Open Throat

Henry Hoke

I was not prepared to fall in love with a book this morning when I sat down and cracked the cover of Open Throat. I was completely devoured by this novel as my coffee got cold. The hilarious and scathing observations of our modern vacuum of self puts the focus on Angelinos (we do make ourselves easy targets) but reads society as a whole. We have lost any ability to look beyond anything other than our immediate thoughts and who better to tell us that than a P22 inspired observer on LA’s most notorious hiking trail of vanity. 

A few months ago I was one of the characters the narrator observes that threw snobbery around thinking I couldn’t possibly read a narrative from the POV of a mountain lion. Yet again I was so wrong. In such an original and incredible telling we are seeing the mess, chaos, and unbalance we have created through self importance and niaviate. You immediately fall in love with the narrator and laugh at what we have become, while also being angered with the very real displacement of priorities and empathy.  A Hollywood ending of unjust and just consequence leaves you rooting for the hero who is mistaken for an anti hero. Can I give this 20 out of 5 stars?