The Bird Artist: A Novel
by Howard Norman | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0312130279 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0312130279 Global Overview for this book
2 journalers for this copy...
Several years ago, when I was having a reading drought, my friend Elli recommended this book. Unfortunately, it arrived just around the time my brother was murdered, and I was too tender to take up any book that had murder so blatantly in the story. I still choose my reading carefully, but am able to once again delve into books that I could not read when wounds were fresh.
The Bird Artist is set in the early 1900's in a small place called Witless Bay, Newfoundland. Howard Norman skillfully takes us there in his descriptions and in the very way he crafts his sentences. Reading it is almost like time travelling. There is an "old-fashionedness" to the words he chose and the words he places in his characters minds and on their lips. He also has a gift of description, a dress being sequined with dried sea salt, or cormorants with wings of black neckties drying in the sun. Cormorants frequent the lake behind our home, and the description is genius.
As carefully as Fabian drew his birds, Norman draws the characters in the book. The lines may not be perfect, but there's no doubt of the uniqueness, the "realness" of each character. The story too, though involving passions, is gentle. And the birds, oh the birds! To an amateur birder, this was heaven. I wanted to see the seabirds and land fowl, to see the beauty of the bay, and to see Fabian's paintings. But since such travel is not in the cards for me, I'll instead see them in my minds eye. I'll be like Helen (one of my favorite characters) when she said"Nowadays, people have to travel to get important memories. Not me." I can stay home and travel with a gracious thanks to Howard Norman. Even after reading, I have a difficult time calling this a book about a murder, or Fabian a murderer. And I suppose that's a question that remains open. This book will remain in my mind more for the birds, the bay and the people.
Edited to add that after I wrote this, I read some other reviews. Katherine had captured many of the wonderful lines I'd marked with sticky notes to remember. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/152689528
The picture on this bookplate is of the view from Folly Beach of the Morris Island Lighthouse.
The Bird Artist is set in the early 1900's in a small place called Witless Bay, Newfoundland. Howard Norman skillfully takes us there in his descriptions and in the very way he crafts his sentences. Reading it is almost like time travelling. There is an "old-fashionedness" to the words he chose and the words he places in his characters minds and on their lips. He also has a gift of description, a dress being sequined with dried sea salt, or cormorants with wings of black neckties drying in the sun. Cormorants frequent the lake behind our home, and the description is genius.
As carefully as Fabian drew his birds, Norman draws the characters in the book. The lines may not be perfect, but there's no doubt of the uniqueness, the "realness" of each character. The story too, though involving passions, is gentle. And the birds, oh the birds! To an amateur birder, this was heaven. I wanted to see the seabirds and land fowl, to see the beauty of the bay, and to see Fabian's paintings. But since such travel is not in the cards for me, I'll instead see them in my minds eye. I'll be like Helen (one of my favorite characters) when she said"Nowadays, people have to travel to get important memories. Not me." I can stay home and travel with a gracious thanks to Howard Norman. Even after reading, I have a difficult time calling this a book about a murder, or Fabian a murderer. And I suppose that's a question that remains open. This book will remain in my mind more for the birds, the bay and the people.
Edited to add that after I wrote this, I read some other reviews. Katherine had captured many of the wonderful lines I'd marked with sticky notes to remember. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/152689528
The picture on this bookplate is of the view from Folly Beach of the Morris Island Lighthouse.
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Sending this off to a friend, complete with all the little flags I put in to mark enchanting comments.
Sent by Bookczuk in a surprise box of books.
