Shawkat said she was drawn to the film owing to its being driven by women, and she was able to bring her life experience into her creation of the character. [4] Both main actors agreed that the personal chemistry between the two worked well on set because they had hit it off in real life. [5] Release [ edit ]

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth – Canongate Books Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth – Canongate Books

Critics like Sarah Hughes in The Guardian have identified a new trend for ‘literary bad girls’, novels with female anti-heroes ‘happy to live outside society’s boundaries’, including Emma Jane Unsworth and Zoe Pilger as prime examples of the genre, along with the Guardian’s obligatory Lena Dunham mention. Partly, Hughes says that these novels are a rejection of ‘the comfortable romanticCritics like Sarah Hughes in The Guardian have identified a new trend for ‘literary bad girls’, novels with female anti-heroes ‘happy to live outside society’s boundaries’, including Emma Jane Unsworth and Zoe Pilger as prime examples of the genre, along with the Guardian’s obligatory Lena Dunham mention. Partly, Hughes says that these novels are a rejection of ‘the comfortable romantic lies’ and ‘the petty stuff of domestic life’ which comprise a clichéd view of female literature (I think this is a bit of a straw woman argument – throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries women have been writing dark and intelligent novels - whether they have been heralded or not is a different matter). Parody, satire, farce, blunt-force pratfall, any humor at all will do once the party is on. Comedy, though-- repeatable, sustained, effective--is famously hard to do. And a white-hot streak of consciousness comedy, is, well, born to crash and burn. The film is preoccupied with the theme of growing up, fizzing with the teenage energy of a coming-of-age movie despite its characters edging into their 30s. Laura recognises and is vulnerable to the seductiveness of white wine, MDMA and pretentious poets with curly hair. She asks questions about the value of marriage and settling down (“My feminism is about blazing a way through old traditions,” she barks, defending her engagement to Jim). She’s also fearful of commitment, in relationships and writing, trapped by her propensity for self-sabotage (Laura’s book begins with a girl who tries to free a spider from its own web).

Animals | Stream free on Channel 4 Watch Animals | Stream free on Channel 4

I was absolutely blown away by the artistic yet abstract prose, which was clearly thought out with the utmost strategy to define these characters' personalities despite the whirlwind of their drink and drug-fuelled lives. This is definitely a book that makes you want to put pen to paper and recount your own stories. I say, “He tortures me every night with sleep deprivation. He waterboards me with his sippy cup. He will not let me eat or drink or – lately – leave the room. I am captive to his every whim. I am at the mercy of a despot. A smiling assassin. It’s the break up that we have no grammar for. There is no set way to deal with that devastation that you’re left with. Or the confusion as you get older and how it gets easier with time.” I guess the ostensible subject matter of Animals is not so remarkable, except that Emma Jane Unsworth takes it in her teeth and shakes the living daylights out of it, and then in the middle of all the gaily spouting bodily fluids will suddenly turn on the reader:

Her debut novel Hungry, the Stars and Everything, was published in June 2011 by Hidden Gem Press [2] and won a Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors. [8] The novel was also shortlisted for the Portico Prize for Fiction 2012. [9] And, to make it worse, nothing specific has triggered such a life changing moment, other than the fact you’ve both drifted apart.