4 out of 5

As a pretty non-sexual, non-family oriented guy, I am admittedly at a loss sometimes in not viewing the (seeming) majority of the world’s feelings toward the same as obsessions: must everything have to be about sex and kids? is how the thought often goes.

So when Kate Folk’s Pups’ opening, with otter nursery worker Roe discussing the purposeful rules in place to prevent bonding with the otter pups, quickly transitions into a tale about an affair, and a resultant pregnancy, I rolled my eyes and repeated the mantra above.

But as it goes, and as I’ve said: all it takes is a good writer to turn a story you’ve heard every day into something fresh, and effective.  And Kate Folk would seem to be a good writer.

While some genderific scuffle comes about via Roe’s coworkers’ advice regarding men and women, One Story has lately excelled at highlighting authors who are fantastic at realistically representing multiple sides of an issue.  The events that trigger the affair; the spouses on both sides of it; Roe’s toiling what-to-do contemplations – Folk gives this all the tang of real life, and of how these processes aren’t often logical, or clean, and are often undertaken at our own expense: Roe is unhappy, but is maybe unable to say or know exactly why.

Propping this up against the otter bonding is cute, but comes across as too much of a device.  It’s definitely an effective concept – an arrangement in which caretakers purposefully distance themselves from their charges – but Folk uses it a bit too obviously.  However, given that I’d started out by rolling my eyes at the whole ordeal, only to get fully sucked in to Kate’s created plight, certainly this structural tactic wasn’t enough to stifle the tale’s immersive qualities.