  |
 Sam Metcalfe is 34 years old and, despite some nagging doubts, his life looks pretty complete. He has a solid and mostly rewarding job as a zookeeper in Washington, D.C. where he cares for the primates and the Zoo’s ageing "Tiger Man" – a curmudgeon named Jack. At home Sam is equally the "keeper" for a nuclear family that includes his business-like mother, ambitious sister, and adolescent nephew. Sam’s best friend Laurel, who has been there for Sam since late childhood, is facing her own family challenges, and the super handsome Tim McAllister – a local newscaster who has recently started dating Sam – appears to be the perfect guy. Over the course of the novel, Sam is pushed beyond the safe boundaries of his carefully constructed life, and forced to determine fully who he is, why he makes the choices he does, and who he wants to be. |
 Raves for The Zookeeper... "Wonderful. Like an unexpected encounter with a good friend, Alex MacLennan’s THE ZOOKEEPER leaves you glowing with its empathy and insight. One of the most gentle and remarkable novels I’ve read in a long while." Jay Quinn, author of The Good Neighbor "In this shrewd and finely tuned novel, Alex MacLennan explores the uncomfortable choices we make when we trade solitude for companionship, the freedom of wilderness for the comfort of civilization. MacLennan never lets us forget that we are, all of us, animals." Carolyn Parkhurst, author of Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found "Alex MacLennan’s The Zookeeper is a wonderful debut -- at once warm and intelligent, funny and affecting -- about home and homelessness, and the ways in which we must free ourselves in order to go in search of the habitat of our true selves." Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows "Alex MacLennan would make a very fine zookeeper himself. He takes good care of his menagerie of characters, nurtures and protects and understands them. The result is a thoughtful and sensitively conceived first novel that beautifully opposes its human and animal protagonists." The Zookeeper marks MacLennan as a writer to watch. Louis Rayard, author of Mr. Timothy and Fool’s Errand. "A sad, wistful look at contemporary urban gay life, The Zookeeper shows us the parallels between the animals in a zoo and a young zookeeper’s search for his own living arrangement. The result is funny, heartfelt and true to life. This story of the search for a nest box of one’s own is the work of a writer for whom the observation of daily life, with its small victories and despairs, and the form of the novel, seem as natural as breathing." Andrew Holleran, author of The Beauty of Men |
|
 Prologue The cardboard Puppies For Sale shimmers into view on the scraggly green side of the road. James focuses on it, looking through the heat for the break in the fence, the turnoff onto the dusty dirt-track driveway that leads to the old farmhouse. The idea that he will take a puppy home that afternoon runs through him like a live wire. His hand coasts over the steering wheel as he thinks of Sam’s reaction, even Anne’s and Karen’s, when he arrives home with their wet-nosed new family member. It will be just what they need, he thinks. A confirmation that he –that all of them– will always be the same. Or maybe, he thinks as another fly buzzes in, I’ll wait to pick up the puppy until I’ve talked about it with Anne. Let her have her say, what with the other news and all. Maybe I’ll head by the grocery and buy some flowers for Anne instead, and tea cookies or chocolate cupcakes for desert. Cinnamon roles, he thinks, throwing an arm over the back of the seat and swinging the car into a wide, gravel-spitting turn. His head explodes with the flat blaring of a horn as the grille of an eighteen-wheeler barrels into the corner of his eye. One With no one in the darkened hallway to hear him, Sam explained to the monkeys that it was one whole year now that he’d been alone. "Not alone, alone, he enunciated carefully, as he noted the timing, coloration, and consistency of the speckle of vomit he had just finished cleaning of the floor. Sam was meticulous about his work, utterly focused. He was supposed to meet a new man later that night. The flickering light of the hallway made a rumpled pattern across Sam’s face and the stale smell of hay filled his nose. He spoke slowly, carefully, directing his gaze as if to a circle of kindergartners, to each small face in turn. He knew the monkeys couldn’t really understand him, but, somehow, he also believed that they could. The various clicks, shufflings, skitterings, and squeaks of small animals at dusk surround him like a cocoon. Sweat trickled down his neck. It was, as always, stiflingly warm. "Good alone," he reassured his charges, pleased with the correction. Laurel had only mentioned "someone new would be at their table that night: a friend of a friend, a local newscaster, someone Sam would like. He didn’t want to be anxious about it and couldn’t afford to be agitated around his monkeys. "Happy alone," he murmured as soothingly as he could. From the quizzical looks on their faces, it was clear the monkeys weren’t convinced. |
