The accident was just that - an accident. It was dark, it was raining, Alison had two drinks in her, and the other car ran the stop sign. She just didn't get out of the way fast enough. But now a little boy - not her own - is dead, and Alison finds herself trapped under the twin burdens of grief and guilt, and feeling increasingly estranged from her husband...Charlie, who has his own burdens. He's in a job he doesn't love so that Alison can stay home with the kids (and why isn't she more grateful for that?); he has a house in the suburbs and a long commute to and from the city each day. And the only thing he can focus on these days is his secret, sudden affair with...Claire, Alison's best friend. Bold where Alison is reserved; vibrant where Alison is demure, Claire has just had her first novel published, a thinly-veiled retelling of her childhood in South Carolina (which is also Alison's, in a sense). But even in the whirlwind of publication, Claire can't stop wondering if she should leave her husband...Ben, an architect who is thoughtful, kind, and patient. And who wants nothing more than a baby, or two - in fact, exactly the kind of life that Charlie and Alison have...
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In her fourth novel (after The Way Life Should Be), Kline traces the construction and collapse of two long-term relationships. On her way home to New Jersey after an awkward party for her lifelong friend Claire's highly autobiographical first novel, Alison gets into a car accident that kills a boy in the other car. Even though the accident wasn't her fault, Allison, a mother of two young children, is wracked with grief and guilt. Her husband, Charlie, also struggles with the impulse to blame his wife, especially as he longs for any excuse to escalate his nascent affair with Claire and end his marriage. Episodes detailing the inevitable collapse of Alison and Charlie's marriage, as well as Claire's marriage to her well-meaning husband, Ben, are interspersed with vignettes revealing the four friends' 10-plus–year history together. Shifting perspectives and thoughtful interior monologues reveal just how isolated, and in some cases misguided, the characters are. Kline's unflinching gaze and lovely prose sets Kline's novel apart from the herd of infidelity/marital ennui novels. It's well-done, thoughtful and thought provoking. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Kline’s razor-sharp novel about love, marriage and obligation is a beach book only because you could zip through it anywhere.” (More magazine )
“Kline’s unflinching gaze and lovely prose set [BIRD IN HAND] apart from the herd of infidelity/marital ennui novels. It’s well-done, thoughtful and thought-provoking.” (Publishers Weekly )
“A gripping tale about two crumbling marriages, [BIRD IN HAND] offers a realistic and, at times, heartbreaking look at love and friendship.” (RealSimple.com, Entertainment Pick )
“[Bird in Hand] exhibits an unsparing eye for the telling details that reveal how people think and act.” (Library Journal )
“Kline explores the complications of the lines and bonds between marriage and friendship with honest and complex emotions on all four narrative fronts.” (Booklist )
“In BIRD IN HAND, Christina Baker Kline looks at marriage, at parents and children, pain and sorrow, and at all the questions that life asks us. This is a wise and lovely book.” (Roxana Robinson, author of Cost )
“Christina Baker Kline is a relentless storyteller. Once she sets her hook and starts reeling you in, struggle becomes counterproductive. The narrative line is too taut, the angler at the other end too skillful.” (Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and That Old Cape Magic )
“It is both thrilling and terrifying to read this powerful new novel and think: this could be me. Christina Baker Kline takes us on an intimate journey with her characters, one that brings us dangerously close to the hidden truths about love, trust and friendship.” (Ellen Sussman, author of Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex; Bad Girls: 25 Writers Misbehave; and On a Night Like This )
“Kline’s unflinching gaze and lovely prose set [BIRD IN HAND] apart from the herd of infidelity/marital ennui novels. It’s well-done, thoughtful and thought-provoking.” (Publishers Weekly )
“A gripping tale about two crumbling marriages, [BIRD IN HAND] offers a realistic and, at times, heartbreaking look at love and friendship.” (RealSimple.com, Entertainment Pick )
“[Bird in Hand] exhibits an unsparing eye for the telling details that reveal how people think and act.” (Library Journal )
“Kline explores the complications of the lines and bonds between marriage and friendship with honest and complex emotions on all four narrative fronts.” (Booklist )
“In BIRD IN HAND, Christina Baker Kline looks at marriage, at parents and children, pain and sorrow, and at all the questions that life asks us. This is a wise and lovely book.” (Roxana Robinson, author of Cost )
“Christina Baker Kline is a relentless storyteller. Once she sets her hook and starts reeling you in, struggle becomes counterproductive. The narrative line is too taut, the angler at the other end too skillful.” (Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and That Old Cape Magic )
“It is both thrilling and terrifying to read this powerful new novel and think: this could be me. Christina Baker Kline takes us on an intimate journey with her characters, one that brings us dangerously close to the hidden truths about love, trust and friendship.” (Ellen Sussman, author of Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex; Bad Girls: 25 Writers Misbehave; and On a Night Like This )
Product Details
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More About the Author
Christina Baker Kline was born in Cambridge, England, and raised there as well as in the American South and Maine. She is the author of five novels: Orphan Train, Bird in Hand, The Way Life Should Be, Desire Lines, and Sweet Water. She is co-editor, with Anne Burt, of About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror and co-author, with Christina L. Baker, of The Conversation Begins: Mothers and Daughters Talk about Living Feminism. She has edited three other anthologies: Child of Mine, Room to Grow, and Always Too Soon. Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University from 2007 to 2011, Kline has also taught literature and creative writing at Yale, NYU, UVA, and Drew University. A graduate of Yale, Cambridge University, and the University of Virginia, where she was a Hoyns Fellow in Fiction Writing, Kline is a recipient of a Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellowship and several research fellowships, and has been a Writer-in-Residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Kline lives with husband and three sons in Montclair, New Jersey. She is at work on another novel and an anthology.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The thing about Bird in Hand is it's so darn page-turning GOOD! It rises far beyond a story of four people and two marriages to explore how our stories, our pasts, and our smallest gestures reveal who we are and what we need --without ever sermonizing. And it reveals how each loss -- no matter how searing -- always carries within it the the possibility of a new life.
