Pulling It Off

Maybe postmodernist writing doesn't always annoy me?

In the acknowledgements following his novel Open Throat, Henry Hoke writes, “To Johanna Hedva (‘do not fuck with my syntax’) and Katherine Faw (‘just the best ones’), for guiding me through a whirlwind.” I usually read the acknowledgements of a book when I’m slightly under a third of the way through. This isn’t something I even plan, but this benchmark is usually when I’m not quite in the swing of a book yet and I’m really beginning to wonder about its author. I didn’t think much of Hoke’s comment about syntax at the time, but it stuck with me, maybe in part because I’m not used to seeing expletives in acknowledgements.

The front flap of Open Throat bills the novel as being about “A queer and dangerous mountain lion [who] lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood Sign.” This description kept me from reading this book, because what is wonderful about this book—to me—isn’t this buzzy premise, but how Hoke formats this story. That line from the acknowledgements about not fucking with his syntax makes me believe that Hoke fought to format his book this way. It also allows me to appreciate this formatting to a higher degree, because the book would not be what it is, were it formatted any other way.