How to Be Human

March 27, 2017
Cocozza’s excellent first novel slyly handles its relatively quiet premise: a woman, Mary, finds fulfillment in the bond she develops with a neighborhood fox. Taking place almost entirely on Mary’s London property and in its neighboring woods, “an island of wilderness in the inner city,” the novel revolves around territorial disputes—between neighbors, between exes, and between humans and animals—which accounts for the whiff of menace detectable throughout. Two males are “stalking periphery,” a creepily solicitous ex-boyfriend named Mark and a fox, whom she one day spies sleeping curled on her lawn, “his head pok out from the bottom of the curve like an unfinished question mark.” The creature will remain an enigmatic presence, undomesticated and ultimately illegible, even as the intimacy between him and Mary grows. Cocozza occasionally switches to the fox’s point of view, brief, defamiliarizing glimpses that add a distinctive tang to the narrative. Here is the fox picking up a scent: “Salty snail odor tunneled into his muzzle. From the fresh male who was an old male who was a slithery male.” The portrayal of that slithery male Mark vacillates between ominous stalker and harmless sad sack, an unsuitable foil to his vulpine rival. The magnificent and mysterious fox lays claim to the novel, indelibly marking Mary and reader alike.

Starred review from March 1, 2017
A debut novel from Guardian feature writer Cocozza, this disquieting story details the obsessive romance between a woman and a fox.Mary is newly single, in danger of losing her job, indifferent to housekeeping, and bedeviled by the yuppie neighbors whose baby she can hear crying through the walls. Her life seems at the verge of implosion until she spots a fox snoozing in her garden. What follows is a scintillating descent through one woman's mental collapse; or, as is equally possible in this absorbing novel of tricky perspective, her salvation. On first introduction, Mary responds to Fox with a wary sort of proprietariness. She thinks of her gaze as "a kind of cage, throwing down bars to the lawn to keep him trapped." As the novel progresses, however, these barriers are rapidly erased, and their relationship develops from mutual admiration to co-habitation over the course of one balmy East London summer. As the tensions in Mary's outside life mount--her domineering ex-fiance, Mark, comes back into the picture; her neighbor Michelle's postpartum depression takes a dangerous turn; Flora, Michelle's baby, shows up one night on the doorstep, brought, perhaps, by the fox--the intimacy of her observations, the precision of her descriptive eye, and the intensity of her romantic obsession with Fox build to a crescendo. Told partially from Mary's standpoint and partially from the truly foxy point of view of Fox, Cocozza's story balances on the pinpoint of perspective. Is Mary mad or simply living her life more fully than her compatriots? Is Fox the anthropomorphic dream partner Mary perceives, or is he a wild animal, motivated solely by his own instinct to survive? A singular love story of dominance and betrayal, this novel sets the tone for what will hopefully be a long and strange literary career.

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Starred review from March 1, 2017

In her lonely postseparation life, Mary finds herself increasingly alienated from former friends, apathetic about work, and strangely drawn to a fox who turns up regularly in her back garden at the edge of a woods. Summoned to a disciplinary hearing at work for her chronic lateness and poor attitude, Mary instead takes a medical leave, allowing her more time to pursue the fox, whom she first thinks of as Red, later Rafael, and finally Fox. Emboldened by Mary's interest, the fox begins to present her with odd trophies--a pair of men's boxer briefs, a chewed-up loafer, a hollowed egg, and, finally, a baby. While her neighbors, especially the ones next door with vulnerable small children, perceive only danger, Mary senses romance. The fox has his own interesting take on their relationship and views with suspicion her stalker ex-boyfriend, her interfering neighbors, and, especially, the "fox fixer" hired to deal with the neighborhood problem. VERDICT This is a compelling, unsettling, and wholly original debut. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/16.]--Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

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April 1, 2017
A chance encounter with a fox in her garden marks the beginning of Mary's increasing entanglement with the bewitching visitor. After breaking up with her fiance, Mary lives alone in the house they had shared. She is regularly tardy for her human-resources job at a local university, and her social calendar is largely empty except for an occasional night of babysitting for her neighbors. But when the fox appears in the neighborhood, where others see vermin to be eradicated, Mary sees a kindred spirit and, in time, a friend. Cocozza writes immersive scenes, registering the experiences of all the senses. Smell, in particular, plays an important role as Mary tries to perceive the world as the fox does, although it often seems she misinterprets his perspective. As their relationship grows, so does Mary's erratic behavior, until she is driven to extremes in her efforts to save the fox from extermination. Besieged by her ex and the unhappy couple next door, the fox seems to offer Mary a chance to free herself for a wilder, more authentic life. Unusual and strangely fascinating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)