.
Veronica Sullivan, Books+Publishing, Five Stars
[A] cerebral novel, passionately invested in the intellectual and cultural value of artistic production … From Balaclava and St Kilda to London, Berlin, Venice and Bucharest, Allinson’s novel ranges far and wide, anchored by the all-encompassing interiority of its unsettled protagonist’s first person narrative … Disparate timeframes, geographically distant locations and even different textual modes are seamlessly woven together, inviting the reader to reflect on the different ways a novel can take form — and indeed, the different forms a novel can take … [Fever of Animals] moves effortlessly between the streets of Fitzroy or London and a world of haunted Romanian forests and fevered dreams.
Sophia Barnes, Sydney Review of Books
Allinson is unashamedly a serious writer, in the mould of dark luminaries like Roberto Bolaño, Thomas Bernhard, Robert Walser, and perhaps W.G. Sebald … Fever of Animals takes itself seriously, like good art should do … and it takes you seriously. All it asks is that you take it seriously back, and to do so is pleasurable and challenging and nourishingly sad.
Sam Cooney, Readings Monthly
Heartfelt, darkly comic, and nothing short of extraordinary. Allinson’s novel is a rarity — fearless, finely judged and alive with mystery.
Andrew Croome, Author of Midnight Express and Document Z
[Allinson] has a distinctive and rare authorial voice, one that is alive with wit, intelligence, and energy … An outstanding new talent.
Toni Jordan
This is the book on everyone's lips right now … Offbeat and superbly written.
Tessa Connelly, Canberra Weekly
Weird, audacious, paradoxical and strange … Fever of Animals consistently invites us to question its claims to authenticity: what exactly is the difference between great fiction and a tremendously compelling lie, a hoax? … [A] fruitful collaboration of the critic and the fiction writer … full of bizarre, uncalculatedly stunning moments … somewhere at the intersection of lying and lyric.
Joshua Barnes, The Newtown Review of Books
The play between truth and fiction, between the writing self and the self written, is one of the great pleasures of Fever of Animals … audacious, clever, and original.
Catriona Menzies-Pike, Australian Book Review
[A] moody, multilayered character study … from an author who is also an artist … Each moment of personal revelation is buttressed by beautifully crafted descriptions of art. Two pages are spent lovingly viewing a Caravaggio in a hot, hostile Naples, while Miles remains oblivious to his disintegrating world … At its best, Fever is a Nabokovian portrait of the artist as a broken man.
The Saturday Paper
Allinson’s novel has a dreamlike quality … Random memories float to the surface at unexpected moments. The narrator’s perspective seems hazy, clouded as it is by grief, longing and a gnawing personal disappointment … [The book] demonstrates a devastating knack for conveying the nuances of bereavement … [E]rudite and intriguing.
Weekend Australian
Despite the studied diffidence of much of its prose, this is a tightly wound and self-referential novel … abundant with references to literature and fine art … Allinson is especially good at the space that solitude allows for the hollow accounting of self-perception.
James Tierney, Kill Your Darlings
A fresh, innovative tale … Conundrums abound as the ambiguity of the author-like protagonist and his heartbreak intersects with the surrealist’s obscurity and unsolved disappearance.
Sunday Star Times
Allinson’s distinctive, slyly amusing voice takes us on a dizzying journey through memory, grief and what it means to be an artist with integrity.
Jude Cook, Literary Review
jetsilver's review against another edition
2.0
I mean dude, did you really love The Savage Detectives or what? (My recommendation is to read that instead or as well.)
The art parts, chasing the ghosts of the heroes of your artistic linage, hitting the limits of your own talent? The book made up of those parts is a four star.
The boring chauvinist on the quest? One star to a DNF. I am so, so sick of this guy and he's the same in so many books by so many authors. Please, dazzle me with how random things look like penises. It's fascinating, really.
The art parts, chasing the ghosts of the heroes of your artistic linage, hitting the limits of your own talent? The book made up of those parts is a four star.
The boring chauvinist on the quest? One star to a DNF. I am so, so sick of this guy and he's the same in so many books by so many authors. Please, dazzle me with how random things look like penises. It's fascinating, really.