Skunk: A Love Story
Justin Courter, . . Omnidawn, $14.95 (347pp) ISBN 978-1-890650-20-9
An obsession for skunk musk sends a young man on a picaresque journey in Courter's darkly comedic first novel, set in the town of New Essex that appears to be a suburb of New York City. Damien Youngquist nurtures a peculiar love for the smell of skunk, "the richest of all olfactory pleasures," by trapping the animals in the woods and forming a family of them at his home—much to the disgust of his nosy neighbor, Mrs. Endicott, and fellow employees at the law book publishing firm where he works, Grund & Greene. Then Damien meets lively, foul-mouthed Pearl, a woman who appreciates his taste for skunks like no one else. A fish fetishist, Pearl is also a marine biologist with a couple of inventions that just might solve global warming and world hunger. Courter takes his time with Damien's story, illuminating the many varieties of obsession and its strangest consequences.
Reviewed on: 04/16/2007
Genre: Fiction