eProof Review - Open Throat

I have no idea how am going to write this write-up for Open Throat by Henry Hoke. It’s one of those books that I only came across because I saw a tweet on Twitter - sorry, X (let’s not get into my thoughts over this AWFUL rebranding) - and I went “what is this weirdness?!” 

Title and Author: Open Throat by Henry Hoke

Publisher: Picador

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org

A mountain lion roams the drought-ridden hills of Hollywood. He is hungry but watches and protects the humans at their homeless encampment. But when he is forced to leave them, he finds himself in the heart of LA, he begins to wonder: whether he wants to eat one or be one?

This is a weird little story. It’s not even that long - about 180 pages or 1 hour 48 minutes on audio - and, though I could have read this in one, every easy go, I read it in four tiny sittings. 

It is a weird little story, but I think quite clever. 

We have a story of a lion, watching humans and, because of this, I this story is poking fun at us and the things we say/see. 

For example, there are several things the lion mishears a word and the story tells us how he heard it. A good example is see nee nee (or CNN) or diznee (or Disney). There were times I read this, went “wait, what?”, and had to backtrack/reread before I went “Ooooh!”

Plus, while poking fun at us and our weirdness (the lion very early on see some fetish sex [well, that’s how I read it]), it touches on quite serious issues (though the lion doesn’t understand what he’s seeing) such as homelessness and climate change.

Plus, the writing works for this story. It’s sparse and yet, hit point. 

However, I don’t know if I enjoyed this. I did like this, but I feel like the ideas this story wanted to present - homelessness, climate change, queerness, the dangers of men, etc - needed something slightly longer. Not a full length novel as I don’t think it would deliver the same impact if it was a full length novel. Maybe an extra few pages or lose a section in the third stage which rambled. 

I can see this being put up for many literary prizes in the next few months and I hope it does well as short stories/novellas should get more love. But not sure if this hit the sweet story I hoped for when I first discovered…