Book Club: Let’s Talk About ‘Etna,’ by Paul Yoon

The Book Review

The hosts of The Book Review Book Club discuss Paul Yoon's novel 'Etna,' a war story narrated from the perspective of a combat dog. They exp

Key takeaways

The novel 'EtNA' avoids the 'treacly' tropes often found in animal-narrated stories by using a spare, poetic prose style.
The use of a dog's perspective provides a 'complicating' rather than 'simplifying' view of war through heightened sensory details like smell.

Main topics

Etna by Paul Yoon
Animal perspectives in literature

Notable quotes

It is a complicating perspective shift rather than a simplifying perspective shift.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a compelling endorsement of 'Etna,' highlighting

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I'm John Caramonica, a critic at The New Speaker 4 (0:02) York Times. And I'm Joe Cascarelli, a culture reporter at The Speaker 3 (0:04) Times. Together we host PopCast, a weekly pop culture chat show where we speak to the biggest musicians, actors, internet celebrities, and more. We've had Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo, and Anne Hathaway. We've also hosted live performances with Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu. Plus, we end every conversation with a snack. Catch new episodes of PopCast every week on YouTube. And anywhere you Speaker 4 (0:25) get your Speaker 3 (0:25) podcasts. Speaker 5 (0:29) Do you have your drinks and snacks ready, everyone? Good, because it is time for Book Club. Speaker 5 (0:38) Hello, and welcome to the Book Review from the New York Times. I'm MJ Franklin. I'm an editor here at the New York Times Book Review and the host of the Book Review Book Club. And today I'm with Liz Speaker 2 (0:49) Egan. I'm a writer at the Book Review. Speaker 5 (0:51) And Scott Speaker 4 (0:53) Heller. I'm the features editor at Speaker 5 (0:55) the Book Review. Liz, Scott, thank you for joining us. From the jump, I have a big question. How do you feel about dogs? Speaker 2 (1:02) Oh, MJ, this is complicated for me. Why? It's very complicated. Well, I had a very complicated and chaotic beast named Fig Newton who died about two years ago, and I swore, swore, swore I would never get another dog. And I am now about to be the mom of a puppy. Speaker 5 (1:23) What's the puppy's name? Speaker 2 (1:24) That is a matter of some debate. I don't know that I feel comfortable. revealing it. Although I will say I'm pulling for Carmela Soprano, much to my husband's chagrin. Speaker 5 (1:35) Incredible names. Incredible names. Thank you. What about you, Scott? How do you feel about dogs? Speaker 4 (1:39) I'm learning to like dogs, but I'm actually living through some anxiety right now because I'm about to hand my dog over to a dog sitter for two weeks and I'm worried. but I'm worried for her. Speaker 2 (1:53) MJ, are you a dog person? I Speaker 5 (1:55) am a dog person. I have two cats just because of the realities of living in the city, but I also love dogs. But I wanted to ask this question because this week we're talking about a book anchored to a dog. This week for Book Club, we are reading and discussing Etna by Paul Yoon. It's a war story, but told from a dog's point of view. But before we dig into the novel itself, I have my typical admin notes. First, there will be spoilers in this episode, but we want to keep this conversation accessible to all, so we'll keep the first half of the discussion spoiler-light. We'll talk about some foundational details, we'll talk about themes, we'll talk about our opinions, but we will save the big reveals and the discussion of the second half of the book to the second half of the conversation, which will be spoiler-filled. So, choose your own adventure based on what you want to know. First half, spoiler-light. Second half, spoiler-filled. That's note number one. Note number two, at the end of the episode, we will reveal our October book. So stay with us to the end to find out what we're reading next. And without further ado, let's dive into the doghouse. Let's dive into the book. Let's dive into Etna. To get us started, can someone give us a synopsis, an introduction? What is this book? Speaker 4 (3:10) I can do it. Thank you. Let's see. Etna. The plot isn't the point of Aetna, but I'll tell you what the plot is briefly, and then we can go from there. Aetna, the title character, is a 67-pound shepherd, a combat dog trained for war, and this plot of the book... We meet Etna and we follow Etna both during wartime and especially after, in the aftermath of war. We don't know much detail about the war. We don't even know quite where it is. We just know that American troops are sort of arriving. And we know that Etna both can understand and kind of talk. And that makes this a very special experience. Over the course of the story, we meet. soldiers, and then we kind of see the aftermath of a war that's quite brutal, and we end up inside the head of a dog, and all