Paula Cocozza

A testament to a good read is when you often find yourself skipping ahead to make sure characters you care about are okay. Such skip-reading is common and immediate in "How to Be Human." Readily within the first page concerned readers may skim several paragraphs to ascertain the fate of certain characters. It takes talent to make a reader care that much so quickly in a novel. Nevertheless, there are moments in the book about 2/3 of the way where the narration loses steam. It could be this is show more intentional, since Mary and the Fox do reach a stalemate of sorts at that juncture. This novel is both isolating and inclusive, wild and domesticated, and compelling in its message that we often aim to train animals when it is usually the other way around if we only learn how to listen. show less

What I love about this book is everyone seems to have a strong reaction to it: love or hate -- AND everyone got something a little different out of it. To me, this seems like a job very well done by the author: she produced something with singular meaning for each reader. She had enough detail for a story, but left enough blanks for each of us to fill in with our own meaning. I haven't seen reviews that got out of it what I did, and I've really enjoyed reading others' perspectives.

I loved show more this book: the story of a woman who was not cared for as a child, who had to take care of herself, and, so, balks at someone caring for her (Mark, her boyfriend). She doesn't want to marry him or have a child w/ him b/c she couldn't possibly be suited to it. She breaks up with him and realizes she feels good and safe without him. Then a fox appears in her yard. Everyone in the neighborhood wants it gone but she's fascinated. She longs for it to come. She imagines a relationship with it, talks to it, and it does become accustomed to her.

She starts to FEEL -- and to feel SAFE feeling -- and is eager to have this relationship with the fox. It brings her things (junk he's gnawed on) and she's not threatened and does not feel controlled when accepting these gifts. She takes it all at face value: friendship, familiarity, kindness -- all these she can accept from a fox without fearing he's trying to control her.

She's learning to be human.

(The interesting thing is that Mark WAS weird and controlling behind all the kindness and self-sacrificial behavior; it was all toward an end of controlling her. She'd owe him b/c of 'what a nice guy he was' -- like emotional kidnapping: I'm doing all this for you, everyone thinks I'm nice and knows YOU have problems, so YOU must be the problem.)

I identified with this story: I healed a lot having Eddie as a puppy for the same reasons. Loving him felt safe, and I liked the feeling of loving in safety. I looked for ways to heal so I could do that with people, too. In the book, Mary was made to feel that SHE was the problem in every interaction with her significant other -- including being told that explicitly. She feared closeness with people b/c it wasn't safe and she was constantly told she was wrong in them: that makes it easy to prefer the companionship of an animal.

I also found it SO interesting that she realized the fox, ultimately, felt penned in (controlled, perhaps!) by HER (by Mary). He wanted to escape her obsessive need to be with him and have this relationship. She's a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other: she goes from rejecting feelings entirely to then having obsessive feelings. Hopefully she is about to find the center.

I absolutely DID NOT feel there was a sexual element to her relationship with the fox. I think she was feeling things strongly: and for someone who hasn't felt safe having feelings but now suddenly is embracing them, the effusive expression of those feelings might be assumed/read as sexual by an outsider but I don't think, in fact, they were. show less

‘’Focus, Mary. Don’t let him go now. So what if you’re tired and hungry. So what if you’ve crawled to the end of another miserable day in a job you hate, and tomorrow will bring only more of the same, which will feel not the same but worse, and you can’t sleep and can’t eat, which means there’s only waking and working, waking and working.’’

Mary isn’t really at her best. For quite some time, she has been trying to cope with an ugly break-up, a mundane work where an show more incompetent colleague constantly spies on her, and her weird neighbours. Her monotony is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a male fox, a beautiful creature that seems to understand her better than any human being close to her. Mary finds comfort in its presence but the neighbours don’t share her opinion. Before long, Mary finds herself in the middle of problems that aren’t hers and a struggle to protect this unique animal. The question is where is the end of love and the beginning of obsession?

Paula Cocozza has written an extraordinary novel, one of the most unique I’ve recently read. Haunting, beautiful, puzzling. The setting of the suburbs in London during the sultry summer nights (primarily) creates a seductive and suffocating environment, while the woodlands neighbouring the urban scenery emphasize Mary’s connection to nature and her growing isolation from the weird human beings that want to have their say in her life. Cocozza’s writing is so beautiful and so hard to summarize. The novel is full of vivid descriptions in an exceptional marriage of urban and nature scenes. I was able to ‘’see’’ the soft afternoon light on the houses, the blue evening sky. I was able to ‘’hear’’ the own and the insects, to ‘’smell’’ the distinctive summer night air. All these features paint the picture of a summer night when everything can happen and everything can go wrong. It is amusing how the tone changes from one moment to the next, keeping the reader alerted, waiting.

‘’Mary deleted all her messages. She wanted no one else’s voice in her house.’’

Poor Mary with all the lunatics she has to face day after day….Her supervisor, her ex-fiance who is rather intriguing and enigmatic but immensely controlling and manipulative, and her neighbours who stand on the razor’s edge, facing serious issues following the birth of a baby girl. Mary seemingly finds a way to go through a few unpleasant encounters with the aforementioned obstacles and the Fox slowly becomes the one stable point in her life. Soon, the animal is turned into an object of obsession for everyone, a symbol of the unacceptable disturb of the suburban life. Mary will leave you puzzled and fascinated right until the end. Personally, I loved her. Her whimsical nature, her thoughts and sensitivity… In my opinion, she’s an extremely memorable character.

Despite the playful, whimsical tone and the ‘’feeling’’ of a British urban fairytale, there is a kind of darkness and a tense, foreboding atmosphere throughout this unique story. The owls, Michelle’s depression, the emphasis on lack of sleep, the woodlands and the frequent mention of the fences, the noise of the city, the summer nights. These are only a few of the ingredients that make Paula Cocozza’s novel such a haunting read, painted in a very particular background. The parts of the story that depict the perceptions of the Fox are some of the finest passaged I’ve ever read.

How To Be Human is one of the best books I’ve had the good fortune to read this year. A fascinating mix of Literary Fiction, Mystery and Fairytale, a modern allegory that speaks of obsession, isolation, understanding, threat and refuge. Of disappointment and the strength that may come through it. Simply outstanding…

‘’That’s where civilization was. Up there, glowing with the borrowed light of street lamps and tower blocks. Down on the ground was desolate. It seemed to her that the purple haze of London’s night sky had been lowered like a lid of light over the clearing to seal all the darkness in place and her inside. She was a tiny specimen in a giant jam jar, thoughtfully provided with a twig floor and cuttings of familiar habitat, awaiting examination through the convex lamp lens above.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com show less

A wholly original take on the love triangle trope, Paula Cocozza’s debut novel will both entertain and puzzle you. Our protagonist Mary is a woman on the edge; she’s dumped her fiancé, she’s performing poorly at work, and her life is one of almost total isolation. Until, of course, she meets a special someone. That her new romantic interest is a fox rather than a person does not appear to faze Mary in the least, and their relationship develops even as Mary’s neighbors and her ex show more plot to rid their gardens of the pest. Is this a romance? Magical realism? An allegory of humanity’s relationship with nature? I’m not sure, but the book works well no matter how you categorize it. The characters are all too real and the plot will keep you guessing, but ultimately the novel will appeal the most to readers with a high tolerance for the whimsical and the downright odd. show less