Anita Reads the LongList – The Art of Taxidermy

So, I had a thought. And because this year, I’m using a kanban board to organise myself, I wrote a postit note of said thought, and stuck it on my kanban board.

It said this: “Read CBCA Longlist”.

And because it was on my kanban board, I started doing it. (It’s now in the WIP column – yehaaa!).

Not the first one I read… but the one I want to write about first is The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot and published by Text Publishing. It’s a YA novel and it’s on the longlist.

I was telling friends about this book the other day. So what’s it about? What are the themes?

And I realised I suck at remembering the basics. What I do remember is it’s written in a lyrical, poetic manner. It’s macabre and beautiful and touches on grief in such a lovely way.

The voice was so strong that it sits with me still. It’s been a while since a book has sat with me like that. The last one was Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut. I just felt like I was being punched in the face for that whole book, but as soon as it was over, I really, really missed being punched in the face.

Back to the book at hand though. Less punch in the face, more poetic. I read when I get into bed. And more often than not, the book falls out of my hand. With the good ones, the words land in my dreams.

I dreamt for days in stanzas. It was so damn weird. I would wake up each morning with

words floating in my head

then stopping and starting

on a new line for no apparent reason.

They were never words I could remember.

But they felt significant

Important

Breathless

But untouchable.

As the day unfolded the words would start flowing normally again. Without dramatic line breaks, and lyrical beats.

And then when night time fell, I could fall back into this wonderful lyrical world.

So, what I want to say about this book. I can’t tell you the plot or the characters or any of that. But it’s seeped in, in some unseen, unknown way and made me understand something that I didn’t before.

What did I tell my friends about this book? I don’t know. I think I just made some weird noises and put my hand on my heart. I’m just grateful this book made its way into the world.