From the outset, Open Throat by Henry Hoke promises to be a wild ride, its eye-popping first line, ‘I’ve never eaten a person but today I might,’ spoken by a queer, non-binary mountain lion, who has made their home alongside the legendary Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles. The lion is desperately hungry and spends their days covertly watching the locals, torn between curiosity about human life and the desire to shred passers-by and eat them for lunch. In this razor-sharp allegorical novella, the lion considers modern American society and its impact on the marginalised, whilst being dangerously tempted to join the club.
Hoke takes inspiration from the true story of P-22, a mountain lion who gained celebrity status by setting up home in the Hollywood Hills in the 2010s. In fact, the book is dedicated to ‘P-22, who walks beside me in dreams’, reimagining several key events of the animal’s life.
Presented in punchy, unpunctuated paragraphs, the lion’s stream-of-consciousness story begins on the hiking trails around the Hollywood sign. Here, camouflaged in the thicket, they attempt to make sense of their surroundings by eavesdropping on passing hikers (while also salivating at the scent of sweaty human flesh). From snatched bursts of human language, the creature understands that this place is called ‘ellay,’ and its inhabitants are prone to constant busyness and veneration of strange pieces of green paper, whilst being engaged on a seemingly endless search for a decent therapist.
At twilight, once the hikers have left, the lion wanders through arid ravines that once flowed with water. It’s been a long time since the last rains and thirst is now a constant companion to hunger, driving them towards a homeless encampment on the urban outskirts. This is where the tent people live, humans who acknowledge their regular visitor by leaving out buckets of scraps. Both humans and beast intuit their shared outsider status, none of them are welcome in the City of Angels. At night, the lion can be found gazing at the electric sprawl of ‘ellay’ light, with a confused mix of repulsion and yearning.
Shortlisted for several prestigious awards, Open Throat is a witty, bold, and gleefully left-field novel. The world, as seen through the eyes of a Californian big cat, is one of hardship, be it the indifference meted out to the vulnerable, or the increasingly parched and combustible conditions of the natural environment. Humans appear to be obsessed with status, money and technology. No wonder they’re all in need of a therapist, the lion wants one too.
This learning curve becomes ever steeper when the twin horrors of cruelty and fire set in motion a bizarre sequence of events, drawing the lion ever closer to the seductive human world. What conclusions will this feline adventurer reach?
A unique and compelling outsider novel.
Open Throat by Henry Hoke is published by Picador, 176 pages.
