Open Throat
Ratings22
Average rating3.9
A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely and fascinated by humanity’s foibles, the lion spends their days protecting a nearby homeless encampment, observing hikers complain about their trauma, and, in quiet moments, grappling with the complexities of their gender identity, memories of a vicious father, and the indignities of sentience.
When a man-made fire engulfs the encampment, the lion is forced from the hills down into the city the hikers call “ellay.” As the lion confronts a carousel of temptations and threats, they take us on a tour that spans the cruel inequalities of Los Angeles and the toll of climate grief. But even when salvation finally seems within reach, they are forced to face down the ultimate question: Do they want to eat a person, or become one?
Henry Hoke’s *Open Throat* is a marvel of storytelling, a universal journey through a wondrous and menacing world recounted by a lovable mountain lion. Feral and vulnerable, profound and playful, *Open Throat* is a star-making novel that brings the mythic to life.
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would be wonderful as satire but unfortunately takes itself too seriously and explains too much; liked the disconnected but linear prose and the musings about language and the unexpected queerness
You can't be too mad over a book that weighs in at a slight 176 pages. Even that number is misleading as it's narrated in an unbroken stream of consciousness with spare lines that scatter on the page like poetry. You could finish this in an afternoon.
It's hypnotizing. You're following a mountain lion barely surviving as they prowl the area surrounding the Hollywood sign. The lion listens to mangled snippets of conversations that translate into “scare city under capitalism” and “that's the thing with ellay...all we've got here is gurus.” And then it veers into a surreal fever dream as the lion imagines themself in Disney, snuck in as an emotional support cat to ride Splash Mountain and sit on an elevated sofa to lick their paws to a regal polish. And still, it ever so lightly manages to touch on homelessness, climate change, and pay homage to P-22, the cougar that once prowled Griffith Park in Los Angeles before being caught.
