Scan barcode
A review by bigcheese
Birdy by William Wharton
4.0
If I didn’t love the movie I don’t think I would’ve picked this book up of my own volition unlessI were middle-aged. So far, the first 50 pages, are written in a simple lovely way, as if I am reading Paul Jennings’ short stories again. If I could write in this way immediately then I’d be dedicating all my time to novels. For a 20-year old to choose to read a book in such simple language a 9-year old could read it, no problem, and the fact they talk about birds so much, would be a curious choice. The bird-talk is so romantic that it feels bizarre to have to like these weirdo characters. Birdy is much easier to understand than Al at this point. I assumed Al wouldn’t care enough about birds to talk about them as if they were amazing, sure enough he really appreciates them. It’s fine, it turns out he’s about 14 at this time.
The movie ages them up to be at the end of high school. The actors are most likely my age. Nicolas Cage in one of the greatest breakout performances ever, with Matthew Modine as the title character. So far the book is not going to top the film, something that I was actually confident wouldn’t happen because the movie happens to be around my top 5/top 2 area.
In the opening chapter of the book Birdy’s thoughts break up Al’s in the form of poems and short bits of prose. It’s really pleasurable. Both Al and Birdy prove to be really cute, cuter than in the film, probably because these are barely teenagers being this way.
Spit test if hilarious but nothing else, I do t knock it for being there though. That “homeysexual” chapter tops thot period of the film. Good chapter.
I just read this sentence “It was the song of someone who knows how to fly.” I felt like my brain had been bludgeoned from the top left, I felt like I shrunk an inch, this may be because I’m exhausted but I staggered off the road into flax. That whole paragraph is related to Birdy’s thoughts: “Knowledge is in the not knowing” and it is beautiful. The physical feeling was not fun, but again, I was exhausted.
Surprisingly the movie is a really tight adaptation, it gets rid of things which don’t matter or would be excess, considers the affects of aging the youth up a bit, and tinctured with an incomprehensible amount of movie magic. I’m really glad that I watched the movie first for the same reason that I didn’t go past the first few episodes of ‘Normal People’ after having reading the book, the movie would’ve felt like a direct copy of the book and maybe I would’ve been taken out of the experience when noticing that. The book is cute and overall excellent storytelling, it has book magic.
What I learn from ‘Birdy’ is that simplicity doesn’t exclude sophistication and beauty. Y’know, if you polish up a novel to 80,000 words, and you’ve got a strong story, you’re bound to strike on show-stopping passages. Even with simple prose. It’s worth it to be clear and have a few rewarding moments, than have a few clear moments, and nothing rewarding, like the last book I read ‘This Happy’ by Niamh Campbell.
When Birdy has that dream I was in the bus. The movie does the character better in this regard as I feel like this is not what Birdy is about at all. Birdy is asexual in my head. If this were in the age of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ with that scene becoming a part of gen z pop culture, ‘Birdy’ would be the one where“he fucks a bird” . It should’ve been a daydream in curiosity that ends with a “yeah no, not for me.” Though it was fun to be shocked in that moment, really only expecting peaceful bird watching for the most part, it had its come down. It was almost like the scene in ‘Lanark’ where the young lad is in his bed but not as shocking for me at this time.
This whole Perta plot is completely bonkers. Bizarrely I can still relate to Birdy a wee bit and the start of this part of the book with dreams, and dream experiences sufficing as experience enough is something stand by. The human brain is imaginative. You can live anything you want and feel how you would if it happened with real life consequences and that that should be satisfying enough. And I’m not saying satisfaction is the elation and buzz of accomplishment, I’m saying satisfaction as possibility, this is possible, this can happen, it’s as well as happened.
Sewage-condom , oh my god. This is too much. I. The bus again.
There are baby bird poems and they are so cute.
The end gives way to some really gory imagery, I think we were already desensitised enough by the late seventies to read brutal war violence against humans without feeling the need to vomit, but it does get really hairy a couple times.
