Review: 'The Art of Taxidermy' by Sharon Kernot

I was first drawn in by the title, The Art of Taxidermy. The first thing I could think of was those horrible taxidermy horrors that fail to capture the animal's natural expression and thereby somehow elevate the sadness of their death. So yes, I understood there's an art to it, but I was fascinate to see how Sharon Kernot's verse novel would tackle such a difficult topic. Thanks to Text Publishing and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 8/23/2019
Publisher: Text Publishing

A heartbreaking verse novel about love and death, grief and beauty, and the very individual ways we make sense of it all. 

Lottie, the daughter of German migrants, develops a fascination for death after losing her mother at a young age. When Lottie begins collecting dead animals, her aunt tries to redirect her energies into more 'feminine' activities. But her father encourages her interest, recognizing a scientist's curiosity.

 The Art of Taxidermy is a novel about grief and growing up with the shadow of it. Lottie has lot her mother and has now begun collecting and "fixing" dead things. Her aunt is horrified, since taxidermy or an interest in dead things is nowhere near appropriate for a young girl in the 1960s. Her father, however, might see that there is more to her interest than just grief. Kernot shows us Lottie's growing interest while also slowly developing the world around her. Lottie makes a Aboriginal friend through whose presence both Lottie and the reader are confronted with a very different but equally traumatic loss of identity. Kernot also adds another layer of loss and grief by delving slightly into Lottie's family history as Germans, especially into her father and grandfather's stay in a detention camp during the second World War. Kernot shows us that loss and grief are all around us and it makes for a very raw reading experience at times. 

  

The structure of The Art of Taxidermy is a very interesting one. Although the story is told in a linear fashion, it is fragmented, with only the most important moments brought to the forefront. The moment she discovered a dead mouse, the moment her collection is discovered, moments of love, moments of sadness. They all come together to form an incomplete yet recognizable picture of a young girl growing up in a world that is no longer kind. It felt very reminiscent to me of how memory works. Although it being a verse novel was one of my major draws to Kernot's The Art of Taxidermy, I had completely forgotten that by the time I started reading it. I was surprised initially, then remembered, and finally found myself engrossed by Kernot's style. By restraining herself, Kernot is able to put a lot of power into a few words.  Bringing these two things together, Keronot is able to introduce something akin to plot twists and surprises, while maintaining the poetry of her writing and the calmness of tone. 

Sharon Kernot's writing is beautiful. The Art of Taxidermy is full of vivid descriptions, of the vastness of the Australian landscape as well as the minute beauty of a mouse skeleton. At times the descriptions may be quite morbid, but by not hiding the blood, guts and gore, Kernot packs a much more powerful punch. Although The Art of Taxidermy could seem sensationalist, involving taxidermy and young grieving girls, it is actually a very meditative novel, which is aided by the fact that it is a verse novel. Kernot takes her time with Lottie but spares words. Acts are repeated, stubbornly, with everyone involved expecting a different outcome each time. For some readers this may be off-putting, but the way the story circled back to Lottie's grief or coping mechanism made sense to me. In the end The Art of Taxidermy was a quick read for me but an interesting one. I found myself thinking of how we look at grief, at loss, how crippled families can be by it, and how we can, maybe, move on from it.

I give this verse novel...

4 Universes.

I greatly enjoyed the poetic calm of The Art of Taxidermy. Kernot doesn't shy away from the horror of death (or taxidermy), but delivers a heartfelt story about a young girl doing the best she can. I'd recommend this verse novel to lovers of poetry and those interested in grief and loss.