9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four People, Two Marriages...This Bird Soars!, September 7, 2009
This review is from: Bird in Hand: A Novel (Hardcover)
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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!
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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
This review is from: Bird in Hand: A Novel (Hardcover)
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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.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Blindness and betrayal, December 6, 2009
This review is from: Bird in Hand: A Novel (Hardcover)
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This book excelled at revealing the smallest nuances of feelings, denials, projections, and regrets that we all feel, especially in times of betrayal, whether one is the betrayer or the betrayed. We see into the hearts of each of the four major characters and wonder at how each one can be so blind to his/her own misperceptions and to those of the people closest to them. And yet all these insights do ring true as reflections of the human condition.
The structure of the novel is a bit confusing as it moves back and forth from the past to the present, despite the rather obvious hints of different fonts for past and present, and dates given at the start of chapters that relate past events. As one reads on, the time line becomes clearer, but it remains a bit shadowy. The book is also divided into five parts, each part being introduced by a profound bit of verse or a quotation that presumably relates to what follows. I had a bit of difficulty connecting the sentiment of the quotations with any obvious segmentation of the book, but perhaps that was exacerbated by the past-present switching.
I agree with one of the other reviewers that the plot set-up of the car accident didn't really work to explain the psychological crisis that Alison undergoes afterward. She truly is not to blame for the death of the child, despite her blood alcohol level being slightly above what's legal for driving. In fact, the parents' failure to stop at a stop sign and to have their child safely secured in his car seat in the back seat are all too obvious as the causes. Nevertheless, Alison begins a rapid descent into guilt-fueled depression and withdrawal, not that she was perfectly balanced before the accident. In fact, she resented her children's monopoly of her life, her own retirement from her profession, and her husband's increasing absenteeism. However, she totally misses the signs (and there are plenty) that he is cheating on her, and with her best friend no less. Then, when the accident happens, it seems to be the last straw in an already unfulfilling existence.
Charlie's and Claire's lack of remorse for their deception and betrayal is a bit perplexing. The only reflection that Charlie seems capable of is how he's going to miss the perfect suburban life style that he enjoys with Alison at home taking care of things, and how lucky he is to finally be getting the woman of his dreams, despite the high cost. And Claire comes across as an egocentric author in the first flushes of commercial success, who exploits and manipulates others for her own ends. And now she's decided she wants her best friend's husband instead of her own, even though she didn't want him years before when she could have chosen him over her current husband, Ben. My guess is that she might make a similar decision regarding what she really wants after a few years with Charlie.
Ben, Claire's husband, is perhaps the character I felt the most sympathetic toward. He is a decent, hardworking guy, not given to deeply introspective lapses. Although he's always wanted children and continues to want them, he gives in to Claire's refusal to consider trying again for a child after she has a miscarriage. In the end, he is the one who seems most likely to survive the emotional carnage and go on to a happy life.
Although some other reviewers complained about the non-resolution of the ending, I thought it was perfect and perhaps the most realistic part of the entire book. The fact that it resembled a plot simply running out of steam obscured the sad truth that that's how most divorce dramas end. All in all, I would recommend this book for its insight into the interior lives of modern American yuppies, and for its realistic portrayal of marriage. The author's use of language and her insight into the lives and minds of her characters make the book well worth reading.
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