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A review by lanternheart
Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation by Kyo Maclear
2.0
It's hard to say how much I enjoyed this book: not necessarily because it was bad, but rather that it's hard to define. "Birds, Art, Life" is an elusive read: the writing slips this way and that between anecdote and memoir, reflection and philosophizing and moments of historical connect-the-dots. At times, this pattern makes sense in closeness, but at others, Maclear's writing seemed to me to almost be deliberately slippery: refusing categorization because the author had an unclear voice.
This was contrasted with some moments of, surprisingly to me, absolute beauty in spots. However, these were few and far between, and while I enjoyed my time in this book generally, I don't know how often I'll pick up the whole thing to read again so much as pick individual moments. I perhaps have learned to look at birds differently, but I struggle to articulate what (if anything) I exactly have come away with knowing or viewing differently about art and life.
This was contrasted with some moments of, surprisingly to me, absolute beauty in spots. However, these were few and far between, and while I enjoyed my time in this book generally, I don't know how often I'll pick up the whole thing to read again so much as pick individual moments. I perhaps have learned to look at birds differently, but I struggle to articulate what (if anything) I exactly have come away with knowing or viewing differently about art and life.