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stanro 's review for:
The Spectator Bird
by Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner was highly praised here so I took the plunge, diving into The Spectator Bird, which seems to be not his best (or at least not as widely read).
I took a while to get into it. A retired book publisher nearing 70, Joe Alston, seems bored with his quiet life and his unassuming manner. Then the arrival of a postcard from a friend from long ago sends him to his study to find his journals that were written during the time of that friendship. Once his wife Ruth finds out that he had written journals then, and having been there herself, she insists on him reading them aloud to her.
So the pattern of The Spectator Bird is set - alternating between the journals covering events in Denmark in 1954 and the present day, 20 years afterwards (1974).
It’s a slow burn, well plotted with at times exquisite language.
I took a while to get into it. A retired book publisher nearing 70, Joe Alston, seems bored with his quiet life and his unassuming manner. Then the arrival of a postcard from a friend from long ago sends him to his study to find his journals that were written during the time of that friendship. Once his wife Ruth finds out that he had written journals then, and having been there herself, she insists on him reading them aloud to her.
So the pattern of The Spectator Bird is set - alternating between the journals covering events in Denmark in 1954 and the present day, 20 years afterwards (1974).
It’s a slow burn, well plotted with at times exquisite language.