When is it acceptible to write from an animal's POV?

Can you suspend your disbelief if an author writes from a parrot's POV?  That's what Michael Chabron did in The Final Solution. The Final Solution

The entire book is not written in parrot POV, only one scene, but when I read it, I totally believed it. Comments on other books written in "animal POV?"  I know there's one written in a horse's POV, forget the title ... 

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Oh, In that case:  Wonderful!  May it bring you loads of luck!

Hmm.  "glad"!

I too, loved Austin Carr. I'm sure you'll find someone who appreciates your writing, and when you do, you'll be a lot better off. Good luck! 

Wow, what a great response. Keep 'em coming. I'll just say that, yes, it does require a bit more suspension of disbelief by the reader when a tale is told from an animal's POV. But if it the groundwork is properly laid and the voice is believable (as it was by the parrot in The Final Solution), I think it can work.

There's also a mystery series with a dog as the narrator.  Not sure about cats, but there must be some of those, too.

I think we look at these to see how clever the authors were, but frankly there's got to be more to a novel than an animal pov.

 

And sorry, Jack.  It's for the best.  I should have done the same thing years ago, when mine balked twice in a row over new books of mine.  But it's a very upsetting experience even when you know they are totally wrong!  And wrong for the books.  At least you didn't waste four more years.

This should have happened sooner, IJ, you're right. Sometimes being loyal isn't for the best.

I agree that the animal POV shouldn't be the sole reason for reading the book. Or, perhaps to put it in a different way, the book I referred to with the parrot POV had several different POVs with human beings ...

The novels of Richard Adams:  Watership Down and The Plague Dogs are both worth the read.

Okay, this is not the question I originally posed, but how do you feel about books written from the POV of young children? I'm embarrassed to say that the title of the book I'm thinking about ... the girl is dead, murdered by someone, and she's observing the events since her death. I'm not ashamed to say that I didn't read it. It sounded way too creepy for me. I believe it got mixed reviews, but it sold pretty well. And there was a movie?

The Lovely Bones is a wonderful book, not creepy at all (IMHO). Its about the people who loved and miss her. The young murdered girl narrates in a wonderful voice, not angry or frightened, but with much love and even a sense of humor. Touching, really. Not my kind of book but I was glad I read it. A big seller. Many many weeks on the NY Times list.

Hemingway takes a couple of brief trips into the head of a lion in "The Short Happy Life Of Francis Macomber." It's brilliantly done. And I think chunks of "Cujo" are in the dog's POV. I don't know if I'd want to read a whole novel from an animal's POV, but sometimes there are good reasons to do a scene here and there.

I agree ... as with the parrot in The Final Solution. And thanks for the tip about Hemingway. I don't think I've read that one. I'll check it out!

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