Customer Reviews

Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hi Andrew

My name is Jessie and I wanted to take a moment to write to you to thank you for the inspired poetry and lunacy related to your delicious book about pigeons.

I opted to post an open letter via Amazon because I want the whole world to know about your extraordinary book. I have never read anything as weirdly wonderful as this.

Finding your pigeon was a bit of kismet as it sort of snuck up on me in the book store. I was on my way to the check out counter with a biography of the Red Baron, a history of gunpowder and another book about the men who created alternate and direct currents when I saw a pigeon staring at me from the side.

It looked odd next to the other books whose covers were dull by comparison...when I saw the title next to the bird my inner teenager thought "NO way, Jose"....but sure enough it was exactly what the title implied and then some.

I love love LOVE some of the characters you met in your travels and found myself envying the fun you must have had in meeting such an eclectic group of pigeon enthusiasts and pigeon haters.

Though I must also confess that the revolting chapter related to the gutting and lung-ing of squabs elicited a whole series of voluminous UGHS! and BLECHS! The mental picture you provided was gruesome enough to force me to consider going totally vegan.

The man who wrote his doctoral thesis on spider hearing was intriguing, can you write his biography too?

And you also left me wanting to know more about the man who wrapped himself in tinfoil to keep himself warm. Sally Bananas was fascinating and I was riveted by the chapter devoted to Mike Tyson. Despite never meeting him you captured something NO ONE has ever done before... You showed his subtle and poignant humanity and made me wish the whole world could know him THAT way.

So many great stories in one book...This book really is FOR the birds.

Ahhh yes, the pigeons. After reading your absorbing book, I feel bad that for all these years I never really paid pigeons any mind. Much like my socks I took them for granted. You did for pigeons what Neruda did for socks. Showing the value and beauty of something seemingly mundane and yet utterly transformative and magical.

I missed something truly glorious in these astonishing and surprising creatures. You have a convert in Dallas. Praise be to pigeons everywhere. Next time I see one which is practically every hour, I will think of your book with a smile.

Thanks for a great read

Jessie Jessup

KDGE

Dallas Texas 75240

Who would have thought pigeons could be so interesting? Blechman brings the history of this bird and society's sometimes strained but never dull relationship with it to life. His style is fluid, humorous and endlessly engaging, making this a real page-turner. Blechman has found a hidden gem in this topic and his account of the bird does not disappoint. Where Blechman shines is not only in bringing the facts about pigeons to life but in describing the people who have devoted their lives to racing, breeding, cooking, or exterminating them. This book will make you laugh out loud, it will provide you with a history and a context, and it will also make you think. I can't recommend it more strongly!

Pigeons is true to its title. This is one fascinating book. It is both an informative and fun read, and the writer's passion for both prose and pigeons shines through. I highly recommend this book for anyone who cares about birds... and for anyone who just loves a good, rich narrative.

I am totally enchanted by this book. It is well written,factual, humorous, engaging. I'm going to hate to finish it. Mr Blechman's take shows us far more than any of us knew about this trusting, yet cautious, loyal and amazing creature.

Who knew there was so much more than meets the eye to the park bench

pigeon? I didn't even care about pigeons until I picked this book up

by chance. And I'm glad I did. This is not a treatise or an advocacy

book -- it's a delicious and entertaining romp through the world of

pigeon obsession. Kings, queens, rural racists, Charles Darwin, Mike

Tyson, Julius Caesar, Julius Reuters, Noah, the shadowy "pro-pigeon

underground" ... they all share an unusual historical and emotional

fixation on what I used to think was a stupid little bird.

I laughed out loud and couldn't put the damn thing down. Like I said:

Who knew? And who wouldn't want to know more about something we see

everyday but hardly notice? I love books like that, and this is the

best of the bunch. I for one will never look at a pigeon the same way

again!

Mr. Blechman succeeds in bringing what may appear to be ordinary subject matter to life and does so with great finesse. One needn't be an ornithologist or birdwatcher to be completely enthralled by this amazing creature and the very fascinating and significant stories Mr. Blechman chooses to share with us...Enjoy!!!

What is the difference between a dove and a pigeon? Probably you have some warm and peaceful feelings toward the former, and possibly you agree with Woody Allen's definition (in _Stardust Memories_) of the latter as "rats with wings". There isn't really much difference, though: "Pigeon" is merely a French translation of "dove". Pigeons deserve all the respect that doves get (and are even being renamed "rock doves" by some ornithologists), according to Andrew D. Blechman, who has written the surprising and entertaining summary _Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird_ (Grove Press). After all, pigeons have been domesticated since ancient Egypt, and they served in both World Wars. They are athletes, winning prizes of millions of dollars. They taste good. They like us; they are very easy to domesticate, and if you hold one in your hands, it will not peck, fight, or bite. Blechman's book won't convert those in the diehard "rats with wings" camp, but even they are going to have to admit that there is lots more to feel about these common birds than just disgust.

