Delve Into The Afterlife Of Birds Written By Elizabeth Philips Accessible As Paperbound
read one third of this aboard a plane, and the remainder sporadically throughout the following week so this review will be brief.
Elizabeth Philips' poetic background shines in this novel, It is very much a settingdriven story and shows how location and time really build richness in character,
I would recommend Afterlife of Birds if one wishes to read modern Canadian fiction, In The Afterlife of Birds, Henry Jett is alone, his latest girlfriend having packed it in after being freaked out by his unconventional hobby of reassembling the skeletons of birds and small animals.
Even though he has no interest in cars, he works a menial job at Eds Garage, Unlike his selfcentred brother Dan, whose looks, charisma and athleticism have made him a social dynamo and girl magnet all his life, Henry is unassertive and unremarkable: the friend whose face you have trouble remembering but who can nonetheless be counted upon to answer the call for help when things fall apart.
Henrys life is going nowhere at a snails pace, and he knows it, But what is he to do However, change is happening all around him, His brother falls off the radar after deciding to run a marathon and embarking upon an obsessive regimen that takes over his life his mother decides to sell the nursery that shes been operating for as long as Henry can remember and go to Australia Marcie, an employee of long standing at the nursery and close friend of Henrys, decides she wants to be a mother and Mrs.
Bogdanov, an elderly acquaintance of Henrys who hes been helping in numerous small ways for years, runs into health problems, As he observes the effects these changes are having on himself and those he loves, Henry finds it is impossible to stay unaffected and remote.
Elizabeth Philips novel is about an ordinary man who discovers that to be ordinary is to be anything but, Drawn into a world of change, Henry Jett is forced to acknowledge wishes and desires he didnt even know he harboured, The novel is closely observed and emotionally resonant, The action moves at a slow burn, but Philips writes complex and beautiful sentences that must be savoured in a leisurely manner, Admirable and entertaining, The Afterlife of Birds is literary fiction at its best, Henry is an introvert. He leads a fairly simple and solitary existence works at a mechanic garage for wages and collects bones to assemble into bird skeletons for fun.
He lives alone, quietly playing different supporting roles for the few people hes close to: his runningobsessed brother, Dan his brothers girlfriend, Rae and Mrs.
Bogdanov, an elderly lady who feeds him stories from her familys past in Russia alongside her cake and tea,
Henry, the central character in Elizabeth Philips debut novel The Afterlife of Birds, is a decidedly unassuming protagonist, However, as we start to piece together who this rather ordinary person is, we find out that Henry, like one of his bird skeletons, is really an essential frame upon which many moving parts remain intact.
Other than his extensive collection of bird bones, Henry is a fairly tame personality to tie an entire book around, Even his acute interest in bird skeletons, while maybe a little peculiar, is relatable in some form to the odd quirks each of us have.
The other people in Philips novel seem to be much more ambitious, extreme or outgoing, However, it is Henrys ordinary nature that makes him so approachable to the audience,
The story begins with Henry in a hard spot, His girlfriend just left him, his brother, Dan, has taken up an unhealthy obsession with running and now Dans girlfriend, Rae, seems to be withering away.
On top of this, Henrys mom is looking to sell her business and retire, but her one employee, Marcie, just got pregnant.
Their lives are fluttering around him, but Henry remains persistently stable and dependable, Then, as each one of them turns to him in need, Henry finds the subtle calm of his life growing into a whole new beast.
While The Afterlife of Birds is the Saskatchewan authors first longform novel, Philips has published four books of poetry and received several awards and recognition for her prose.
Her poetic background is evident in the beautifully detailed ways that she renders scenes off the page,
Outside of these highlydeveloped ambient sketches, she remains detached from certain specifics, For example, we are not introduced to Henry at any point, but involved in his life right from the first page it wasnt until well into the book that I felt I understood who Henry was and how he got there.
Similarly, Philips doesnt transition through time smoothly, jumping one month to the next, but this does help move the storys timeline quickly.
The only negative being that, at times, some events were passed over a little quickly and it wasnt always clear if these little gaps, loosely held together, were of great importance or not.
What I really drew from, and appreciated in, The Afterlife of Birds was the indirect metaphor of anatomy and relationships, The more decorative characters, like the plumage on birds, are attractive in their distractions, but they live as external beings, And their relationships require a strong, stable internal force to keep all the moving parts together, And, in this novel, that unseen skeleton is the rather unobtrusive, runofthemill fellow: Henry,
A lovely Canadian read, The Afterlife of Birds is an imaginative character portrait full of linguistic artistry, sitelink com/YukonArtsEn You cant win an argument with someone who doesnt listen p
I love it when an author can interest me in something i had deemed deeply boring or disgusting.
Henry would not have appreciated me, and I would feel stfled in his rooms, but through the compassionate skill of EP I grew to appreciate Henry, his awkward relationship with the world, his observant self deprecating meditations and his concern for his scattered and chosen family.
Identity and integrity are the standout themes, and the importance of not running out on your life is highlighted as the brothers imperceptibly switch roles.
It doesn't matter if the finale is visible from about the middle of the book, I loved the slow unfolding of Henry and his articulation of a satisfying life.
Lovely writing, and wonderful themes, Philips is a wellrespected poet and her delight and precision with language shows here, Thoroughly enjoyed this, and found it hard to believe it's a debut novel, Absolutely beautifully written characterdriven writing at its finest, I didn't want the story to end, I can't remember the last time I liked a protagonist as much as I like Henry Jett, I loved this book, its characters and language, The writer's poetic heritage comes through in her ability to spin an image with words, Love, love, love. This is definitely a characterdriven story about ordinary people living ordinary lives, The prose is exquisite and the characters are exceptionally well drawn, In some ways it is like a comingofage story if that can be said about a book in which the main character Henry is in hiss.
A truly beautiful book that I highly recommend, I really wanted to love this book it mentioned stories in the summary, and that sort of thing always interests and fascinates me, people's stories.
But I simply could not get into let alone finish this book, By the time I'd read through the first few chapters I had no desire to read anymore, not because it was a bad book or anything, but it just didn't hook my attention.
The idea is unique though, and props to the author for that, but otherwise I wish I could have gotten into this book more.
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