{"id":57471,"date":"2025-01-30T09:56:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T09:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/the-axemans-carnival-catherine-chidgey-bookshine-and-readbows\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T09:56:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T09:56:22","slug":"the-axemans-carnival-catherine-chidgey-bookshine-and-readbows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=57471","title":{"rendered":"The Axeman\u2019s Carnival \u2013 Catherine Chidgey \u2013 Bookshine And Readbows"},"content":{"rendered":"


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*I received a free ARC of this book with thanks to the author, <\/strong>Europa Editions UK<\/a>\u00a0and<\/strong>\u00a0Anne Cater of\u00a0<\/strong>Random Things Blog Tours<\/strong><\/a>. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blurb: In this darkly comic work of literary satire by New Zealand\u2019s most acclaimed and best-selling novelist Tama, a talking magpie and social media influencer, is the sole witness to a marriage in freefall.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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Tama is just a helpless chick when he is rescued by Marnie. \u2018If it keeps me awake,\u2019 says Marnie\u2019s husband Rob, a farmer in the middle of a years-long drought, \u2018I\u2019ll have to wring its neck.\u2019 But with Tama come new possibilities for the couple\u2019s future. Tama\u2019s fame is growing, and with it, his earning potential. The more Tama sees, the more the animal and the human worlds \u2013 and all the precarity, darkness and hope within them \u2013 bleed into one another. Like a stock truck filled with live cargo, the story moves inexorably towards its dramatic conclusion: the annual Axeman\u2019s Carnival.<\/em><\/p>\n

Part trickster, part surrogate child, part witness, Tama is the star of this story. And although what he says to humans is often nonsensical (and hilarious), the tale he tells makes disturbingly perfect sense.\u00a0The Axeman\u2019s Carnival<\/em>\u00a0is Catherine Chidgey at her finest \u2013 comic, profound, poetic and true.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Review: I have always been fond of animal-narrated and animal-POV stories since childhood \u2013 Black Beauty<\/em>, Tarka the Otter<\/em>, White Fang<\/em>, The Silver Brumby<\/em> \u2013 and this story \u2018plays it straight\u2019, with no fantasy elements to the narrative voice and the author skirting a fine line round the edges of anthropomorphising to produce a believable animal perspective.<\/p>\n

And Tama the magpie provides an exceptional and unique viewpoint to the story, with both the innocence of an animal observing incomprehensible human behaviour, and the wisdom of an animal observing \u2018natural\u2019 human behaviour. It creates a perfect double image of the story \u2013 the dark misery of domestic abuse juxtaposed with the comic antics of a \u2018talking\u2019 animal and social media influencer.<\/p>\n

It is incredibly easy to love Tama and Marnie (his human) from the first few words of the book, but I found myself caring deeply about Tama\u2019s magpie family, his father and his sister, deeply as well. Conversely I found myself disproportionately irritated and upset by the actions of the human side characters like Ange and Nick, and Marnie\u2019s mother. And, of course, I simply hated Rob, no matter how he justified himself or projected a better version. Perhaps it was seeing him through Tama\u2019s eyes, but I just never trusted him. And I was right.<\/p>\n

The story neatly skewers our modern obsession with social media likes, merch, and influencers and how we use nature and animals in these money-making schemes \u2013 whether with the best intentions or not. But the dark beating heart of the story is the dysfunctional marriage and the things that \u2018happen in houses\u2019 when there is only an innocent animal (or child\/child substitute) there to witness. The violence and abuse is horrific and all too realistic, and could be very upsetting to some readers who have experienced some of the issues touched upon here.<\/p>\n

Throughout the plot, the author resists bringing Tama into any sort of full humanistic consciousness, keeping his human speech technically just the repetition of words and phrases he has heard, even though it often cleverly or coincidentally fits perfectly into the context of the situation. His mimicry of Rob\u2019s words \u2013 which could reveal the truth behind events if people knew what they were listening to \u2013 was particularly chilling and I was on the edge of my seat with anxiety hoping someone would pick up on what he was telling them as the story built towards the obvious, imminently looming crescendo.<\/p>\n

Finally, the writing of the setting \u2013 place and people \u2013 is beautifully evocative, bringing alive the countryside, the hardships of farming life, the culture \u2013 both local and more widespread \u2013 and the natural world. I really felt I was there with Tama, hearing the birds call and watching the dogs work the sheep, basking in the sun-and fire-warmth and watching \u2013 always watching \u2013 the humans come and go.<\/p>\n

I absolutely adored this book, with all of its stark unhappiness and sly humour, and the depiction of Tama straddling the two worlds awkwardly but determinedly, trying to make sense of humans and animals while not quite fitting in with either of them (very relatable!). This is a story I would recommend to anyone who, like me, loves an animal narrator but framed as realism, and I will be adding Catherine Chidgey\u2019s other works to my wishlist on the basis of how obsessed I was with this one!<\/p>\n

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Understand this: I was no prisoner. Marnie, who loved me, showed me the cat door and taught me to say meow whenever I used it, and I could let myself out to forage for worms and grubs and beetles and moths, and hunt the mice that nested at the dank foot of the compost pile. Next to the haybarn I discovered the grain silo: a great steel tower filled with barley, and always a scattering of kernels at the base. One day I found the lid left off, and I plunged in and ate my fill, and when I could eat no more I lay back on my barley mountain like a king. \u2018You\u2019re being very naughty\u2019, I said in my human voice, and the words shivered and rang inside my silvery vault, the sky a blue coin above me.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Catherine Chidgey, The Axeman\u2019s Carnival<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Purchase Link: The Axeman\u2019s Carnival<\/em> on Amazon<\/a><\/h3>\n
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About the author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Catherine Chidgey<\/strong>\u2019s novels have been published to international acclaim. Her first,\u00a0In a Fishbone Church<\/em>, won Best First Book at the NZ Book Awards and at the Commonwealth Writers\u2019 Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific). In the UK it won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second,\u00a0Golden Deeds<\/em>, was a Notable Book of the Year in the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and a Best Book in the\u00a0LA Times<\/em>. Catherine has won the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and the Janet Frame Fiction Prize. She lives in Ng\u0101ruaw\u0101hia, NZ, and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Her novel\u00a0Remote Sympathy<\/em>\u00a0was shortlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award and longlisted for the Women\u2019s Prize for Fiction. Her novels\u00a0The Wish Child<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Axeman\u2019s Carnival<\/em>\u00a0both won the Acorn Prize for Fiction, NZ\u2019s most prestigious literary award.<\/p>\n

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Instagram: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/catherinechidgey\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: <\/strong>https:\/\/x.com\/CathChidgey<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to check out the other blog stops on the tour for more great reviews and content (see below for details)!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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