Animals of all kinds, from a lovesick hippopotamus to a valuable pair of Chelsea dogs make an appearance in Hugh Hood’s delightful new collection of short stories You’ll Catch Your Death. But mostly one is aware of the birds. As the narrator in Hood’s opening story observes, ‘what I saw was birds and birds and again birds’. Mosaic renderings of peacocks and cranes, a cage of cruelly imprisoned pigeons, a lorikeet named Ronnie Reagan, a couple of stolen cockatoos and a bestselling book entitled ‘Caring Parenting While Birding’ each play a role in these stories, along with a cast of eccentric bird lovers.
Amusing, thoughtful, and by turns poignant, the thirteen never-before-published stories in You’ll Catch Your Death are Hugh Hood at his eclectic best. ‘More Birds’ and ‘You’ll Catch Your Death’ explore mankind’s tenuous relationship with the animal world. ‘Disappearing Creatures of Various Kinds’ reveals some of the mysterious ways in which humans reach out and communicate with other living creatures. On the other hand ‘Deanna and the Ayatollah’ invents a fateful encounter between Khomeini and film star Deanna Durbin, while ‘Getting Funding’ is a hilarious send-up of Canadian arts funding and the CBC.