Scott Bradfield's newest collection, Hot Animal Love, reads as if Raymond Carver penned Charlotte's Web-though for the kids this collection is surely not. Bradfield's witty, sardonic prose is brilliantly on display as the harsh emotional realities of contemporary life-exemplified by the basic instincts of love and hate-are played out across all facets of the animal kingdom. From a duck struggling to gain academic tenure and a penguin trying to drink himself to death, to personal ads for lonely canines, and the familiar antics of those poor, pitiful, humans themselves, Bradfield strips bare the very essence of human behavior and asks us to consider who the real beasts are-the results are both hilarious and profoundly moving.