Margret Snow is the quintessential New York woman. She dresses the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue by day and mingles in the downtown art world by night. Married to Charles, a professor at Columbia, they live on the Upper West Side, where, carefully camouflaged within their hectic Manhattan lives, they share a mutual passion for bird watching. When Margret's life is violently shaked by tragedy, however, she discovers a means to transform her obsession with birds — and her own unlocked imagination — into an ambitious, healing work of art. The Bird Catcher is a witty, poignant story about a remarkable woman who is as distinctive as the birds that fill the skies above her.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The latest from Vanity Fair contributing editor Jacobs (Women About Town) has, at its core, a charming story about a grieving widow reborn, but it's pockmarked by pretentious dialogue and flat characters. Margret Snow quits her Ph.D. program in art to escape the romantic feelings she has toward her bird-watching partner (and Columbia University adviser), Charles Ashur. She whiles her time away as a window display designer at Saks and eventually works up the courage to confess her feelings, and they marry. Margret's memories shift between her and Charles's early bird-watching days and their marriage. But the most vivid parts of the novel are set in the gloomy present, when Margret, now a widow, throws herself in a new artistic direction that involves dead birds. Her connection to the dead sparrows and warblers seems more natural than the off-key relationships she has with the living, and her isolation from family and friends raises the question why she tries to keep the connections alive, while the grating banter between Margret and Charles only serves to caricaturize them. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Laura Jacobs firmly establishes herself as one of our most astute and elegant observers of a certain rarefied species of female Manhattanite . . . Enchanting.” —Vanity Fair
“Laura Jacobs is an urban miniaturist. In her sleek, pitch-perfect second novel, The Bird Catcher, she lavishes delectable attention on the subtle distinctions wrought by taste, class, money, and style in the city on which she trains her eagle eye….Jacobs orchestrates her character's sonata as expansively and dramatically as a symphony whose strains linger on, long after the last page has been turned.” —Bookforum
“Laura Jacobs is an urban miniaturist. In her sleek, pitch-perfect second novel, The Bird Catcher, she lavishes delectable attention on the subtle distinctions wrought by taste, class, money, and style in the city on which she trains her eagle eye….Jacobs orchestrates her character's sonata as expansively and dramatically as a symphony whose strains linger on, long after the last page has been turned.” —Bookforum
“Jacobs presents a measured and compelling yet nonlinear narrative so that readers encounter Margret's life in pieces. And it is well worth the effort to get to know her. Jacobs' incisive writing captures her characters' moods, while her graceful descriptions of the birds that inspire her protagonist illuminate the story.” —Booklist
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Bird Catcher Catches Your Heart,
By Chicago Reader (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bird Catcher (Hardcover)
The Bird Catcher will heartbreakingly catch your heart. Its prose is simple, yet complex. It is rich in symbolism, but the symbolism does not get in the way of its good story. Told partly in the present and partly in flashback, it is the story of a young woman who makes unusual choices, on the one hand, and traditional choices, on the other. It demonstrates the strength of the bond between women as well as the strength of the bond between a man and a woman. I unabashedly cared about what happened to the Bird Catcher, and I loved, fretted and grieved right along with her. I highly recommend this book. It would make a perfect gift, too.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Evocative and Lovely,
By
This review is from: The Bird Catcher (Hardcover)
"The Bird Catcher" brings to mind both "The Tatoo Artist" and "The Incredible Lightness of Being", all three books managing to capture the poignance and elusiveness of life on this planet in all its forms. I found myself re-reading particularly beautiful passages several times. The metaphor of birds as souls, the wonderfully visual descriptions of the "bird catcher's" art, the sensory evocation of New York City's hidden pockets of wildness and unseen tragedies, the depiction of betrayals, losses and connections were all beautifully handled. I would definitely read this book again and, in fact, will add it to my library of "special books" bought for that purpose.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended,
By
This review is from: The Bird Catcher (Hardcover)
Margret Snow is passionate about birds, a feeling she shares with her husband, Charles. For Margret, bird-watching represents more than an escape from her uninspiring job as a window-dresser at Saks Fifth Avenue, and the artificiality of the Manhattan social scene. Observing the beauty, fragility, and innocence of these wild creatures gives her access to another kind of window, into the uncharted regions of her soul, and the mystic communion between man and beast that survives, improbably, amid the concrete and steel boxes of the modern urban landscape. So when tragedy strikes Margret, uprooting her comfortable existence and sending her into a tailspin of grief, it is natural that she seeks solace in her lifelong hobby. But what begins as a quest to make sense of her loss turns into something far more dangerous -- and potentially life-changing -- when Margret embarks upon a project to save fallen birds from oblivion, unleashing an artistic vision that becomes a metaphor for rebirth and the resilience of the human spirit.
In The Bird Catcher, Laura Jacobs has written a haunting, lyrical tale that deserves to be read, if not cherished, by bird-watchers and fiction lovers alike.
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