Book Review: Chouette by Claire Oshetsky

Plot in 3:

When Tiny, a professional cellist, becomes pregnant, she tells her husband that “This baby will never learn to speak, love, or look after itself.” Her rather dull, judgmental husband dismisses her remarks until Tiny gives birth to an “owl baby,” whose non-conforming, destructive existence further isolates Tiny and her daughter from her husband, his family, and her career. While Tiny’s husband solely focuses on “fixing” the “owl baby,” Tiny’s fierce love for her daughter wants nothing more than for people to love and accept her the way she is.

My Take:

I really struggled with this one. Using an owl (a bird of prey) as a literary trope for Tiny's daughter was challenging for me. The metaphor worked hard to disguise the daughter's official diagnosis, but it became more of a horror story as the figurative language deepened. It was so graphic and vicious that I lost the plot on the hardships and isolation that Tiny experienced due to the fierce love for her daughter because I was trying to figure out the meaning of the different metaphors, i.e., "night hunting.” I give Oshetsky a lot of credit for layering in some pointedly funny moments to break up the gore.

Full disclosure: I am not a mother. So maybe this sat with me differently than someone who is a mother. From what I gather, this book is semi-autobiographical so I am not trying to minimize the sacrifice a mother makes for her child. On the other hand, I appreciated Oshetsky’s feminist underpinnings in the novel: the contemplation and the struggle to choose motherhood, the insecurities she had once she became a mother, and her outright commitment to love her child just like she is, regardless of the consequences. My overall feeling was that those important themes were buried under the bizarreness of the figurative language.

Three words:

dark, funny, graphic

Verdict:

I am not-not recommending it. It is a fast read, but I struggled to finish it. Most of the reviews are “rave reviews” and I have a feeling that it will be short-listed for several awards, so you want want to give it a try.