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rjleamon11 's review for:
The Spectator Bird
by Wallace Stegner
The first few pages of this story simply blew me away: Stegner's ability to choose exactly the right word to create a vivid picture, tone, and character is staggering, even when I was listening and not looking/reviewing/revisiting actual text. However, as the book went on, I found the character of Joe Allston and his perspective on life and people to be depressing and exhausting, so I took a break from the audio to listen to music (and follow the government shut down scenario. . . ). When I returned, the incredible scenario of the Countess's family tale caught me and carried me through to the end of the novel.
Overall, I found the book strange and uneven: the story of the Danish nobility is weird and scurrilous; the "front story" of the Allstons' retirement is depressing and unfinished, as the novel ends with the dinner party with the fatally ill friend still ahead; the whole conceit of Joe and his wife reliving this 20 year old experience through his journals is both unrealistic and odd. Overlying the whole experience was my deep awareness of Stegner's skill as a writer, and my matching wonderment about why he chose to craft this particular bundle of ideas and characters. When I learned it was written in the 70's, somehow it all made sense, as this odd combo of grief, loss, longing, skill, and insight seems to fit with the characteristics of that time period (writes one who was 7 - 17 during it!).
Anyway: interesting but uneven.
Overall, I found the book strange and uneven: the story of the Danish nobility is weird and scurrilous; the "front story" of the Allstons' retirement is depressing and unfinished, as the novel ends with the dinner party with the fatally ill friend still ahead; the whole conceit of Joe and his wife reliving this 20 year old experience through his journals is both unrealistic and odd. Overlying the whole experience was my deep awareness of Stegner's skill as a writer, and my matching wonderment about why he chose to craft this particular bundle of ideas and characters. When I learned it was written in the 70's, somehow it all made sense, as this odd combo of grief, loss, longing, skill, and insight seems to fit with the characteristics of that time period (writes one who was 7 - 17 during it!).
Anyway: interesting but uneven.