In reading Kendra Coulter’s first novel The Tortoises Tale, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. I wouldn’t say that I am a person who necessarily seeks out anthropomorphic* books about other-than-human-animals. I find some of these exercises to be a little too cartoonish or even disrespectful for my tastes. However, there are books that have managed to tell complex and important stories about the experiences of other animals using anthropomorphism that I have enjoyed. These range from classics like Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Watership Down as well as newer books like Open Throat. TTT came onto my radar when VINE book club decided to have TTT as the February book of the month. Reading that the author’s background advocating for animals made me more interested in her first venture in novel form.
*Note: When I use the term anthropomorphism, I do so intentionally with the actual definition in mind. I mean assigning human qualities to other animals such as thinking and verbalizing in English and being presented in a way that humans can imagine and understand. I do not mean that other animals having emotions thoughts, and rich experiences of the world is anthropomorphism. To suggest that only humans experience these is anthropocentrism.*
The book has a whimsical quality to it. Despite many serious and emotional events taking place, it still felt like light reading in a good way during dark times. Coulter’s use of music and other signifiers to denote each time period throughout the tortoises long life was an interesting and effective stylistic choice. I felt very drawn into the world of the book and of the tortoise protagonist who’s point of view the story is told from. The anthropomorphism is that the tortoise thanks and speaks and human language and also understands human language. This understanding does not go in the other direction and humans often have to work hard, if they care enough to, to understand her communication styles.
Where the book didn’t quite work for me was how centered around human experiences it was. While the tortoise does interact with other animal species at different times, she generally does not understand their languages or communication without great effort. This means that the story is centered around the human characters more so than the tortoise and other animals in many situations. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just not my preferred style for this sort of genre. I would have liked for the tortoise to have richer experiences in her interactions with other species that matched or exceeded the amount that she has with humans.
That said, the story does open up the world of what these tortoises may be thinking and feeling as many of them live over 100 years. The author captures quite well how long a stretch of time this is in her use of interactions with humans throughout the book. It also leaves you feeling good at the end. Despite all of the struggles that the tortoise and her human compatriots and encounter, the way the book wraps up is sweet. Given the current state of things across the globe for humans and all other animals, it’s nice to have a more casual reading experience that doesn’t leave me devastated as many stories about other animals do.
I think that the writer has a skill for fiction that I hope she continues to explore things through this medium.Due to unexpected circumstances I ended up having to miss the book club where the author joined the group, so I unfortunately cannot comment on that. I do hope to have more opportunities to read fiction work from this author in the future.
This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.