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A review by barefootmegz
Fowl Eulogies by Lucie Rico
4.0
I’ve read books about cats, dogs, goats, horses. I’ve read books about wildlife, and zoos. What I have never read about, is chickens. (I’ve also never had any chickens as pets, because one of my good friends is ornithophobic, and swears she won’t visit if we have birds.)
Lucie Rico’s Paule is a terrifyingly mundane heroine. How refreshing to read a character who is not the next best thing in their career, not involved in a steaming love affair, and not traveling wildly around the world. Add to that a complexity that seems so unrealistic that one simply couldn’t make it up, and you’ve got yourself a character at once relatable and impossible to understand.
Contradictory? That’s Paule. Guys, a vegetarian that kills chickens with a billhook - AFTER she’s named them and loved them? Welp, I can’t. (Can someone get the girl some therapy to deal with her mother-issues?)
The astute reader will identify in Fowl Eulogies themes on consumerism, identity, and modern life; but the novel itself need not be a mentally taxing experience - rather it is one of wry humour, absurdism, and a somewhat stomach-churning violence. (Actually, sensitive readers might find the imagery of the chickens’ demise a bit too much. Paule is cruel, and more than a little messed up. I don’t hate her, but I wouldn’t want to know her.)
Nobody but the chickens in Fowl Eulogies is likeable, and yet the novel is thoughtful in both its empathy and sardonicism.
A tip of the hat should go to the translator, who held in her hands the responsibility to keep the essence of the novel, and seems to have done exceedingly well.
I received an eARC of this novel via Netgalley and World Editions in exchange for an honest review.
Lucie Rico’s Paule is a terrifyingly mundane heroine. How refreshing to read a character who is not the next best thing in their career, not involved in a steaming love affair, and not traveling wildly around the world. Add to that a complexity that seems so unrealistic that one simply couldn’t make it up, and you’ve got yourself a character at once relatable and impossible to understand.
Contradictory? That’s Paule. Guys, a vegetarian that kills chickens with a billhook - AFTER she’s named them and loved them? Welp, I can’t. (Can someone get the girl some therapy to deal with her mother-issues?)
The astute reader will identify in Fowl Eulogies themes on consumerism, identity, and modern life; but the novel itself need not be a mentally taxing experience - rather it is one of wry humour, absurdism, and a somewhat stomach-churning violence. (Actually, sensitive readers might find the imagery of the chickens’ demise a bit too much. Paule is cruel, and more than a little messed up. I don’t hate her, but I wouldn’t want to know her.)
Nobody but the chickens in Fowl Eulogies is likeable, and yet the novel is thoughtful in both its empathy and sardonicism.
A tip of the hat should go to the translator, who held in her hands the responsibility to keep the essence of the novel, and seems to have done exceedingly well.
I received an eARC of this novel via Netgalley and World Editions in exchange for an honest review.