“How to Revitalize the Snake in Your Life”

Tinti, Hannah. Animal Crackers. “How to Revitalize the Snake in Your Life.”New York: Dial Press, 2004.

Holy cow does this short story creep up on you! I so want to spill the beans and spoil the ending, but I can’t! I must not! Suffice it to say this story will punch you in the gut and you will like it. Our protagonist is an unnamed former medical student who starts a wayward relationship with an edgy artist. You know from the first two sentences of the story that her relationship is doomed but what you don’t realize (until it’s way too late) is that this same woman has serious issues. There is a reason why she is a former medical student. When aforementioned edgy artist abruptly vanishes from her life he leaves behind a red tailed boa constrictor in her apartment and for awhile things are good. Until they aren’t. Like medical school, there is a reason why Fred says “don’t let the snake out of the cage.” I’ll leave it at that, except to say when Fred returns for his snake three months later, things are decidedly different at the former medical student’s apartment.

A shade of warning, “Then she turned and quietly fainted” (p 134).

Reason read: June is short story month

Author fact: Animal Crackers is Tinti’s debut.

Book trivia: the short story, “How to Revitalize the Snake in Your Life” is not mentioned on the inside flap so everything about the story was a complete surprise.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Good Things Come in Small Packages” (p 103).