Synopsis
By: Jill Murphy
His shattered face swathed in bandages from a series of reconstructive surgeries, Al Columbato leaves one military hospital for another. This time it is not for treatment, but to help a childhood friend. When he arrives even Al, well used to Birdy's strangeness, is shocked at his condition. Birdy is in a secure mental unit in a catatonic state, crouched upon the floor unmoving, unable even to feed himself. It is Al's task, given to him by the hospital psychiatrist Dr Weiss, to talk to Birdy, to try to rouse him from his stupor. The two boys have been friends for years, the closest friends imaginable. War had separated them and now that war is over they are together again, and yet they are still apart, for one has returned with terrible physical injuries, the other with his senses destroyed. And only Al knows that Birdy is living his life as he always wanted to live it, as a bird.
Right from the early days Birdy was odd, different, not like the others. He dreamed of flying, of birds, of being a bird. His was an all-consuming obsession. He spent his time observing birds, charming them, catching them and training them. He made himself suits of feathers and increasingly unlikely contraptions to aid his dream. Al was a big, strong, bluff, aggressive young man, and a most unlikely friend for the shy, withdrawn Birdy. But their neighbourhood was rough and they were joined in the strange way children sometimes are; by a mutual need. They both wanted to escape, to soar above and away from the squalor of their surroundings and find something more true, something different, something better.
So, although he laughed at his eccentricities, and shook his head at his escapades, Al never mocked Birdy, he helped him try to fulfil that dream. And somehow, from Birdy, he found the friendship he needed. As Al watches him in his hospital cell, he recalls those childhood days and talks of them for hours which blend into days which blend into weeks. Wharton tells the story by a double narrative; by Al's words and by Birdy's thoughts and he tells it in two timeframes: in flashbacks to those childhood remembrances and in the pain and confusion of the present. Al's narrative is crude and colloquial yet searingly honest, also touchingly so. Birdy's words are dreamlike and poetic; they seem born from nature itself, from instinct, from something that is neither past nor present.
Birdy's obsession grew stronger as he went through adolescence and there were some things he couldn't even tell Al. But he remembers them now as Al talks to him of those times; he remembers the fantasy life he once had, the way he imagined himself as one of his birds so strongly that he dreamed dreams that felt real. He remembers as he struggles inside both to find himself again and also to stay as he is, a bird, a free creature with thoughts but no words, that his dreams gradually overtook his waking life until he could no longer tell one from the other.
And Al, as he talks, searches constantly for a flicker of recognition from his friend, partly desperate to see it, to see the Birdy he once knew and to know him again. But he's also afraid for what will happen if he does and wonders if Birdy is better off where he is, cocoooned from the harsh, cruel world. For Al is afraid for himself too; the war for him was a terrible experience. He was a boy who hated authority, who had been beaten by his father and thought that he'd been made tough by his experiences. War showed him differently. War brought a fear to Al that he'd never imagined, and now that war is over he is afraid that he, too, is going insane. He has found out too many things about himself and about the world and they are things he'd never wanted to know. Both boys are fighting a desperate battle to overcome their demons and find a way to live again.
Eventually Birdy does begin to respond. And eventually Al begins to come to terms with his experience. It's a book without much plot but one with a great deal of tension wrought by the force of the writing and the intensity of past experience as it is recalled. The scenes where reality blurs for Birdy as he begins to feel and live as one of his canaries and those of the battle scenes where Al learns too much about the nightmare of war and is forced to look too deeply inside himself will stay with you for a long, long time.
Reading Birdy fills you right up inside, do you know what I mean? You wander off into your own little dream world; it's almost a private thing, and not really something you can put into words. It's not what you'd call a page-turner, not at all - reading it you'll suddenly realise that you're along no further than you were ten minutes before because a part of it struck you so strongly that you've spent those ten minutes quietly musing on it. I've read Birdy six or seven times now, and each time, although I didn't think there was any more room, it seems to fill me up just a little bit more than did the last. It's a not-particularly-original story of an unlikely friendship between two very different boys, of the way that 'difference' and 'insanity' are so sadly and inextricably linked in our limited little world, it's a story of the horror of war and the horror that war can do to a person. It doesn't have a complicated plot, and, in the present time at least, not very much happens at all, but it is just so wonderfully executed. I don't have the knowledge of what it is to be insane, or obsessed, or to fight in a war, or even what it is like to want to fly, to be a bird, more than anything. But when I read Wharton's book I can feel and know without that knowledge what it is like to be Al or Birdy. And when I read it I'm as sure as I can be that Birdy is right - there is a huge difference between knowledge and knowing:
"There's open air in his song, the power of wings and the softness of feathers. He sings of things he could never have seen or known in the aviary at Mr Lincoln's. These things must be memories in his blood carried through in his song. There's the song of rivers and the sound of water and the song of fields and seeds in their natural places. It's a song I'll never forget... in the singing you let your mind go, not think, and it comes to you, clearer than words. It comes as if you'd thought it yourself. Listening to Alfonso that night I found out things I knew must be but I'd never known."
