Tournament of Books discussion

Space to discuss the 2024 TOB contender Open Throat by Henry Hoke.

Wow, super short read. More like a long short story than a short novel. It was interesting, but not sure what to take away from it?

I read it on a short flight last night. Agree, it felt more like a short story, or maybe two of them merged.

I enjoyed it a lot while reading it - it was entertaining, and I don’t regret the 45 min, but I think it suffers a little on reflection. There were definitely some typographical elements (I read an e-book, so I may not have seen all of them) like phonetic spelling to signal the cougar’s unfamiliarity with certain words and italics to signify conversations overheard. I’ll save the long comments for the tourney, but that phonetic spelling thing didn’t feel consistently used (‘ellay’ gets the treatment but ‘therapist’ does not) and the dream sequence was fun, but really felt like a clumsy way to incorporate ‘diznee,’ much as I enjoyed that part of it.

I’ve got more, but over all a fun read, just not really a rooster contender.

I loved it, found it quite moving, and could see it contending, though (as you've previously noted in other discussions) it can be quite a challenge to judge two books against each other when the authors are each "painting" on such different "canvases".

Still, this is the first novella I've read in a long time that I felt made good use of that form.

More later in the tourney ....

I'll look forward to hearing from both of you in the tournament since I'm sure I'm missing some of the depth. I remember feeling My Sister the Serial Killer had so much depth and power for such a short book and other people wrote it off as too short and light.

Unlike most of you, I wait until the shortlist comes out to start reading any books released this year (but I note which ones you all enjoy for future reading!). Open Throat was the first one I could get and the feeling of reading it was like first sinking into a calm, unoccupied pool for lap swimming - it felt so good to be back, immersed in TOB world. This book just feels like the sort of weird gem I expect and love from this bizarre reading exercise. I agree it was more fun while reading and might not necessarily hold up as well upon reflection, but it was certainly unique and strange and something I would never have otherwise picked up.

Interview with Henry Hoke on writing Open Throat:

https://countercraft.substack.com/p/p...

And an article about P-22, the puma that inspired the book: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2...

Hoke's appearance on So Many Damn Books also very illuminating!

I just finished this and it did nothing for me. I was expecting so much more.

Nadine in NY wrote: "I just finished this and it did nothing for me. I was expecting so much more."

Thank you for saying this. I felt like the odd one out because I was mostly unmoved by the book and found it rather silly.

Oh, gosh, I loved this one! Who knew mountain lions were great storytellers? And that ending -- perfection! *chefskiss*

I listened to this as an audiobook, and it was lovely in that format. I’m not too sure about the overall point of this story, but I mostly enjoyed it. I sense a climate change component here (less water and fear of fires). There’s also a political angle with the homeless camp. There’s a lot packed into this little story but I’m not sure if anything was fully developed.

Read this in a single sitting yesterday (followed by Britney Spears, also in a single sitting - very different experience!) and thoroughly enjoyed it. The book, like its narrator does not outstay its welcome.

It's fresh meat, designed to be consumed immediately rather than dragged to a den and nibbled at while it rots.

I love that the ToB surfaced this for me.

Several people were like oh you're really going to like this!
*narrator's voice* They did not like this.

I enjoyed it but I didn’t get how he was a queer mountain lion like the blurb said? When was that mentioned?

I felt so bad for the unhoused people. :(

I think it's because he liked watching other people/animals having sex; which, to my mind, doesn't necessarily mean he's either gay or straight. ‍I felt sorry for the homeless, too.