How to Be Human

This is one of the most interesting, strange and beautifully written books I have read in a long time. I found it very enthralling and unsettling at the same time. It’s about a woman living in London, going through the aftermath of a broken relationship. Interactions with her neighbors, who have a new baby and the mother is struggling. With her ex- at first just re-playing conversations and arguments with him in her head, then actual encounters when she suddenly finds out he’s living nearby. And most of all, with a bold fox that appears in her backyard. The fox is wary at first but then becomes accustomed to her presence. She gradually becomes more aware of its comings and goings, looks forward to its appearance, tries to follow it through the strip of woods crammed between two neighborhoods. The more her relationships with people unravel, the stronger her feeling of closeness grows with the fox, along with an increasing sense of alarm as her neighbors obviously don’t like foxes around and wish to get rid of them. So one day she swings her door open wide and lets the fox step into her house . . .

Meanwhile her ex is also coming around more frequently, proffering help, wanting to make sure she’s okay- but she finds his presence distressing to say the least. And then there’s something strange that happens with the neighbor’s baby, and the reader starts to wonder if this woman is an unreliable narrator- some of the incidents are unlikely- is she perceiving them differently than everyone else? or imagining things entirely? I’m still not sure. You have to read between the lines a lot, where meaning slides around. It was hard for me to tell if the ex meant well, or was being subtly manipulative, for example. I don’t think the main character ever actually realized that her neighbor was suffering from postpartum depression and struggling with the new baby, it’s hard to see around all the difficulties that are just in front of her, that she surrounds herself with and then convinces it’s perfectly normal to not show up for work days in a row, neglect her personal hygiene, crawl around in the shrubbery looking for the fox’s den, tape up her mail slot in the front door when people knocking appear threatening, and on and on. I really loved how the writer’s words made me picture things so clearly, yet in such a unique way. And then there’s the segments written from the fox’s point of view- in a manner very different from any animal perspective I’ve ever read, and so aptly done.

I thought of Lady Into Fox and A Man in the Zoo by David Garnett while reading this one (there’s even a scene here where the main character imagines she’s in a zoo, but on the wrong side of the enclosure, looking out at people), and especially of The Zoo Where You’re Fed to God by Michael Ventura – a book that hasn’t come to mind in years. Due to the slightly surreal encounters with animals, the very precise, pinpointed and delicately descriptive language. But most especially I kept think of the film The Fox and The Child. I want to see that all over again now. Paula Cocozza has published another title, Speak to Me– how I’d like to read that one!

Borrowed from the public library.