I didn’t exactly like the final few pages of the book, if it’s meant to be calling the pair dreamers I don’t think Al is enough of a dreamer to pull it off. And I can’t see why thebaseballs couldn’t be used in a normal con to demonstrate Birdy is okay. Why the hell did Al think keeping Birdy crazy was the way to get him out?
The movie has a few minor narrative changes which all worked really well. The film ending was especially more in the right. Alan Parker also portrayed Birdy as simply beautiful and got rid of the depraved things he does in the book. Though the book Birdy’s actions were fair enough, he’s a weirdo, it was proper shocking.
Low 4/5
The movie ages them up to be at the end of high school. The actors are most likely my age. Nicolas Cage in one of the greatest breakout performances ever, with Matthew Modine as the title character. So far the book is not going to top the film, something that I was actually confident wouldn’t happen because the movie happens to be around my top 5/top 2 area.
In the opening chapter of the book Birdy’s thoughts break up Al’s in the form of poems and short bits of prose. It’s really pleasurable. Both Al and Birdy prove to be really cute, cuter than in the film, probably because these are barely teenagers being this way.
Spit test if hilarious but nothing else, I do t knock it for being there though. That “homeysexual” chapter tops thot period of the film. Good chapter.
I just read this sentence “It was the song of someone who knows how to fly.” I felt like my brain had been bludgeoned from the top left, I felt like I shrunk an inch, this may be because I’m exhausted but I staggered off the road into flax. That whole paragraph is related to Birdy’s thoughts: “Knowledge is in the not knowing” and it is beautiful. The physical feeling was not fun, but again, I was exhausted.
Surprisingly the movie is a really tight adaptation, it gets rid of things which don’t matter or would be excess, considers the affects of aging the youth up a bit, and tinctured with an incomprehensible amount of movie magic. I’m really glad that I watched the movie first for the same reason that I didn’t go past the first few episodes of ‘Normal People’ after having reading the book, the movie would’ve felt like a direct copy of the book and maybe I would’ve been taken out of the experience when noticing that. The book is cute and overall excellent storytelling, it has book magic.
What I learn from ‘Birdy’ is that simplicity doesn’t exclude sophistication and beauty. Y’know, if you polish up a novel to 80,000 words, and you’ve got a strong story, you’re bound to strike on show-stopping passages. Even with simple prose. It’s worth it to be clear and have a few rewarding moments, than have a few clear moments, and nothing rewarding, like the last book I read ‘This Happy’ by Niamh Campbell.
When Birdy has that dream I was in the bus. The movie does the character better in this regard as I feel like this is not what Birdy is about at all. Birdy is asexual in my head. If this were in the age of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ with that scene becoming a part of gen z pop culture, ‘Birdy’ would be the one where
This whole Perta plot is completely bonkers. Bizarrely I can still relate to Birdy a wee bit and the start of this part of the book with dreams, and dream experiences sufficing as experience enough is something stand by. The human brain is imaginative. You can live anything you want and feel how you would if it happened with real life consequences and that that should be satisfying enough. And I’m not saying satisfaction is the elation and buzz of accomplishment, I’m saying satisfaction as possibility, this is possible, this can happen, it’s as well as happened.
There are baby bird poems and they are so cute.
The end gives way to some really gory imagery, I think we were already desensitised enough by the late seventies to read brutal war violence against humans without feeling the need to vomit, but it does get really hairy a couple times.
I didn’t exactly like the final few pages of the book, if it’s meant to be calling the pair dreamers I don’t think Al is enough of a dreamer to pull it off. And I can’t see why the
The movie has a few minor narrative changes which all worked really well. The film ending was especially more in the right. Alan Parker also portrayed Birdy as simply beautiful and got rid of the depraved things he does in the book. Though the book Birdy’s actions were fair enough, he’s a weirdo, it was proper shocking.
Low 4/5