Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Chouette

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Chouette by Claire Oshetsky

14 reviews

violetturtledove's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I mistakenly thought from the description of this story as a 'fairytale' it might be a bit too cute and saccharine. It is not. The best fairytales are actually a mix of magic and horror, and so is this book. And although I have no personal experience I believe the same could be said for motherhood!

You've got to suspend your disbelief for this one and not ask too many questions. Is the narrator reliable? How much of this is literal and how much is metaphor? Is this our world seen through a different lens, or do different rules apply here? How do we reconcile Tiny's experiences with the reactions of those around her (are they overreacting at something slightly out of the ordinary, or being shockingly calm in the face of a medical marvel?). The morals of the story, and the balance of magic and horror, changes quite a bit depending on how literally you take it.

Does the owl-baby represent a trans child, a disabled child, an autistic child? All of these fit in some ways but not others. Some of the details of the book may recall some of these experiences, but it's not a straightforward allegory of anything more specific than 'letting your child be themself'. Or maybe just 'this is what being a parent is like'. In the words of the author 'the child in the novel is an owl'.

It's sweet but also very unsettling, and I felt frustrated on Tiny's behalf as her opinions are constantly ignored, her feelings dismissed and her actions misinterpreted. And fair warning (hopefully not too much of a spoiler in a book about an apex predator), there's a lot of animal death. But if you can handle these aspects it's well worth reading.

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astridrv's review against another edition

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A poetic exploration of motherhood, what it means to connect, support, depend, love, defend, fight, accept, change, cherish.

How do we talk, how do we see, how do we understand, how do we care for in a world so entangled with norms and in lives so defined by primordial co-dependency? Those were the questions I found within this tale about ableism, queerness and normativity dashed with magical realism and wilderness. Sometimes a bit too didactic, and maybe a bit repetitive when there was so much to explore, but overall successful at repeatedly stabbing me in the heart.

Still want listen to the music at the end of the book, but here are some quotes :

"Is this what it means to be a mother, then? To be in constant, irrational conflict with one's own child? To be constantly challenged by the stubborn will of a creature who doesn't respond to logic or reason, and who always wins?"

"The feeling is something like fear, but it isn't fear. It's more like an acknowledgement that he is going to die one day. (...) He can't stop thinking about how his body is not much more than a bag of water, waiting to be broken."

"I'm not sure I like it, but I listen very carefully because I want to believe in you, and before long I'm falling forward into a sound-world of your making."

"He's all fired up. A week ago, you were a hopeless case to him, and of no interest at all, and he did everything possible to avoid remembering that you existed because he hated the feeling of being powerless to change you. But now your father has hope."

"And as I watch you eat that rat - the fresh offal hanging down from your beak - I truly understood, maybe for the first time, what it means to be a mother. One day you won't need me, Chouette. It's only natural. The day will come when you feast upon my liver and fly away, leaving the rest of me for the scavengers. It's a wonder that any woman ever agrees to be a mother, when the fruits of motherhood are inevitably conflict and remorse, to be followed by death and disembowlement."

"He is convinced that there is a perfect dog-child in you somewhere. He just needs to keep poking holes in you until the holes are so big that a perfect dog-child can crawl right out of your body."

"To your father I am a box that needs to be opened on his way to helping you, and it doesn't really matter to him if he finds the key to me, or if he needs to smash me open with a hammer."

"Is life nothing more than a continuous retreat from our own true selves, as we're hammered into shape (...)?"

"Life is, in fact, a battle, and the pursuit of goodess is a fragile aspriation when survival calls for ruthless cruelty, especially from mothers."

"I come to a startling realization: that the world is populated not only by dog-people, but by all kinds of people, by cow-people and wolf-people, armadillo-people and cat-people, toad-people and nomads, and small town librarians; (...) They're waiting at bus stops, and peering out car windows, and crossing in crosswalks. They're embracing in optimistic, joyful celebration of their love for one another. They're selling melons and cabbage. They're digging ditches."

"And maybe my heart lightens a little, and maybe not."

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redrockhoney's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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alyssapusateri's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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conspystery's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up the audiobook of Chouette. All I knew going in was that it was a decently short literary fiction/magical realism read with some music references. I cannot even begin to describe how blown away I was upon finishing this book. Choutte is a fascinating, evocative, intensely resonant story about what it means to fit in, communicated with poignant, sharp authenticity and an undercurrent of dry, dark irony to emphasize its relevance.

I love how Choutte leans into the bizarre. This book approaches (and often reaches) disturbingness in its absurdity on every level, and not once does it shy away from that outlandishness. It commits to being figurative where it needs to be to evoke irony, and to being starkly realistic where it needs to be to emphasize the truth behind the indirect allegory. And it works exceptionally well.

My favorite example of this commitment is the narrator’s name: Tiny. She is dehumanized and dismissed as a little wife and a mere woman throughout the novel, and so her name reflects this-- as well as reflecting the internalization she has of that lack of agency. She feels small; she is minimized. Oshetsky hits the audience with this direct nominative statement of Tiny’s being right at the beginning of the novel, which I think is a massively impactful introduction to the themes the book covers. This detail, combined with the early introduction of the far less direct, difficult-to-interpret owl lover, establishes expectations for the book’s handling of the figurative and the metaphorical; there are some moments of straightforwardness and some moments of ambiguity in the allegory. The metaphor of Chouette where it exists is complex, and I love it for that.

Another thing I adore about Chouette is Tiny’s narrative voice. Oshetsky gives Tiny such a distinct way of thinking and phrasing, one that’s genuine and realistically emotional and interesting. I particularly love how Oshetsky introduces certain phrases into Tiny’s inner monologue that, to an uninitiated audience, may seem unnatural and misplaced at first, but by the end of the book they read as a totally natural, easily understandable part of Tiny’s vocabulary. The repetition of those phrases does a great job of communicating that this narrative is filtered through its narrator, defined by Tiny’s mindset. The way she continually falls back upon the same sentence structure when referring to her “owl baby” and “owl lover,” plus the addition of her own shorthand for times people speak without meaning in the words “yabber yabber,” does wonders for the audience’s ability to step into Tiny’s perception of the world. Oshetsky communicates that wonderfully.

Overall, I just love this book. I love its lapses into overt magical realism with the owl baby and owl lover and Tiny’s out-of-place, almost interdimensionally nostalgic childhood memories-- and I also love the brutality of its literal sections, however bizarre they may be. The surgical procedure Chouette is forced to undergo is especially haunting in that regard, evocative of all kinds of horrific real-world events. I love the ending and how it ties into those themes (and I agree with other reviewers that fans of Megan Hunter’s The Harpy would definitely enjoy this one too.) I love Tiny as a narrative voice and as a protagonist, and I love the way Oshetsky emphasizes the other characters’ dehumanization of her and the baby. The husband’s continual referral to Chouette as Charlotte is particularly striking.

Ultimately, though, I think my favorite thing about Chouette is the versatility of its resonance-- something that is achieved, I think, by Oshetsky’s authenticity in this story. No matter how you interpret Chouette, no matter what allegorical or literal meaning you find in it, it has something important and personal to say about the measures society uses to evaluate, predict, and judge individuality-- and how we can and should transcend those measures which emphasize perceived acceptance over authentic personhood, no matter what society has ingrained in us to do instead. I adore Chouette. I can’t wait to read it again.

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