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A review by seawarrior
Chouette by Claire Oshetsky
5.0
Chouette is a wild, lyrical novel I immediately recognized as a metaphor for raising a disabled child, specifically an autistic one. While Oshetsky relating her experience raising her autistic daughter to Tiny raising an owl-baby may seem questionable to some readers, I personally feel drawn to stories that depict trauma through allegorical and impossible means. And while Tiny suffers immensely in raising her daughter, it's Chouette who is in the most danger from a world so repulsed by her that it would dehumanize her in order to alter her natural state.
I gleefully suspended my disbelief while reading this story, relishing in Tiny's devotion to her daughter and Chouette's unembarrassed honesty and wanton destruction. Throughout the book, Chouette's father, who noticeably calls his daughter by the wrong name, refuses to interact with her unless he's found a new medical intervention. While some of these interventions are imagined, others that are briefly mentioned, such as forcing a child to ingest poisonous chemicals, are abuses that have been documented as supposed "cures" for autism: Parents are poisoning their children with bleach to 'cure' autism. These moms are trying to stop it (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-fight-fake-autism-cures-private-facebook-groups-n1007871). Alternately, Tiny learns what Chouette needs and frenziedly provides it for her, while warring against her private doubts that Chouette's aggressively determined father may be right that she must be profoundly altered in order to exist peacefully in the world. I was moved by the meaning of this story, and exhilarated by its unconventional approach and rich descriptions of the natural world. While this novel may not be understood, much less loved by some readers, I treasured Chouette and its strangeness.
I gleefully suspended my disbelief while reading this story, relishing in Tiny's devotion to her daughter and Chouette's unembarrassed honesty and wanton destruction. Throughout the book, Chouette's father, who noticeably calls his daughter by the wrong name, refuses to interact with her unless he's found a new medical intervention. While some of these interventions are imagined, others that are briefly mentioned, such as forcing a child to ingest poisonous chemicals, are abuses that have been documented as supposed "cures" for autism: Parents are poisoning their children with bleach to 'cure' autism. These moms are trying to stop it (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/moms-go-undercover-fight-fake-autism-cures-private-facebook-groups-n1007871). Alternately, Tiny learns what Chouette needs and frenziedly provides it for her, while warring against her private doubts that Chouette's aggressively determined father may be right that she must be profoundly altered in order to exist peacefully in the world. I was moved by the meaning of this story, and exhilarated by its unconventional approach and rich descriptions of the natural world. While this novel may not be understood, much less loved by some readers, I treasured Chouette and its strangeness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Animal death, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Gore and Animal cruelty