Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Chouette

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Chouette by Claire Oshetsky

19 reviews

astridrv's review against another edition

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."

Content Warnings

holly_pop's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Weird book for the weird book lovers.

Content Warnings

kristasorocks's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

bookishmagpie's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring sad fast-paced

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

4.0

what did i just read

Content Warnings

readingpicnic's review against another edition

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5.0

I was hooked by the first page! Such weird and captivating writing that I finished it in one day. Such a heartbreaking story about the isolation of motherhood coupled with having a disabled child that her husband wants to “fix” (autism speaks vibes). I love how she never gave up on her owl daughter and that she understood that there was nothing to fix about her daughter; that the world needs to be fixed to be a more accessible and accepting place for Chouette. I loved the queerness of this book as well, in all its many layers. Overall, a stellar book. This is like The Fifth Child if the mom hadn’t been ableist also.

Content Warnings