Odd Birds & Fat Cats

PeterWortsman is the author of works of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and poetry. Heis also a critically acclaimed translator from German into English, including works suchas The Golden Pot by E.T.A. Hoffmann, which was shortlisted for the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize. A formerfellow of the Fulbright Foundation, The Thomas J. Watson Foundation, and a Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, hiswriting has been honored with the Beard’s Fund Short Story Award and anIndependent Publishers Book Award. He divides his time between New York City and the French Alps.

• ContentsWhose Zoo Is It? (A Foreword)   13I * Odd BirdsPigeons   20Seagulls   22The Raven and the Swift (Berlin, Germany)   24Le Corbeau (Paris, France)   26The Crow (Kyoto, Japan)   29Red-Tailed Hawk   30Rooster on the Loose   31Chicken (Tel Aviv, Israel)   32Praise for the Lone Peacock in the Valence Zoo (Valence, France)   33The Monk Parrakeets of Green-Wood Cemetery (Brooklyn, New York)   34II * Bugs & MicrobesAnts   38Spider   40A Spider in Paradise (Cognac, France)   41Enculeur de Mouches (Paris, France)   42Conjoined Firebugs (Berlin, Germany)   44Dust Mites 46A Milliliter of Love   48The Vespa, a Wasp on Wheels (Rome, Italy)   50Gutsy Bacteria   51Water Bug   52Retroviruses   54III * Canines, Felines & ForagersCave Canem!   58Beware of Cat!   60The Riddle of the Sphinx   62Waltzing with a Tiger   64Like Pigs to the Slaughter (Ziguinchor, Senegal)   66IV * RodentsSquirrels   70Subway Rats   72Mouse Mummy   74Experimental Guinea Pigs   77V * Big GameBuffaloes (Taos, New Mexico)   80Texas Longhorn Cattle (Houston, Texas)   83Whales Washed Up at Rockaway Beach (Queens, New York)   84Going Ape Shit   86Elephants of Forgetting (Paris, France)   89VI * AnthropoidsLittle Alien from the Planet Uterus   92Family Members   94Musclemen   95Preserved Body Parts   96Pedestrian Types   98The Baby Carriage Contingent   100The Disease of Self   101The Smile   102Size Places   104Where Names Come From   105How the Face Ages   106Faithful Fear   108Smells  109The Uninterrupted Kiss   110Looking Is a Faulty Glue   111The Garbage Waltzes with the Wind   112About the Creators   115Acknowledgments   117

PRAISE FOR ODD BIRDS & FAT CATS“Peter Wortsman and Aurélie Bernard Wortsman’s compendium of creatures [features] full-color animal renderings and short meditations seemingly inspired by the intersection of survival instinct, mythic metaphors, and the wisdom found in between. . . . Beginning with an exhortation from the book of Job, this bestiary reminds us that our other-than-human kin will speak to us if we have ears to hear. What once was so readily available in the fiction of my childhood—the ability to talk to animals—is now made accessible again . . .” —Jasmin Pittman, The Christian Century“Here is a gorgeous example of literary animal husbandry by two artists who give us learning with joy. A beautiful book in every way.” —Roger Rosenblatt, author, most recently, of Cold Moon, Cataract Blues, and A Steinway on the Beach"How lucky for the world that such a wealth of talent is localized in the Wortsman family. Love the text, love the pics." —Patricia Marx, author of You Can Only Yell at Me for One Thing at a Time"Odd Birds & Fat Cats is beautiful and an absolute gem. Filled with gorgeous homages and portraits worth poring over, this book will make you appreciate the world around you anew." —Bianca Bosker, New York Times bestselling author of Get the Picture and Cork Dork"Under the guise of a bestiary, the Wortsman father-daughter duo has produced a keenly written and beautifully drawn account of our encounters, ideas, fantasies, and familiars in the city. The more I read, the more I was delightfully surprised at the generosity of their vision and depth of their shared wisdom." —Dan Nadel, Curator at Large, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art“Each of these miniature worlds—whether we are given to contemplate a spider drunk on cognac or a seagull “patiently and dispassionately” devouring a pigeon run over on a highway—has its own climate and dimensions. By turns lyrical, gruesome, comically exhilarating or abruptly somber, grotesque or fantastic, they uncover startling likenesses in the heart of the apparently alien (ants are “micromanagers in three-piece bodies”), and strange landscapes in the corners of the ordinary. From the vestigial hind toe of the pigeon to the crannies of the aging human face, any small glance or turn of phrase can turn into an unsettling adventure. Following in the ancient footsteps of Pliny the Elder and Saint Isidore of Seville, the Wortsmans create their own singular bestiary, in which the tiniest spaces are cavernous and full of hidden histories.” —Geoffrey O’Brien, author of Arabian Nights of 1934“I love this book: first, as an exquisite object, and next, as a poetic and delightful description of city creatures. To be kept on my bedside table and referred to frequently!” —Jeannette Watson, author of It's My PartyPRAISE FOR PETER WORTSMAN“Peter Wortsman’s compressed fictions strike swift and hard, like a good Zen whack that awakens enlightenment.” —Tom Christensen“Wortsman . . . connect[s] the power of the dream narrative to conscious language to create unique worksthat walk a curious line between fiction and poetry.” —Russell Edson“A master of the telling detail, Wortsman is one of thoserare writers upon whom nothing, as Henry James put it, is ever lost.” —MarjoriePerloff“Marvelous writing, wonderful craft, and the breath ofimagination . . . [Wortsman] succeeds so well in his craft and art that it reads‘artless’ and ‘spontaneous,’ which to me is the highest of compliments.” —HubertSelby, Jr.