A pleasure and an education.
Charming debut chronicling a life-changing relationship with a flock of birds, which inspired both a documentary film (same title) and a romance with the filmmaker.
Thirty years ago, Bittner moved to San Francisco as a dharma bum, Beat seeker, odd-jobber, and musician. Before long, he was homeless and penniless, but for 14 years he stayed true to his hungry but rather aimless spiritual journey, refusing to submit to working at a deadening job, anxious but ready to stay only a step ahead of the gutter. Eventually, he took a position as a housekeeper to an elderly lady in return for a rent-free apartment next door to her home on Telegraph Hill. There he met the parrots, a wild colorful flock with humorous eyes, “as if they concealed the punch line of some joke.” In short order, they twined. Bittner was respectful of the birds’ wildness even while he sought a close communion with them. He tendered food as well as his company, and ultimately the parrots gave him their trust, or at least what passes as such. The author recounts in unpresumptuous and garrulous fashion the days they spent together, one man hoping to touch the thrum of the universe and a flock of blue-crowned and cherry-headed conures willing to provide a glimpse into an altogether different plane of existence. The special appeal here lies in Bittner’s ability to rouse in the reader the giddiness of his time with the parrots: the grace of having a few of the birds live inside his apartment, the pleasure of learning their calls and pecking order, the strange moments of eye contact, the canny instances of cross-species communication, his care of the individual birds when they fell ill. “At times,” he writes, “all of us sense a poetry in the universe—strange coincidences that speak to us in a strong way.” Via parrots? Why not, when Bittner's relationship with the parrots is profound enough to spark envy.
A pleasure and an education.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-609-61055-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!
It should come as no surprise that the gifted author of The Sea Around Usand its successors can take another branch of science—that phase of biology indicated by the term ecology—and bring it so sharply into focus that any intelligent layman can understand what she is talking about.
Understand, yes, and shudder, for she has drawn a living portrait of what is happening to this balance nature has decreed in the science of life—and what man is doing (and has done) to destroy it and create a science of death. Death to our birds, to fish, to wild creatures of the woods—and, to a degree as yet undetermined, to man himself. World War II hastened the program by releasing lethal chemicals for destruction of insects that threatened man’s health and comfort, vegetation that needed quick disposal. The war against insects had been under way before, but the methods were relatively harmless to other than the insects under attack; the products non-chemical, sometimes even introduction of other insects, enemies of the ones under attack. But with chemicals—increasingly stronger, more potent, more varied, more dangerous—new chain reactions have set in. And ironically, the insects are winning the war, setting up immunities, and re-emerging, their natural enemies destroyed. The peril does not stop here. Waters, even to the underground water tables, are contaminated; soils are poisoned. The birds consume the poisons in their insect and earthworm diet; the cattle, in their fodder; the fish, in the waters and the food those waters provide. And humans? They drink the milk, eat the vegetables, the fish, the poultry. There is enough evidence to point to the far-reaching effects; but this is only the beginning,—in cancer, in liver disorders, in radiation perils…This is the horrifying story. It needed to be told—and by a scientist with a rare gift of communication and an overwhelming sense of responsibility. Already the articles taken from the book for publication in The New Yorkerare being widely discussed. Book-of-the-Month distribution in October will spread the message yet more widely.
The book is not entirely negative; final chapters indicate roads of reversal, before it is too late!Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1962
ISBN: 061825305X
Page Count: 378
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1962
APPRECIATIONS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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