First of all, the birds are darned good fliers, "a feathered rocket built for speed and endurance". A pigeon can reach a peak velocity mere seconds after launch, and maintain it; one was recorded flying at 110 miles per hour for several hours. The speed and ability to fly account for the bird's attraction as racing animals, and they are trained like fighters. It is a serious enough sport that some races require the pigeons to be tested for steroids and other doping. The enthusiasts, almost always men, are often obsessive, manifesting a "neglect for all things deemed tangential to winning, such as maintaining the semblance of a normal family life." The birds have a capacity for returning home that has yet to be fully explained. They use direction finding by the Sun's position, but also magnetic fields, infrasound, visual cues, and smells. Blechman tours a squab farm, and returns to the boss's office, where he takes a small bite of freshly roasted squab. "I feel a bit queasy, but... it _is_ tasty." He thereupon gives us a recipe for pigeon pot pie. Good racing, good shooting, good eating - these birds ought to be well loved, but they are disliked enough in some quarters that people will pay to be rid of them. Shooting and poisoning don't really work, and poisoning gets other birds as well. Safer, and less of a PR problem, are spikes and netting. The best method of all is to keep the pigeons from getting access to food, whether it be trash or deliberately set out for them.

Blechman is an engaging and funny writer, who is obviously delighted to have learned so much about a subject the rest of us do not yet appreciate in his degree. He traveled all over the US and Europe to see different birds, and especially to hang out with many eccentric people who have latched onto one specific facet of this multifaceted bird - racing, showing, farming, and more. The book's subtitle refers to pigeons revered and pigeons reviled; anyone who reads this enjoyable tour of how humans and pigeons interact may not wind up revering them, but will certainly think of the birds in a more appreciative way.

I am a birder and don't have much interest in Rock Pigeons or pigeon people/pigeon activities. But, this book is riveting. It provides a fascinating glimpse into most things pigeon including trips to a squab (baby pigeon) processing plant, a Penn. canned target shoot, to see a pigeon lover extraordinaire, and to see the Queen's pigeons at Sandringham Estate. Along the way, the author visits Belgium, Arizona, New York, and a number of other places. A fair amount of the book is about pigeon racing. Blechman's true gift is in describing the people in his book in great detail. We learn a lot about these characters and why and how they got involved with pigeons. One review (I think in Audubon magazine) called the book "breezy" and I agree with that tag. It's an easy read but surprisingly informative. I learned about pigeon military heroes and how Reuters used pigeons to make a name for himself. The chapter on Mike Tyson is rather odd. When I finished it I wondered if it should have been in the book at all. Taken together it does read like a serial magazine article. (The author indicates at the end of the book in the credits that the book grew out of a magazine article he wrote about pigeon racing.) Nevertheless, it's riveting, funny, informative and worthy of reading.

Andrew Blechman has written a wonderfully educational and humor-filled book on a subject about which I never thought I would have any interest. Pigeons, of all creatures!... and what astoundingly complex creatures they are.

From pigeon racing to pigeon shooting and yes, to pigeon eating, Blechman has assembled a composite history of these birds and one would have to agree that the emotional response to "rock doves" runs the gamut from total love to downright loathing. I can't think of another animal that elicits such a range of reactions.

Early on in "Pigeons" the reader is introduced to Orlando Martinez, a New York pigeon racer consumed by his loyalty to his birds. Orlando appears throughout the book, right to the bitter exciting end where a race in his progress. Along the way the author takes his own half-hearted hand in a pigeon shoot, describes the many ways pigeons are prevented from roosting, tells of the demise of the once prodigious passenger pigeon and even entices us as to why squab (baby pigeon) tastes so good. The most intriguing chapter is one pertaining to the "inner clocks" of homing pigeons (or "homers"). Their navigation system is still not completely understood but Blechman does a good job in peeling away the layers of its mystery. There is no doubt of the author's growing reverence for the birds and because of it, he tweaks our own appreciation of them.

I had wished to see some photos or illustrations of some of the many types of pigeons author Blechman so colorfully describes and one chapter about his trying to track down Mike Tyson, (who apparently is a pigeon fanatic) lacks a necessary cohesion with the rest of the book. These small comments aside, "Pigeons" is a terrifically warm book, narrated with great style and substance. I highly recommend this enjoyable read. You'll never look at pigeons again in quite the same way.

Finally a book about Pigeons! This is a bird with quite an interesting history and deserving of respect. Blechman honors this bird with his informative and entertaining book. I highly recomend this to both Pigeon lovers and haters...you will be surprised at what you will learn. Two thumbs up and five stars! Seek this book out, you will be happy you did!