Customer Reviews

Border Songs

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Brandon Vanderkoool... notices things. Six foot eight, socially awkward and with a tendency to say his sentences backward when he is nervous, Brandon is most comfortable among the birds, cows and other animals of his home along the US-Canada border in Washington state. Nevertheless, he takes his job as a US Border Patrol agent seriously, and his ability to see what others don't brings him unexpected success in capturing smugglers, as well as the grudging respect of his colleagues, even if the townspeople still think of him as weird.

Border Songs might succeed if it simply focused on Brandon, but Jim Lynch also weaves in the stories of others in Brandon's life. There's Brandon's dad Norm, a struggling dairy farmer who refuses to sell out, Wayne, the retired professor across the border ditch who is (literally) trying to reinvent the light bulb, Madeline, Wayne's daughter and a childhood playmate of Brandon's, who gets involved in things that put her in conflict with Brandon, Sophie the massage therapist that all the men pour their hearts out to, and many more.

When Brandon (accidentally!) nabs a man suspected of being a terrorist, suddenly everyone is interested in him and this neglected stretch of the border. Tensions escalate, as does the smuggling, and Brandon finds himself trying to reestablish a connection with Madeline, who has her own agenda for contacting him.

I was about two-thirds through the book and found myself wondering how Lynch would resolve all the threads. I've read too many books that crashed into a disappointing ending. Not this time - I found the conclusion of Border Songs delightfully satisfying. Full of unusual yet realistic-sounding characters, compelling stories and more than a dollop of social issues, Border Songs is a true delight. I look forward to more from Jim Lynch.

Having ancestors who settled in Whatcom County 120 years ago, and crossing the border monthly(and later today)between British Columbia & Washington, I was naturally suspicious of Border Songs, but this could have been set anywhere along "the longest un-defended border on Earth". I agreed with one reviewer's mention of A Confederacy Of Dunces, although the character of Brandon VanDerKool is not nearly as weird as Ignatius J. Reilly, and totally unconfrontational, unlike Reilly.
The peripheral characters of Brandon's life who populate Jim Lynch's book, his parents, co-workers, neighbors, and even the people Brandon busts during his time as a Border Patrol agent serve to paint portaits for us, as well as serve as subjects for Brandons paintings, and I've seen small dairy farmers around Lynden and Sumas go through many of the same travails that Brandon's father goes through.
I received this as part of Amazon's Vine program. Books like this are the reason I signed up

What makes this book enjoyable is the terific cast of characters. There is the focal character - Brandon, the 6'8" severely dyslexic border patrolman who is nearly an idiot savant. Then there are the co-stars like his father - a down and out dairy farmer building a yacht with a wife who is entering dementia. Across the border is Maddy, the marijuana growing specialist towards whom Brandon obsesses. Better is her father - a pot smoking former professor who is busy reinventing things by reenacting the original work (i.e.: he retries thousands of lightbulb efforts tried by Edison before getting the one that works) and never misses an opportunity to hurl hilarious insults across the border. In addition, the mysterious masseuse who films everything.

Then, there is the supporting cast to the stars, which is a fine mix of zany small town characters, border patrolmen and officials from both sides of the Canadian-American border.

The border in rural Washington/B.C. is the setting and the smuggling of dope and aliens is what centers the book.

Beyond the humor of the characters and their idiosynchrosies and foibles are several larger issues. The entire concept of borders is explored. Not only the borders between countries, but between what is right and wrong, between people, between what is normal and not normal.

The exploration of borders runs right into freedom - to be different, to be odd, to do what one loves, to be free from harmful forces.

Every character looks at these issues of borders and freedom; at times explicitly and always implicitly. Mr. Lynch uses his characters, who are often zany, yet never crossing the line to absurd, to look at life's borders and freedom in many different lights from several different angles.

My only criticism is that the book lagged a bit in the middle, when it did not seem to be moving anywhere. It picked right up again, though.

These characters will stay with the reader for a very long time after the last page is done. Highly recommended.

BORDER SONGS is a state of a novel with three borders...and it doesn't take very long to see where Jim Lynch has been spending his vacation time from the postcards he sends home. From the first there is a strong CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES vibe when it comes to Brandon Vanderkool, the too tall, too strong, bird call phenom, dyslexia suffering hero who patrols the border night after night who ends up making something a "miracle" catch that sets off a series events that eventually draw (and sometimes quarter) the whole town into the fray.

