3.5 stars.This is a somewhat weird and sometimes delightful postmodern fable that takes well-aimed digs at hierarchies and power structures and especially at the binary gender system and what separates human and animal.The writing style wasn't quite for me, but I'm glad I've finally read this.

All over the world women are turning into animals and animals into women. The narrative focuses on the adventures of Pooch, a dog turned woman, who has a yearning for opera and a pure singing voice. (She briefly thinks of calling herself Pucci.) Her particular interest is Carmen, hence the book’s title.The men in this scenario are non-plussed by the changes, seeking either to deny or exploit it. (And their carnal desires are never very far away.) Chapter headings are quotes from the likes of Nie...

Three downsides to an otherwise lovely book.a) digitization errors - I am sure in the print the start of each chapter was very elegantly typeset. It was garbled in many cases in the digitized text.b) French. I find I don't hate untranslated passages as much as I used to. Perhaps my French has improved in three decades? c) Circuses. Circuses come off really well in this book. A place of refuge for animals and people with disabilities / disfigurement. I do have vague memories of animal rights prot...

This is one of those hyper-feminist early sci fi books, where most of the men were either reprehensible, or rather womany. Very sexual, disturbingly so, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award was created specifically to honor this book. (Those of you who know who Tiptree was are now saying, Ah!) I enjoyed it, and the writing was excellent, yet it was almost a vignette. The reason for the women turning into animals and vice versa is never given nor even fully explored by the characters, merely accepted or

Carmen Dog is like a fable for the modern age: the setup where animals turn into human females and vice versa is Aesopian in the sense that there is playfulness that hides a discussion on gender and the concept of human. For those looking for just a slight romp, the book is occasionally quite funny, there is plenty of disturbing matters narrated in a seemingly lighthearted making them all the more harrowing. Pooch has always been a loyal dog. So when she starts transforming into a human and the

Tedious. Perhaps I don't have the right sense of humour, but I didn't find it at all amusing. Just tedious. I give up

There's a thin, porous boundary between litfic with non-realistic elements, and genre fiction proper. Sometimes, when I'm feeling very uncharitable, I would define that line as 'if the author has made any faint gesture towards having their changed world make sense, it's probably not litfic' - though this won plenty of genre awards back in the day, so at least for the time there were plenty who'd have disagreed. Yes, there's obviously a satirical angle in the idea of a world where for unexplained...

I delayed reading this too long. I would have loved it at 20, but I put it off and by the time I got around to it, it felt...old. I don't know. It's not as fine as Mrs Caliban, which is the book it most reminds me of, so maybe it suffers by unfair comparison.It's too long, I think, which is always a harsh criticism of a novel written by a predominantly short story writer, at least it feels harsh to me. But it is apt here. As a novelet, this is a barn-burner, I suspect. At this length the cutesin...

I loved the writing in this; it's got a kind of patient clarity that I kept thinking of as "placid" and then self-correcting to "pellucid". Like a blend of Animal Farm and Kurt Vonnegut.

I find the blurring of human and animal worlds to be a pretty fascinating emergent sub-theme in experimental feminist lit, and this one, recommended to me by Marie-Therese following my review of Rachel Ingalls' Mrs. Caliban, was spot on. In the first sentences, it's revealed that women are becoming animals and animals are becoming women. Just like that, no explanation needed, the premise is set. Our protagonist is a newly human Irish Setter -- what better innocent to be cast out into the city of...

What the hell did I just read?Women are turning into animals, and female animals are turning into women. Pooch, a golden setter, is now a beautiful young woman and her former owner - a snapping turtle. When the turtle tries to take a bite of her own baby, Pooch snatches the baby and runs. Men are trying to figure out what to do with women. While on the run, Pooch discovers what she really wants: to sing Carmen.I expected this satire to be light and funny. And it is. But the content is at times v...

What to say about a book in which an opera loving dog, rapidly becoming human, rescues a baby from being bitten by its mother, who is rapidly becoming a snapping turtle? And later changes identities with a wealthy woman almost, now, entirely wolverine. It’s simply one of the best SF/fantasy novels I’ve read in many years. Brilliant. A definite keeper and, I believe, my first five star rating.

Nice, a lot of cool imagery

Kind of a coincidence that I watched the animated Animal Farm movie while I was in the middle of reading this strange little book, which a friend recently mailed to me without much explanation. It's very, very hard to visualize what anything or anybody looks like in this fable, which was actually a plus for me. I'd like someone to turn it into an opera one day, though I guess that would lessen the effect of the protagonist discovering opera as a creative outlet.

A delightful, playful, artful exploration of what it means to be human and how we treat animals, women, and mothers — fantasy with philosophical underpinnings.The story begins in a world in which women are turning into a variety of animals (wolverine, swan, snapping turtle, pig) and animals (including many pets: dogs, cats, guinea pigs) are turning into women. It follows the journey of a Setter named Pooch who is becoming a nubile young women and desires to be a opera star. She loves Carmen. It

Anyone who doesn’t think this is a perfect book deserves to be shoved in a locker by me

Beautiful, startling, heartbreakingly feminist book. So full of female love, suffering & resilience. This made the ending in which all the characters marry the men who have functioned as their captors /torturers and happily have children even more shocking and disturbing. To read such a brilliant exploration of women treated as pets/animals, to watch her deconstruct misogyny in such a playful but sad way, and then have the epilogue be an echo of the life-ruining misogynistic sentiment that keeps...

One of those books that will divide readers because it verges on absurd. Personally I found the author's muddling of society's views on animals and women both deft and giggle-inducing. My main criticism would be her near total omission of diverse genders, but it's a book of its time. This is that rare feminist classic sci-fi book that doesn't seem to want to exterminate men, which I appreciate.

4th Row, 4 Down: Science Fiction or Fantasy, 148 pages

Darkly funny feminist novel about the consequences when some odd space dust begins to turn animals into women. More of a novella, its an energetic and outrageous satire that reminded me of Ishmael Reed's work. They share a sense of attacking the status quo, flipping it on its head, and revolting.Surprise surprise: men don't act well when animals start to resemble women. Maybe Ms. Emshwiller is well-known in feminist/sci-fi fields, but her work is completely new to me.Highly recommended for femin...