Open Throat, Henry Hoke
‘an amusing yet poignant commentary on American society told from its margins’
‘I try to understand people, but they make it hard.’
It’s not often you come across a book with such an incredibly unique premise that you can’t help but read it, if only for pure curiosity. And it’s even less common for these books to be wholly and entirely gratifying, entertaining, and enjoyable beyond expectation. Reader, Open Throat by Henry Hoke is all of these things.
Told from the perspective of a hungry and tired queer mountain lion prowling around a park in Los Angeles, Hoke’s narrator tenderly and carefully observes humans going about their lives – musing on their strange existence from the viewpoint of an observer, outsider, and outcast. Often perplexed by the actions of the humans they watch, the narrator’s comedic misunderstandings and bewilderment about the human race, as well as their reflections on his interactions with fellow lions, makes Open Throat an amusing yet poignant commentary on American society told from its margins.
‘A therapist is something I want.” The best ones, apparently, are in a faraway land called “new york.”’
So yes, Open Throat may literally be about a lonely, bemused lion, but Hoke's slim yet sophisticated novel is replete with wisdom and an unnervingly astute understanding that uncovers so much more about our strange humanity than a human possibly could.
