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“Chouette��, ......
by Claire Oshetsky
......is a monumental tawny tiny hooting feat �� daring and remarkable —exceptionally creative, original, and affecting.,
It’s one of the most intimate novels I’ve read all year.....cutting deep into the core of motherhood.
Claire turns the implausible into entirely believable fiction ....while gracefully sticking pin cushions into our global-mothering hearts.

Tiny is a professional musician, a cellist.
Her husband is a property lawyer in the patented-seed field.
They live in Sacramento California
All sounds normal enough.....right? Perhaps...perhaps not. But what’s normal anyway?

“My husband has just stopped reading the news on his phone because just now I got the words out past my lips that I’ve been wanting to say to him all morning, which are��:
“Help me��.
“There it’s done. I’ve said it.
The word rights itself��.
“He reaches across the table and grabs my hand��.
“What is it? He says. What’s on your mind? I love you. I’m here to help��.
“You think this baby is going to be like you, but it’s not like you at all, I say. This baby is an owl-baby��.
“Oh honey, honey, honey, my husband says. That’s the jitters talking. Don’t listen. I’m here for you. I love you��.

She and her husband play gin rummy after dinner together.
She tells her husband:
“It’s an owl-baby.
“Honey, my husband says.
Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t revisit the past. You’re stronger than you know��.

“I dream I am making tender love with an owl. The next morning I see talon marks across my chest that trace the path of my owl-lovers embrace. Two weeks later I learned that I am pregnant��.
“You may wonder: How could such a thing come to pass between women and owl?��
“I, too, am astounded, because my owl-lover was a woman��.

“An owl-baby is born. The baby will never learn to speak, or love, or look after itself. It will never learn to read or toss the football. The father can see no single thing in this child that reminds him of himself. He thinks: ‘This isn’t fair to me��. And then he leaves. The mother stays��. The owl-baby bite my tongue��.

This book is so darn remarkable, �� ENGAGING��- I can’t believe how much I enjoyed the oddness —that in many ways —just ‘didn’t�� feel that odd to me at all.
Perhaps, I’m the crazy one .... but this story felt more raw & real to me than many memoirs.
The storytelling provided the truest satisfactions of reading.
.....We learn about Tiny’s husband - 6 feet tall; the shortest of his six sibling brothers.
.....We learn about Tiny’s in-laws and her husbands brother - and their wives.
.....We learn about Tiny as a child - her father, mother, the town she grew up in, a painful memoir day at the zoo....
wrenching - sad - untrue, and unfair cruel abusive messages she took in from both her own family growing up and from the way her mother-in-law made her feel [an outlier, tiny, fragile, unwanted, just not good enough].
.....Once Tiny was pregnant, struggling with many concerns ... she felt as though she was getting a message from her ‘owl-baby��.....letting Tiny know that ‘she�� was in charge from now on. Tiny wondered, really wondered, was this what it means to be a mother: “to be in constant, irrational conflict with one’s on child?��
.....Tiny played some Mozart music for her unborn owl-baby-asking if she liked it .....”referring to her as a little scamp��.
Soon...mother and owl-baby were no longer at odds-and she continued playing her music.

There is a trip to Berlin museum visits, cafés, and walks along the streets. Tiny runs into her owl-lover, a woman that she was once very close. She tells her she is pregnant. Tiny also realizes she made the right choice to stay with her husband, “who is kind, strong, steady, normal, even good looking��.....
“whereas her owl-lover is a giant, musky, molting, monstrous, amoral, uncivilized, and fickle��....a creature Tiny once loved.

There was a smelling problem....(I found this a little funny)
There were concert problems...
And most...
Tiny had to think seriously about the gift she had been given —chosen—to be a mother. The responsibility was overwhelming and humbling. Tiny was picking up messages from birds telling her that her life‘s work was to teach her baby how to be herself—rather than mold her to be what she or the father wanted to be.

Owl-baby....a girl....*Chouette* was born.
.....Tiny made lists of things she was learning about Chouette ....
Music was a shared love between them....
.....Tiny told Chouette stories about her childhood. She told her that she used to live with the ‘Bird of the Wood��....that she had shared a room together in a little woodland house....thought she would marry her owl-lover one day.
.....They rocked together....mother and Chouette were working it out.
But/and....
motherhood is intense....so much can breakdown.
I wondered how Chouette was developing- and if Tiny was able to give her baby ‘enough�� of what she needed....(given her own background)....
I was proud of Tiny. I felt that given where she came from she couldn’t have asked anymore of herself....
I found the ending incredibly moving > Loving-Tears- good!!!!

There are horrors I haven’t mentioned along the way ...but they were necessary and damn thought provoking.

This story opens up the can of worms of just how frightening it is to enter the mysteries of mothering....but it’s vitally important to examine.
The symbolism that Claire created raised questions about the brutal realities of life!
The metaphors, the prose, the emotions, the smells, and visuals, the memorable - unique gorgeous usage of words in her sentences....
I just can’t say enough about how unforgettable and magnificent this book is!

I’d love to see book clubs choosing this book to talk about. I’d like to be in one of those groups- and would gladly read this book again to join the discussion.

ABOUT OWLS....(spiritually speaking):
Owls represent wisdom, knowledge, change, transformation, intuitive development, and trusting the mystery. They are tied to the spiritual symbolism of death, which brings about new beginnings with a higher understanding and evolved perspective. Owls can show up when you were being asked to listen to your intuition.

Claire Oshetsky was very effective in delivering an interactive-experience between her characters, motherhood, and the readers.

“Chouette�� is one of BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR IN MY HUMBLE OPINION!