Second, it's CANNERY ROW, this idea of a town so outside, so inside, so near and yet so far, it takes on a dream like and desperate romantic quality where the normal rules do not apply, yet, everything is exactly as real as it should be. But, still leaving plenty of room for for Lynch to create some sparks. Then there is the LAKE WOEBEGON feeling of this carefully constructed, often sideways, town with all the proper "coots" and "criminals" arranged in rows and who rarely waste their moments on the page.

It reads well, it reads fast and feels like its been written in a curiously flattended John Irving style that has been lacking in his own books for a few years now, so, it's refreshing to find something of that here...but, for all the parts, the interesting core of the story surrounding marijuana, smuggling, art, birds, border crossing and the quirks it felt more like I was visting a state park than a forest. The paths were clear and all signs pointed to the end. I found myself desperately wanting to get lost in this novel, but at most I just got turned around then found the path again all too soon.

There is nothing in BORDER SONGS that will disappoint you enough to stop reading the book and yet, there is nothing really that will inspire you enough to continue reading it as well...it's a book of fractures. Like a long letter from home where the writer skips back and forth between gossip and police reports you'll find yourself amused and yet so glad you moved when you did.

A good deal of patience may be needed at the beginning of Border Songs by Jim Lynch as he begins his tale of the Washington-British Columbia border. But the reader who perseveres will find engaging citizens of both countries, as well as illegal immigrants, dope smugglers, and even possible terrorists.

At the center of the story is Brandon Vanderkool, six foot eight and dyslexic, who quite unexpectedly does well as a border patrolman. Brandon, his parents, and his neighbors on both sides of the border find themselves in a new world after 9/11. The border, which often is no more than a ditch, is brought into focus as it suddenly is viewed as an entryway into the United States in much need of attention.

The effect of the spotlight on the border, sometimes lax, sometimes hysterical, makes for an absorbing and rewarding story, told by by master storyteller, with characters so true they might be one's own neighbors.

I read the first thirty or so pages of Border Songs like someone was pushing me through it from behind -- which was the first clue that reading this book would not be a passive experience. As I kept reading, I tried to figure out what was affecting me that way and I settled on this: First, there is a subtle suspense that builds and builds throughout the book; the further you go, the more it grabs you by the throat. Second, I kept looking for a flat sentence, one that would bore me, but came to conclude to my astonishment that there are almost none in this book. That's a rare achievement, I think.
Though it's easy to read, and humorous in parts, it's also nuanced and subtle enough that a certain scene -- I don't want to spoil it, but it involved cows -- snuck up on me and was so powerful that I had to put the book down and chill out. This was odd, because I am not a sap. But toward the end of this, I kept getting teary eyed.
Bottom line, I found this a moving, exceedingly well-written book. Like a lot of good literature, I think it defies easy characterization. If you're the type who lives off paperback thrillers you found in Wal-Mart, this book may be above your head. If you're not that type, you might enjoy this quite a lot.

Like Rainman,where the idiot savant is romanticized and showered with bathos, Border Songs romanticizes symptoms along the Autistic Spectrum as the novel's main character, Brandon, exhibits them. However, unlike Rainman, it managed not to go over the top - until it just started to crest at the very end of the book, so, as far as I am concerned, it is not a fatal flaw, and indeed, for much of the book, it creates an almost a magical realism element to the story, without making a show of his condition.

Living, as I do, in the Emerald Triangle, I was startled to learn that apparently Canada is supplying ganja to the States. Definitely thought it was the other way around. So that was interesting. I am not sure the grows mentioned in the book are anything but works of fiction, but it peaked my interest. As did the relationships of people living along the border with their foreign neighbors.

Overall was an interesting book, enjoyable, but perhaps I am a slight bit Aspergian too, because despite being interested in the topics of border relations and pot distribution, I could not relate to any of the characters and had a hard time feeling much for them.

Jim Lynch is a master with the English language. His command of the written word and turns of phrase are a wonder to behold and a joy to read. Here's an example of the imagery he uses, in this case, to describe the difficulty Brandon's (the dyslexic, possibly autistic main character) father has in conversing with his son: "Getting Brandon to talk was sometimes like starting a chainsaw in the spring...he had the FM voice of a man but the jumbled rhythm of a child..."

Describing thousands of snow geese flying overhead: "...like the tribal roar you hear in stadiums, yet even greater than that, beyond animalistic, more like an enormous avalanche or the howl of the earth itself, the high-pitched hum of the sphere...faded to an industrial squeal, then to an ambient wail as the skeins turned to threads before fading to blue..." and barn swallows congregating on power lines: "...the birds spinning like ice skaters or stunt pilots before lining up...voices that sounded like glass marbles rubbing against one another..." No observation, no occurrence, no character in the book escapes from the lyrical language Lynch uses with such deft strokes.