Christina Baker Kline (how have I not read her before? That's going to be rectified!) focuses on four individuals: Alison, a suburban mother of two who is losing her bearings after a tragic accident that was not her fault and her husband Charlie, who has gradually absented himself from the marriage because of his obsession with her best friend. That friend is Claire, a flighty femme fatale and a debut author who's married to Ben, a kind and meticulous Harvard-educated architect.
It could be the stuff of melodrama...but in Kline's capable hands, it is not. In one telling passage, Kline writes about Claire, "It wasn't like Claire had fallen out of love with Ben...it as more like she had drifted, the way you do on a plastic float in a pool with your eyes closed, moving away from the edge without realizing it..." All of these characters in their own way are drifting. They are all living false lives -- some without even realizing it -- and going through the motions.
Each of these characters are flesh and blood people, complete with back story that reveals how they came to be who they are and why they make the choices they do. Whether it's Alison breathing in the aloe-scented baby wipes and antibacterial ointment she puts on her young toddler's finger or Ben doing his crossword puzzles to avoid the anxiety of building emotional chaos...whether it's Charlie who wakes up flooded with relief that Alison's parents have arrived, temporarily absolving him from dealing with his wife's mounting guilt and grief or Claire who is dredging up the well of her past in her "fictionalized" book debut, these are people who could be our neighbors...or could be you and me.
Ultimately, the characters realizing that "in the fear of losing what you had, you are left with something startling: a depth of empathy, a quivering sensitity to the world around you, and the unexpected blessing of gratitude for what remains." It would be easy to turn this book into a story of "good guys and bad guys." But this is an adult book about a world that is often complex. How well it works!
Christina Baker Kline (how have I not read her before? That's going to be rectified!) focuses on four individuals: Alison, a suburban mother of two who is losing her bearings after a tragic accident that was not her fault and her husband Charlie, who has gradually absented himself from the marriage because of his obsession with her best friend. That friend is Claire, a flighty femme fatale and a debut author who's married to Ben, a kind and meticulous Harvard-educated architect.
It could be the stuff of melodrama...but in Kline's capable hands, it is not. In one telling passage, Kline writes about Claire, "It wasn't like Claire had fallen out of love with Ben...it as more like she had drifted, the way you do on a plastic float in a pool with your eyes closed, moving away from the edge without realizing it..." All of these characters in their own way are drifting. They are all living false lives -- some without even realizing it -- and going through the motions.
Each of these characters are flesh and blood people, complete with back story that reveals how they came to be who they are and why they make the choices they do. Whether it's Alison breathing in the aloe-scented baby wipes and antibacterial ointment she puts on her young toddler's finger or Ben doing his crossword puzzles to avoid the anxiety of building emotional chaos...whether it's Charlie who wakes up flooded with relief that Alison's parents have arrived, temporarily absolving him from dealing with his wife's mounting guilt and grief or Claire who is dredging up the well of her past in her "fictionalized" book debut, these are people who could be our neighbors...or could be you and me.
Ultimately, the characters realizing that "in the fear of losing what you had, you are left with something startling: a depth of empathy, a quivering sensitity to the world around you, and the unexpected blessing of gratitude for what remains." It would be easy to turn this book into a story of "good guys and bad guys." But this is an adult book about a world that is often complex. How well it works!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
People will show you who they are. Believe them the first time.
September 28, 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I felt that the promo write-ups were a bit misleading--this isn't Alison's story--the story of the wronged wife whose life falls apart one evening--at least it is just barely that--the accident is the McGuffin that sets in motion the story.
