I felt very uplifted after reading Yann Martel's first novel, Life of Pi, but I felt entirely opposite about Beatrice and Virgil. I think the author likes to confuse his readers by disguising the true theme of his stories. This book is about Henry, a successful author who is solicited to help a strange, elderly taxidermist finish writing a play. The play is about Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a howler monkey. The play is very simple and vaguely simbolic of the Holocaust. As Henry throws himself completely into the world of starving talking animals, he gradually unravels the full truth of the horror he has agreed to involve himself in. I have a hard time with genocide, and the end of the book was difficult for me to get through. Let's hope for something lighter next time.
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