Poor Deer

A Novel

by Claire Oshetsky

English language

Published April 5, 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-332768-9

(3 reviews)

A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories full of faith and magic—that always end happily.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past …

A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past and atones for her role in Agnes’s death.

Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.

2 editions

Joshua reviewed Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

None

4 stars

(Realistically, a 4.25 rating) Oshetsky does a great job capturing the process of loss and grief through a child's eyes. The author's surreal take on the process of the simultaneous loss of life and being the cause of that loss was refreshing as a reader. I thoroughly enjoyed the personification of Margaret's grief and inner turmoil through Poor Deer. The imagery created from Margaret's religious upbringing, combined with the dichotomy of an "innocent" creature berating this child for her "crime," Poor Dear/Poor Deer, and the last articles of clothing Margaret remembers Ruby wearing, made it interesting to connect the different plot points. I did not read this to analyze every detail thoroughly, so I'm sure I've missed a few things intentionally added by the author. The writing was medium-paced and not very dense. While I typically enjoy endings where the fate of the character is up to our interpretations, I did not want that with this story. Throughout the novel, the entire premise of the plot is based on Margaret's and Poor Deer's back and forth of the story being told truthfully and realistically, with Margaret often leaning toward unrealistic expectations for a happy ending and Poor Deer chastising her and making her tell the story over. We get the idealized ending for Margaret, but the readers are left on a cliff-hanger; the decision is ultimately up to us to decide the fate of this child. I think it is a great concept, but a concrete ending would have been more satisfying with this story. We don't need a fairy-tale happy ending, but to know whether or not this character even makes it to this last destination is worth knowing.

Chad Nelson reviewed Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky

Haunting, beautiful tale of loss and memory, greif and guilt

5 stars

A really remarkable book. Haunting tale about how one little girl builds the narrative of her life through tragedy, and what it means when we are an unreliable narrator of our own inner monologue. Full of beautiful, strange, poetic moments driven by characters that still feel deeply human.

vitaincognita

rated it

Feb. 4, 2024