I finished Birdie a couple of weeks ago and I’ve had to take time with the story, before writing about it. I’d like to be kinder in this review, but truly it was a difficult ‘read’.
It was obvious to me, only pages in, that I was going to struggle with Birdie. I always forge on when reading is a slog. I make assumptions that everything, at some point, is going to pull together. I know that this is what I did with Moby Dick. In the end, Melville’s narrative was linear even though there was a heavy bulk of marine biology that moved the reader every now and then, away from the narrative. Not so, with Birdie.
The themes and the ‘story’ are not problematic. While Bernice’s story was brutal, it is told with such honesty that I connect with her and empathize with her and sometimes, cry with her. The supporting female characters, also, are to be treasured. The writing of them is observant, sensitive and again, authentic.
The book’s structure, however, is problematic. Each chapter includes descriptions of Bernice’s dreams, as well as her stories. The reader is introduced to new vocabulary in these sections. Then the chapter moves on, but seems to journey from one place to another and one time to another. I never ‘got it’. I never moved, with ease, through the events or ‘places’ in Bernice’s life. If one was to describe the book as a song, one would say that there were a lot of dissonant chords. Even the end, felt unresolved.
I was grateful to see the Globe and Mail’s review, professionally written, validated my experience because I thought that the problem was with me, the reader, not the book.
Included in a fairly positive review…this.
In the very early pages, I sensed the protagonist had suffered horrible abuses. I felt deep sadness and I think I DID “surrender to the memory soup that floods Bernice’s troubled mind” in order to move on through and complete the book.
Several reviews describe the book as humourous. I’d have to say, then, that I lack in humour. I found the themes dark, painful and heart wrenching. I couldn’t laugh at the moments that were perhaps intended as comic relief, but that were like watching a vulnerable child on a school yard being spat upon. I can’t be one of those by-standers who gawks and laughs. Bernice is vulnerable to us. She is a metaphor for every child and woman who has been raped, emotionally manipulated or disappeared.
I needed a roadmap for this one.
reminds of trying to read stream of consciousness classics….not for me either as my mind wants to make sense of what I am reading rather than merely float in the words
Have you read this one, Jan? I consider myself a strong reader, but I just found the experience of reading this, painful. I have friends who, once having this experience, put the book down. I like to commit. lol