Anna wants to do is go home. And it sounds treacly, and it sounds kind of goofy, and yet for me, it was absolutely beautiful. This book totally worked for me, and I'll tell you more about why, but I think that covers the plot, right? I think so. Is that enough detail? Speaker 2 (4:24) Yes, and I would like to add that I loved this book, too. And one of the reasons was because Scott recommended it to me. And of all of our colleagues at the New York Times Book Review, Scott Heller is the least likely person to recommend a book about a courageous and also very sensitive dog who is dying to go home. I Speaker 4 (4:47) own it. I agree with you. I agree. It Speaker 1 (4:50) was Speaker 2 (4:50) so out of character for you that I just... I felt like I had a window into your soul as I was reading this Speaker 3 (4:56) book. Speaker 4 (4:57) I am shutting that window now. But yes, I Speaker 5 (5:01) like that synopsis. It's about a dog, but it's about Scott and his soul. That's what Speaker 2 (5:05) it Speaker 4 (5:05) really is. It's just if Speaker 2 (5:06) anyone is likely to recommend a book about an animal with a lot of feelings, it's it's probably me. Might well be. Yeah. But. Yeah, I loved it. I did have some complaints, of course, because we do work at the book review, but we'll get to that later. Speaker 5 (5:22) But Liz, you also had like a little top line, this tag you had for this book. Can you tell us what it is? Well, Speaker 2 (5:27) of course, this was the summer of The Odyssey. You could not get away from it. I've Speaker 3 (5:32) heard Speaker 2 (5:32) of Speaker 3 (5:32) that. Speaker 2 (5:32) I Speaker 3 (5:32) still Speaker 2 (5:32) have not seen it. Speaker 3 (5:33) Wait, what? Speaker 2 (5:34) I still haven't seen it. I haven't Speaker 3 (5:35) either. I'm Speaker 5 (5:36) a busy woman. What is happening Speaker 2 (5:37) in the studio? Speaker 5 (5:38) We read too much. How about that? I've seen it twice and I don't even watch movies. Speaker 2 (5:43) I don't mean to be this person, but I read the book. I loved the book, even as a 13-year-old. It was kind of over my head, but I had a really good teacher who taught it to me. Shout out to Sister Marlene Barnett. Really a fabulous teacher. And I will see it. But Aetna is a mini-odyssey. It's a much faster read, let's put it that way. And that is kind of how I thought of it. We're following Aetna through this unnamed... world, which I have to admit, the entire time I was reading it, I thought it was Kosovo. I don't know why. I have no idea why I thought that. But anyway, MJ, what drew you to it? Speaker 5 (6:24) Did you Speaker 4 (6:24) like it, MJ? Speaker 5 (6:25) Yes. I did. Well, so I did really, really like this book in ways that I was surprised by. Because I love dogs, I do not typically like books narrated from animal perspectives. And that's because I feel like frequently that shift is to, like, it becomes a very twee, Scott, you said treacly, it can be. Like, I feel like it's, you see the world from an animal's eyes and they don't understand how the world works. And so it's very simplified. It makes me think of the word, like, doggos. Something about it Speaker 2 (7:01) is Speaker 5 (7:01) so cringy. The Speaker 2 (7:02) only Speaker 5 (7:02) thing Speaker 2 (7:02) worse is a book from the perspective of a very young child. Speaker 5 (7:05) Yes, exactly. The worst. And it's like, oh, this is how humans live, but we don't understand that. And actually, why do we do this at all? And sometimes the perspective shift can simplify. I feel like this book didn't do that. We get a perspective shift, but it's instead to have us look. It's a complicating perspective shift rather than a simplifying perspective shift. And it just got totally lost in Etna's story and in the Odyssey home. And in the prose of it all, we'll dig into that, but it's told in the spare, sweeping prose. It feels almost like poetry at times. I was really drawn in. But that's me. You've both mentioned that you really like this book. I want to know why. How did you approach this book? What won you over? Give me your top line about Aetna. Speaker 4 (8:00) Paul Yun is a writer I had heard about but had never read. And the premise sounded gimmicky, perhaps. But I came at it with an open mind, and I relatively recently have adopted a dog. And this book completely went past my head and right to my heart. And it doesn't usually happen, but when it happens, it really, really feels good. Speaker 5 (8:28) Why did it do that, though? Let's unpack this. I mean, it's Speaker 4 (8:32) almost hard to kind of deconstruct or explain. I think it's something about the quietness of the language, the sadness of the story. And yet there's like a kind of like a filament of hope always in Etna's character. It's a weird thing because I can't even find adjectives to describe the character and why he carries you along and you root for him. But it never turns into a simple kind of cheesy celebration of... Speaker 5 (9:08) Of life. Speaker 2 (9:09) Well. It is a celebration of life. It is, yeah. But it doesn't devolve into Hallmark Channel. Good. Speaker 4 (9:17) Good one. Thank you, Liz. Thank you. Speaker 2 (9:19) Tell me more. Speaker 5 (9:19) Why? What prevents it from devolving? Speaker 2 (9:22) Well. I want to go back to what you said about the fact that the book is spare and sweeping, which is a very rare quality. Yeah, Speaker 5 (9:30) those are typically like Antenna. Speaker 2 (9:32) Yes, usually sweeping to me means dense and covers a lot of pages and territory. Now, this book covers a lot of ground, obviously. Etna is a wanderer and he is going all over this unnamed. country that might be Kosovo. Speaker 4 (9:48) Over years. I mean, we're sort of following years, but it's very subtle that way. There is Speaker 2 (9:52) that sweep, but it has the spareness of the kind of poetry that I like, almost like an E.E. Cummings Speaker 5 (10:00) simplicity Speaker 2 (10:01) to it. It's not hard to understand. I listened to the audiobook as I am. want to do. And it's read by a guy named Schrader Thomas, who I'm not familiar with. I've never heard of him before. It's only two hours and 27 minutes. Really short. That is short. Speaker 4 (10:19) That's a Speaker 2 (10:19) plane flight. Speaker 4 (10:19) And Speaker 2 (10:20) you still feel like you've traveled really far. And you're with Etna as he acquires these battle scars. And his body changes. You see him go from a puppy. to, you know, an old dude and really suffer along the way. And so a lot of life is crammed into that short amount of time. And also, this is an obvious thing to say, it's not really about a dog. It's about war and it's about finding your way home. Speaker 2 (10:54) know what your thoughts are, MJ. I Speaker 5 (10:56) just wanted to add a little bit more of the setup in the synopsis is that we're following Edna as he tries to get home and the structure of the book is very, very episodic. We see very quickly in the start of the book, Edna's born, Edna goes to war, or Edna's... recruited for war, trained. We don't really get the war at all. This is a book entirely of aftermath. And after the war, Etna sees that his soldiers are celebrating and he realizes, I just want to go home. And so he slinks out into the night. I think a soldier says, he looks like a zombie. He looks like he's barely alive. And that happens in what, like the first like 10? 15 pages. And then the rest of the book is just these episodes and adventures as Etna tries to get home. And the structure of the book goes field. You see Edna in this adventure in this field trying to get to the next destination. The next destination is city. And so we see Edna have an episode in the city. And then we go from there. And so almost like the Odyssey, Odysseus hopping from island to island, we see Edna hopping from destination to destination, meeting various survivors and what their experiences are like Speaker 4 (12:07) after the war. And having a vague memory of a coastline. And that's where Edna wants to end up again. But it's sort of... evanescent or it's sort of evaporating. There's hints of what he wants to get to, but he can't really put it into all that many words. And he's also operating, and I was always struck by this, it's like the book is experienced at ground level. And I thought that was really, really special about it. Speaker 2 (12:35) I Speaker 4 (12:35) didn't Speaker 2 (12:35) even think about that. You see all the muck on the ground and all the little animals. Little Speaker 4 (12:39) animals. And there's reference to sort of the cosmos and the stars and the sky. But it's always as reflected in like these kind of crummy puddles on the ground. And I thought that was... It really oriented me to be with the character. The other thing, and this is really for me particularly, is I have not a good sense of smell. And the world of smell is kind of like a foreign country to me sometimes. And this book is all about smell. And Paul Youn writes beautifully about smell, I think. Even Speaker 2 (13:12) the smell of dead bodies. No, really. He spares you no detail. No, definitely. Speaker 4 (13:16) But that's one of the strengths, I think, is that there's like a juxtaposition of kind of horror and beauty, and it often happens around smell, where Aetna will be perceiving or looking at one thing but smell another, and they're happening at the same time, and you're realizing that there's sort of like it's all happening at once. Speaker 5 (13:38) This is why I like the book, too. I mentioned before, like, frequently animal narrators are meant to simplify. And here, as evidenced by smell, now we have a new way of perceiving. We have new senses that we're tapping in. You mentioned the ground level scale is different. But the thematic concerns isn't, isn't, it's not dumped down. It's not childish. It's not trying to, and, and... We see Etna's understanding on a, Etna has a human level understanding of the world.