Alison IS the Bird in Hand of the story. Her husband "settled" for her when he could not have another--the "two in the bush." Now he is having an affair with her estranged best friend from childhood, who has written a novel cum memoir about their growing up together. The story gives us insights into all of the players in this love quadrangle -- the wives and husbands of the pair having the affair, as well as the pair having the affair. Some come off more sympathetically than others. Perhaps the ending is a bit too pat, [partial spoiler alert] with the "wronged" parties rather easily coming to rights and the wronging parties getting their just desserts, but it does follow from the way the story was set up.
The pacing and writing make for a nice read and the insights are excellent--Maya Angelou would approve.
Alison IS the Bird in Hand of the story. Her husband "settled" for her when he could not have another--the "two in the bush." Now he is having an affair with her estranged best friend from childhood, who has written a novel cum memoir about their growing up together. The story gives us insights into all of the players in this love quadrangle -- the wives and husbands of the pair having the affair, as well as the pair having the affair. Some come off more sympathetically than others. Perhaps the ending is a bit too pat, [partial spoiler alert] with the "wronged" parties rather easily coming to rights and the wronging parties getting their just desserts, but it does follow from the way the story was set up.
The pacing and writing make for a nice read and the insights are excellent--Maya Angelou would approve.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
bird in hand by Christina Baker Kline tells the story of intertwined couples Charlie and Allison and Ben and Claire. Pretty early on in the book an accident happens that brings the characters to a point of no return. They are forced to deal with the feelings, desires and doubts that they know will completely redefine their lives. The story centers on Allison, the woman with the perfect life. With a pretty successful career under her belt Allison is the quintessential housewife with a loving husband, daughter and son all neatly tucking into their suburban home. However, bet you knew that was coming, the more we start to gaze into her life the more we see the inattentive husband, the almost desperate 'part-time' job and the constant comparison/contrast with her best friend Claire.
In addressing Charlie and Allison's farce of a marriage Kline speaks with an honest voice about the delicate dance partners play in these unfortunate scenarios. It's this honesty that really endeared the characters to me, even the ones I didn't want to like. So much of adult life is made up of the things we don't say, the feelings we don't acknowledge and these things turn into sleeping babies we tiptoe around and avoid every day. We know they're going to wake up but we go through the motions anyway to save those last few moments of quiet. Those last few moments of how things use to be.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I whole-heartedly recommend it.
(I received this book through a [...] giveaway. All remarks are my honest opinion.)
In addressing Charlie and Allison's farce of a marriage Kline speaks with an honest voice about the delicate dance partners play in these unfortunate scenarios. It's this honesty that really endeared the characters to me, even the ones I didn't want to like. So much of adult life is made up of the things we don't say, the feelings we don't acknowledge and these things turn into sleeping babies we tiptoe around and avoid every day. We know they're going to wake up but we go through the motions anyway to save those last few moments of quiet. Those last few moments of how things use to be.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I whole-heartedly recommend it.
(I received this book through a [...] giveaway. All remarks are my honest opinion.)
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
A story about infidelity.
I didn't particularly enjoy this book. I would not recommend.
The dust jacket says "Bird in Hand is a searing novel about friendship, love, marriage, loss and the... Read more
The dust jacket says "Bird in Hand is a searing novel about friendship, love, marriage, loss and the... Read more
Published 7 days ago by Sandy in DE
4.0 out of 5 stars
Painful yet touching
This novel felt a bit tricky as it seemed one plot line seemed a priority, but then shifted to another. Read more
Published 29 days ago by dmb4500
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bird in the Hand
Always on the lookout for a new author, I stumbled across Orphan Train, I read it and thought that Christina was a pretty good author...... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tia
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting read.
This is a compelling read. One that draws you in and keeps you coming back. Great book for book club and discussion.
Published 4 months ago by Husker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not a beach book!
Because of a cover image that screams "just for girls," this book could so easily be dismissed as a beach read. (I hate this whole girl-cover epidemic. Read more
Published 9 months ago by MW
4.0 out of 5 stars
Startling
I was a little surprised by this book - I enjoyed it far more than I expected to. Although this is the story of four people, to me it was Allison's tale more than anyone else's. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Robin Johnson Esak
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bird in Hand - Love it
I have read each of Christina Baker Kline's novels, and from Sweetwater through the present, I find her writing insightful, contemporary, and timeless. Read more
Published on February 18, 2011 by Pamela I. Perkins
4.0 out of 5 stars
Story to make you think
Here's a new book just coming out. Ms. Kline does some interesting things with this story - she sets up a catalyst, but it has little to do with the story. Read more
Published on November 22, 2010 by Johanna C. Wood
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good "Book in Hand"!
At first I thought this was the most depressing book I have read of late, and was rather resisting it. Read more
Published on November 20, 2010 by onlinepages1346
2.0 out of 5 stars
This book never went anywhere
I wanted so badly to like this book and I just didn't. I wish this book had been told in two parts: One part encompassing the two couples' marriages and the other part delving... Read more
Published on August 5, 2010 by J. N Sandell
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