The Bird Artist: A Novel

From Publishers Weekly Northern landscapes are definitely writer Norman's territory; in Northern Lights and now in this enchanting second novel, he simultaneously evokes the region's harsh weather and terrain and invests it with magical possibilities. There is a wonderful inverse relationship between a setting where life is reduced to essentials and people are unsophisticated and stoic, and the exotic aura his fiction radiates. It's as though Norman has accepted a challenge to wring beauty out of stone and eloquence out of simplicity. This tale of passion, murder and fate is set in 1911 in Witless Bay, Newfoundland, a bleak and isolated community whose citizens are capable of grim retribution and astonishing acts of compassion. In a spare but elegant narrative, Fabian Bass tells us on the novel's first page that he is a bird artist, and that he murdered the lighthouse keeper Botho August. Two irresistible sexual attractions have propelled the 20-year-old Fabian to his desperate act: his love for spirited, eccentric Margaret Handle, which his parents have sought to thwart because she is an alcoholic and older than he; and his mother's flagrant, unrepentant adultery with August as soon as her husband sets off on a long bird-hunting expedition, the proceeds of which are planned to finance Fabian's arranged marriage with a distant cousin he has never met. The narrative sings with tension as events move toward the murder, yet it sparkles with antic humor. Set pieces abound: the comically awkward scene in which the betrothed couple meet for the first time, wed and acrimoniously part; the mad hilarity of the murder hearing as a quixotic, compassionate constable and a fatuous preacher engage in antiphonal debate, with the village elders comprising a Greek chorus. Other scenes have a painterly glow: villagers in small boats keep a nightlong vigil on the fog-swathed ocean, waiting to find the body of a suicidal woman. The intriguing story lurches to an unforeseen climax; its haunting aftermath sets Fabian physically free and emotionally transforms him. At the end, he is both bereft of family and blessed with love, but he has been stunned by the ironies of life and the capriciousness of fate. If he has learned anything, it's to follow his "heart's logic," which drew him to drawing birds; this is, he realizes "a small gift to help me clarify the world." And in weaving his compelling tale, Norman convinces you that human nature is a perennially absorbing puzzle, and that the hands of an accomplished writer can worry the solutions in fresh, surprising and altogether memorable ways. Fabian describes the work of his teacher as "graceful and transcendent." So is this novel. Movie rights to Arne Glimscher Productions; major ad/promo; author tour. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Fabian, son of Alaric and Orkney Vas, has spent his entire life in remote Witless Bay, Newfoundland. Looking back on his life, he decides that he has distinguished himself in only two ways: as a modestly successful artist whose illustrations graced the covers of Bird Lore magazine and as the murderer of the local lighthouse keeper, Botho August. The murder was the result of excessive coffee consumption combined with the stress brought on by his parents' plan to force him into an arranged marriage with a cousin he had never seen; this in turn would keep him from his hard-drinking girlfriend. Norman staked out the desolate reaches of northern Canada as his fictional domain in 1987 National Book Award nominee The Northern Lights. In contrast, this new book combines colorful backwoods eccentrics and gothic melodrama that strongly resembles the work of film director David Lynch. Recommended for most fiction collections. --Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist "My God, some courtships are more difficult than others, aren't they?" So asks one of the characters rhetorically toward the end of Howard Norman's latest novel. This unconventional love story, set in remotest Newfoundland, is narrated by Fabian Vas, a java junkie with a talent for rendering the image of birds on paper--he is The Bird Artist . Vas' tale unwinds through the domestic drama of his parents, Orkney and Alaric, whose marriage is seduced by adultery, and through the story of a bank-robbing uncle, Bassie. Bassie is more myth than flesh, but when he finally materializes, it is with an important message. Then there is Botho August, whom Fabian Vas murders, and Margaret Handle, Fabian's great love, who has weaknesses for whiskey, bike riding and sex (not in that order). She anchors this northern story with her crazy wisdom. Filled with unexpected characters, this novel works its magic subtly; one thinks of Ingmar Bergman but also of David Lynch. A good story to read on a warm spring day while birds shadow the pages. Ra{£}ul Ni{¤}no From Kirkus Reviews Adultery, murder, and an arranged marriage are the meat in this exceptionally strong, classy period melodrama by the author of the acclaimed The Northern Lights (1987) and the short-story collection Kiss in the Hotel Joseph Conrad (1989). This is a story about quiet country people who suddenly lose control of their lives; about the gap between the knowable, external world and our unknowable secret selves. Narrator Fabian Vas, born in 1891, lives in the remote settlement of Witless Bay in Newfoundland. His father, Orkney, is a semiliterate carpenter; his mother, Alaric, is well-educated, dissatisfied with her lot. Fabian is a talented bird artist who will eventually sell his drawings to magazines. The center of his life is Margaret Handle. When Fabian is 16, the strong-willed mail boat pilot's daughter initiates him into sex; it is always Margaret who calls the shots. Fabian's passivity will be his downfall. He goes along with his parents' bizarre scheme to marry him off to Cora Holly, a cousin they've never met, even though he's aware that Margaret considers it a betrayal. More flagrant is Alaric's betrayal of Orkney. While he's away on a bird-harvesting expedition, she begins a brazen affair with gloomy, antisocial Botho August, the lighthouse keeper. All hell breaks loose on Orkney's return. The astonished Fabian finds he has shot Botho dead with Margaret's revolver; the Vas family flees justice. Though the murder and flight have high-wattage intensity, it is Margaret's story that resonates the most, with the lyric force of a ballad. Norman is a superb storyteller who makes normality and nightmare equally convincing. We believe in the wrenching disorder precisely because the hitherto orderly rhythms have been as steady as the ticking of a clock. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Howard Norman teaches at the University of Maryland. Read more