The genus corvus, which includes rooks, crows, ravens, jays, jackdaws, choughs and magpies in its ranks is commonly believed to have the most intelligent of birds, and this is a novel about one such, a magpie, named Tama, who narrates the whole story.
‘Narrated by a bird!?’ I hear you ask. Couldn’t that be a bit Jonathan Livingstone Seagull? Nothing could be further from that (Gawd, I remember reading that back in the 1970s, when I was in my religious phase!). Well then, how about Max Porter’s crow in Grief is the Thing With Feathers? Much closer, but crow is one of several voices in that novella. Chidgey’s novel is a sustained 324 pages told by Tama.
I’ve been meaning to read a book by New Zealander Chidgey for some time. I do have a copy of her previous novel, Pet, which has had great write-ups, but The Axeman’s Carnival, published in 2022 in NZ, will be my first instead. The title refers to the carnival preceding the climax of the novel which has has a prestigious woodcutting contest.
The novel is set on a sheep farm in Central Otago in NZ’s South Island. Tama is rescued as a chick having fallen from the nest by Marnie, who puts him in a shoebox, much to her husband’s disapproval.
‘Well for Christ’s sake, don’t name it.’ […]
He peered in at me too, […] ‘You know if it keeps me awake I’ll have to wring its neck.’
Marnie does name him – Tamagotchi – Tama for short, as she realises she’ll have to look after the fledgling closely to help him survive and thrive. Tama meanwhile totally adopts Marnie as his new mother, while remaining ever-distrustful of husband Rob. He has his own room, the ‘nursery’ – for of course he’s a feather-baby replacement for a real one for now. He goes everywhere with Marnie, except to the ladieswear shop where she works one day a week, and he is soon picking up speech – which he’ll parrot out – swear words and all. Rob despises the bird even more as he sort of answers back!
It’s grim but comical at the same time, as Marnie suffers domestic abuse at the hands of her husband. Laughing it off as he was drunk. Tama sees all this, even if he doesn’t understand, and stores up the phrases in his head. Sometimes though, Tama just comes out with the right phrase at the right time as if he was talking and comprehending. When Marnie films him on her phone and posts it online, it goes viral. Tama, who by now uses the cat flap to hop in and out of the house, goes to see his sister again.
.’.. people in America and Japan and Germany and Wales say I’m the best boy ever too.
‘People in whales?’
‘Everywhere. All over the world. I’m a meme. I’m a gif. I’m trending. I’m an influencer. I’ve gone viral.’
My sister backed away then, and I could have kicked myself, and I said, ‘Not that sort of viral,’ but she was looking at me with her left eye, and a noise was bubbling up in her throat, and the noise was ‘stay away from us, keep out keep out keep out.
Soon, Tama becomes the key to a thriving business, as Marnie and Rob are guided in how to monetize the clips, and sell a range of Tama merch. Even Rob can’t complain about them being broke any more, but he is jealous of their success, and meanwhile is also in training for the Axeman of the Year trophy at the carnival – he’s won the past nine times – can he make it ten?
Tama’s family, disowned him when he went to live with Marnie, there was never a question of him going back into the wild, but he tries to stay in touch, although his wild sister doesn’t believe that anyone could ever come back, telling him all the ways magpies can die. When he’d asked about his mother, his sister replied ‘Death by car.’ And Rob isn’t the only human not to like Tama though. Marnie’s sister Ange farms cherries, and will do anything to stop the wild birds eating them, trapping them and killing them. Tama and his sister will have a close escape from her clutches.
As Tama’s lexicon and fame keep growing, so does the business, rapidly getting out of hand – and then the first visitors arrive – having worked out where Tama lives. They are overjoyed to meet our bird friend, much to Rob’s disgust (as you’d expect). The pressure is ever-increasing and the carnival is coming closer. Ange persuades Marnie to perform in a double act with her on stage at the carnival in costumes made by their mother Barbara. Marnie begs for them not to be revealing, you know what’ll happen, and it won’t go well with Rob. The day of the carnival finally arrives and I will say no more!
You can’t help but love Tama. Chidgey mostly stays clear of anthropomorphising him, although a little is perhaps inevitable when the animal is your narrator, he does seem to have absorbed some human essence. I thought she handled him very cleverly; he does have great comic timing with his little quips, even if he doesn’t know what they all mean. Although there are the dark undertones of domestic violence and family dynamics that run through this novel, it is more optimistic in outlook than you’d think.
I very much enjoyed this book, and find myself looking forward to returning to my TBR to extract Pet from it to read sooner rather than later.
Source: Review copy thank you! Europa Editions UK flapped paperback, 324 pages (2024), std paperback Jan 2025.
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