And just as Alfonso's song made Birdy feel so will Wharton's book make you feel. It's like the effect that the best poetry can have - whether it be the formal grace and elegance of Donne or Marvell, or the headlong, breathless rush of the opening lines of Howl - whether you can put that effect into words or not.
I say it a lot, I know, but Birdy is a beautiful book, it really is. It is somehow a true one. And I think you'll be enriched for reading it.
Reader Reviews
“A wonderful, unclassifiable novel”, July 1, 2006
Reviewer: moose/squirrel (USA)
I've read a lot of books in my day, but Birdy is easily one of the most memorable. A traumatized World War II veteran trapped in a VA hospital stays sane solely through his preternaturally detailed recollections of raising canaries as a teenager--and through the perfect loyalty of his closest friend.
Wharton's better-known World War II novel, A Midnight Clear, comes nowhere near this one in terms of originality and emotional truth.
Birdy is a beautifully written, most unclassifiable story, unsentimental, sometimes painful, but extraordinarily life-affirming and imagination-affirming. Some day it will be recognized as a genuine classic of American fiction.
“Interesting book”, September 8, 2003
Reviewer: A reader
The book is best described as "bird-y", like it's title. Whoever reads it will understand what I mean. In the center of the story stands an eccentric, introverted boy called Birdy, who's entire life is driven by an obsession with birds, and a dream - to fly and be free. The book opens with Birdy in a military mental hospital, traumatized by his experiences in WWII. His childhood friend, Al, has been called over to try and bring Birdy back to reality. At a loss of what to do, Al begins telling Birdy stories from their childhood, and recounting all the adventures they lived through together. Through Al's narrations and the remembrances they trigger in Birdy, the fascinating story of a most unlikely friendship unfolds. Al is a handsome, athletic Italian girl-chaser, with an abusive father and an obsessive need to prove himself. Birdy on the other hand, is a wild spirit. You can sense throughout the story how he feels caged, and reveres the birds he sees to be free. He constructs an aviary and raises canaries in his bedroom, studying them, learning their language, getting to know each one personally, and losing himself in their world. The descriptions of the canaries are so intense that the reader himself feels as though they are human, or he is a bird. Birdy is an amazing character - brave, self confident, a mechanical genius, who struggles to fit himself into human life, but who's mind works in a completely different way than anyone else's. The book tells the extraordinary story of the two friends, and is simply a pleasure to read and a refreshing change from the conventional.
“I loved this book... so unique”, September 28, 2002
Reviewer: Vaughan (Beppu-Shi, Oita-Ken Japan)
That’s right. One of the best books I have ever read. I have already purchased some 5 copies for my friends - to share the beauty of the book with them too. It’s a masterpiece.
The depth of description about a bird, and its daily life, is described here in a way I have come across before. But that’s not what its all about. There are many concepts discovered here, and it makes the reader ponder. Issues such as war, friendship, love, dreams, insanity and sanity.
I especially got involved in Birdy's dream. I am a bit of a dreamer too. He goes onto explore the fact that maybe we living now, is a dream. And the dream that both you and I will have tonight, is actually our real life. I liked this view.
Buy the book, it’s very much out of the ordinary, and I hope you really enjoy it as much as I did! Happy Reading!
“If any book lingers in your mind its this one.”, March 16, 2001
Reviewer: Zanara
I just happened upon this book in my school's library one day last week. I decided to get it out if only because my own fascination with flight seemed somewhat similar to the storyline. I read the whole thing that day, and I still can't get it out of my mind. I went back to the library maybe hoping for a sequel (I always do that), but since there was none I got out the only other Wharton books they had: Dad and A Midnight Clear. While they were both great books and I enjoyed them greatly (even though I'm usually a strictly Sci-Fi fan and this really far from my range), none of them are even half as good as Birdy. There’s something about that book that makes you think about it long after you've turned the last page. Now I need to get the movie.
“The Joy of Flight(?) or Terror Avoidance 101”, July 19, 2000
Reviewer: A reader
This is an incredible and beautifully told tale of friendship, sanity(& insanity,) obsession and the horrors of war. The second reading is even better! As a bird lover and owner, I especially enjoyed the details of what the experience of being a bird is really like. I can only suppose that William Wharton has spent time as a bird, or has some very close friends who are birds and were willing to describe the experience of "birdness" to him for this book. The story of friendship and growing up is quite moving and enjoyable with much humor and insight. The section dealing with the boys' job as dogcatchers should be skipped or abridged by the squeamish, (or animal lovers, such as my spouse, who take fiction for reality too easily!) Highly recommended! Two enthusiastic wings up! (P.S. Also recommended; "Dad" by William Wharton.)