ŷ������

I’m a writer who makes my living as an editor. I usually abandon books that throw me into “editor’s head�� where I’m noticing things to edit and nobody is paying me. Likewise, I usually abandon books where the writing is decent, but the voice, topic, or way of storytelling isn’t awful, but it’s just not my thing.

Claire Oshetsky’s work hits my favorite head: “admiring, somewhat larcenous, writer’s head.�� This is a place where I’m gulping down the story, while also admiring the writing or technique so much that another part of me is whispering, “There is something I want to steal here. What the hell is it? Oh well, it’ll come by osmosis, just keep reading!��

Chouette, Oshetsky’s first magnificent novel, floored me and was so different from what I do that my thief voice wasn’t even there. Poor Deer brought out my larceny in spades because it is on my writer’s wavelength and the storytelling is so good, and in some way, so obvious yet subtle and complicated that it seems easy; I imagine anybody who writes would want to nab a little bit of it, but the method of construction is indescribable: it’s either completely organic and effortless or involved so much work and revision even the idea of doing it is exhausting. And because it works—switching voices, times, points of view, locales seemingly willy-nilly—there is no way to tell how Oshetsky worked it out.

Simply put, Claire Oshetsky is a brilliant, inspired storyteller.

I think it best to go into this book knowing as little as possible about it.

The End.