by Henry Hoke

Format: Physical Book

Primary Doorways: Language/Character

Genre: Low Fantasy/Literary Fiction

Read for: Poetic ambiance and unusual narrator

Henry Hoke’s novel Open Throat was selected by Carly for the first Best Book Club Ever pick of 2024. Carly and Henry worked together at UVA’s young writer program and Henry was able to join us for our late January book club discussion.

Hoke’s book has been described as about a “gay mountain lion.” What exactly makes the mountain lion gay? Of course there is the obvious: Heckit fantasizes about pairing with another male mountain lion (kill sharer) after observing two men hooking up in a cave. And then there is his gender-exploration in being Little Savage’s queen.

But for me, this book is more about queer loneliness and the queer search for intimacy in the heteronormative world. Often witty and funny, Heckit manages to be a singular voice that is both human and not. How can such an alien voice be so relatable and so readable? Because it taps into that which alien inside of us. This queerness, this refusal to fit. You can keep a mountain lion in the house for awhile, but eventually, it gets out.