We are told not to judge a book by it’s cover, but hey, we feast with our eyes, don’t we? This sweet little novel caught my eye while strolling down the aisles of the library. I’m usually more for sprawling fictional worlds, but something intrigued me that this was her Paula Cocozza’s debut novel. I just wanted to cheer her on. I didn’t quite know what to expect based on the description on the back but I was feeling daring, so I took it home with me.
What I found in How to be Human, was a study in human brokenness. I loved the way you sort of stumble into the story. (Warning: Spoilers). Cocozza starts with a bizarre and cinematic scene that seems as if the audience is experiencing a dream or possibly a nightmare (maybe even a hallucination). The story then pulls back out to something more everyday. The whole time my brain is trying to connect the to seemingly unrelated elements.
We journey with Mary, our protagonist, and she is so relatable. I know I’ve missed out on that job that I really wanted and felt our morale leach out as you continue on. It’s also a study in isolation. What is “normal” and what is a downward spiral? How can we tell? How can we trust the imperfect observations of others? How do we determine an act of betrayal? Where was that last step taken from quirky into madness? We start with a woman we can really identify with – particularly if you are a bit of an introvert, but then we continue as curiosity becomes fascination become obsession.
There was a bit where I had to put the book down. I wasn’t sure if it was going off on a bestiality tangent, and while I was game for a pretty strange journey, that was not a step I was going to take with the novel. Fortunately, I can be a bit obsessive and I needed to know how it ended. I was pleased to discover the book did not go that far into the strange “romance” between Mary and a wild fox. I was so glad I finished that journey. I loved how Cocozza explores what it is to recover from a controlling relationship. To remember the good and the bad in someone. To recognize your own growth and strength. And even to sometimes become the thing you hate.
Cocozza does a beautiful job of painting this strange tale. Not a moment is wasted as she knits it all together in a beautiful story of love, loss, depression, celebration, and growth.
“The magazines were full of stories of women choosing between their career and their maternal instincts. But what if you had neither?”
