 Like much of his work, his novel "The Entire Animal" takes the reader inside the mind of someone for whom communication with others is not easy and we experience the awkwardness and effects of this shortcoming.Laurence Phelan wrote in "The Independent" that the novel is about, "a man at last coming to terms with the loss of his mother at an impressionable age, and belatedly learning how to let other people into his life and form meaningful relationships with them.