Some reviewers have complained of a lack of plot; it's there, it's just not a roller coaster ride. Instead of the rising action, climax and resolution of this story resembling an aggressive ascent up Mt. Everest and journey down the far side, this plot more closely resembles a relaxing drive through gently rolling hills. Not that this isn't satisfying; we capture a glimpse of this community, these people suspended in a particular time. Sophie Winslow, who spends most of the story collecting information on everyone else, sums it up when Brandon's mother turns the tables, interviews her and asks "...what are you really doing with all this?" Sophie replies "...do as many interviews as it took in one place and time until the truths rose up...I'd wonder what it would be like to know what everyone on a plane was thinking at the same time. If you lined all those thoughts up, would it add up to anything?...it seemed as good an opportunity as any to try...to get my arms around a people and a place and a time...a community time capsule..."

Lynch certainly got his arms around these people, this place and this time.

If I have any reservations about this book, it is in the representation of Brandon's "oddities" as due to dyslexia. Many of Brandon's habits and characteristics are more in keeping with Autism spectrum disorders. Lynch twice touches on this (page 35: "one pediatrician suggested Brandon's mannerisms and obsessive tendencies pointed toward mild autism..." and page 193 "...there's always been more than dyslexia going on there...") yet he is referred to as dyslexic and his behaviors are attributed to dyslexia throughout the rest of the book (example: page 290 "...how dyslexic geniuses were often viewed as oddballs in their own time..."). Having a dyslexic child, I am probably more aware than most of the misconceptions many have and how difficult it can be to educate others (even teachers in public schools) as to what it means to be dyslexic, so if I could caution others in reading this book, please understand that Brandon's behaviors are not typical of all dyslexics.

With only that one caution, I would enthusiastically recommend this book - 4 and 1/2 stars.

Brandon Vanderkool is not a normal person. He's very tall, for starters, and to make matters worse he's obsessive about birds and borderline autistic in that he is easily over-stimulated and notices EVERYTHING. As things turn out, that makes him absolutely perfect for the job of border patrol along the border of British Columbia and Washington state. With crackdowns where families used to companionably cross the border and visit one another, animosity is sure to be felt by those who feel that the new rules smell a bit like Amerika rather than freedom.

Populated with lots of colorful characters, Border Songs is the type of book that really isn't about any one thing - it is character-driven, with multiple sub-plots weaving their strands together to give us a feeling for the communities sharing the border. I found myself pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. Give it a try - you might like it, too.

To those of us living in the American Southwest, the national border of greatest concern and porosity is perhaps the one along Mexico. We may be forgiven for forgetting that there's also a border with Canada, one that can be just as problematic. And it's the refreshing backdrop for a story, as in BORDER SONGS by Jim Lynch.

The setting is along that length of the boundary spanning the coastal flatland between Abbotsford, BC and Blaine, WA, where it meets the Pacific. The unlikely hero of the piece is young Brandon Vandenkool, a recent addition to the U.S. Border Patrol. Unlikely because he suffers from severe dyslexia, a condition that causes awkward problems in his personal relationships, but which also makes him a successful BP officer; he perceives the things and makes the mental connections that his "normal" colleagues miss. For instance, what's with those logs and bales of hay floating down the river?

BORDER SONGS is peopled with a cast of well-drawn and intriguing main characters: Brandon, Brandon's father Norm, who struggles to cope with a gimpy knee, a trouble-plagued dairy business, and a wife in the initial stages of dementia, Wayne, an obnoxious anti-American Canadian neighbor of Norm's dying of MS just across the frontier ditch, Wayne's daughter Madeline, who's up to her eyeballs in pot smuggling, and Sophie, the mesmerizing and enigmatic masseuse who seems to know everybody's business.

The author's intent, presumably, is to illustrate the special love-hate relationship binding the residents sharing both sides of America's longest land border, especially now in this post-9/11 time of heightened border security. That said, the book's plot is essentially a series of mildly interesting one-act scenes mostly involving any two of the aforementioned players. Unfortunately, BORDER SONGS never amounted to more than that for me and it sputtered along to an unrewarding conclusion. Brandon and Sophie especially never seemed to meet their potentials to engage my affection. I skimmed the last pages just enough to get the general drift; I wanted to finish as quickly as possible and move along to a more promising volume. This, for me, is a sure predictor of a 3-star assessment at best, which, in this case, was a disappointment considering the initial possibilities afforded by the fresh locale.