Review of The Unravelling of Ou

It's an strange thing to wonder if a sock puppet is a reliable narrator, but that's just one of the many thoughts raised by The Unraveling of Ou by Hollay Ghadery which is a novel narrated entirely by a sock puppet named Ou. This seemingly silly premise is used to great effect to tackle themes of mental illness, generational trauma, and internalized misogyny. It's an easy four out of five stars for me and easy to recommend to anyone interested in these sadly timeless issues. Or just wants to experience an incredibly beautifully written and insightful introspective tale about the mental prisons that we build for ourselves or are built for us by our circumstances.

The sock puppet Ou belongs to Minoo, an Iranian Canadian woman who was exiled to Canada from Iran for a youthful indiscretion and while she has built a full life for herself in a small town in Ontario she has a bizarre need to wear Ou on her hand almost everywhere she goes which puts a strain on her and everyone around her to put it mildly.

The indiscretion is decades in the past and whenever the past is described Ou acts as the narrator of Minoo's memories. In these parts the narration is lyrical, poetic, and insightful which speaks as much to Ghadery's skill with language as it does with the nature of Ou as an incisive, honest, and blunt observer. Ou is very clear in the novel that they are a manifestation of Minoo herself and it's a devastating realization that Minoo has exiled these parts of her into a sock puppet. It's in the sections of the past that the reason for the internalized misogyny and fear of her own body that Minoo suffers from is revealed to be Minoo's mother, who has her own reasons for raising Minoo to be fearful of her body and any thoughts she has that contradicts her mother's will. The portrayal of a socially conservative Iranian family that, while influenced by religion, is entirely secular, is incredibly well done.

It's when we come to the present that the writing feels suffocating and I think that's by design. Minoo never speaks for herself in the entire book and in the present the story is framed as Ou trying desperately to talk Minoo off her path of self-destruction. Minoo is devastated as, in the opening scene of the novel, her daughter Roya refuses to let Minoo see her newborn grandchild, and orders Minoo out of the maternity ward when Minoo shows up with Ou on her hand who Roya detests.

And this is how the book proceeds, revealing secrets about how Ou came to be created, the acts of cruelty and betrayal that scar Minoo, and the growing estrangement between her and Roya as the narrative flips between the present and the past. The focus is kept on Minoo's relationship with her mother and her daughter as every other relationship Minoo has is with well meaning family and friends who are helpless in the face of Minoo's mental state and Ou is no exception. Minoo has been in survival mode her whole life and Ou is a more visible coping mechanism then most of us have and the ending really gets at whether she'll be move beyond that or not.

This is a wonderful novel that I highly recommend. Thanks to the publisher and author for the advance copy provided for review purposes. All opinions my own.