15/02: THE BOOK CORNER: FEBRUARY 2010, HOWARD NORMAN’S THE BIRD ARTIST
I read The Bird Artist several years ago and it has stayed stubbornly in my mind since. When I first read it, I went out to buy another of his novels, The Museum Guard and found it almost as compelling as the former book.
The story is set in the early 20th century, before the First World War and geographically, it takes place in a small coastal village called Witless Bay in Newfoundland. The story is narrated by Fabian Vas who in the first paragraph identifies himself as a bird artist and as the one who killed Botho August, the light house keeper.
The life of a small coastal village unfolds in the pages of the book. We see something of the centrality of the lighthouse for a village dependent upon fishing and other endeavors that involve the water. We also get some flavor of the proud isolation of Newfoundlander in their distance from Canada in mind set, if not in fact. We also catch some glimpse of the place of religion and the church in the life of the people.
Fabian is found by his mother to have a talent for drawing, so his mother encourages him. At one time Fabian, in looking through the small library of and his early education is almost exclusively being tutored by mail in the drawing of the birds of Newfoundland. Fabian becomes adept enough to sell some of his drawings. His relationship to his tutor Isaac Sprague, upon whom he becomes dependent for help and praise, is as distant and cool as the relationships of all the folks of Witless Bay.
But at the heart of the story are a pare of tragedies, two deaths, one of them a murder and the other a death out of desperation and carelessness at the betrayals that have taken place. As indicate above, Fabian kills the light house keeper. And his father, betrayed by Fabian’s mother, leaves Witless Bay and works to have the blame for the death of Botho August fall on him. Through a visit by Fabian’s father’s brother, Fabian is told to put the blame for the death of Botho on him so that he, Fabian, might be free to live his life. Through the complexity of these events and tragic happenings the deep flaw that runs through human life and all of human history is disclosed again. The strange fact of life that is worked out in the church in the doctrine of The Fall and Original Sin is grounded in profoundly moving ways.
Near the end of the novel, the minister of the local church, a character painted as a most unlikable man, who has not believed that Fabian’s father commited the murder that sent a shock through the whole community. He believed that Fabian did.. He had the practice of grounding his sermons on sin by using Fabian’s mother’s infidelity, and Fabian and Margaret’s relationship as illustrations.
But he comes to Fabian with a proposal. He wants a mural painted for the inside of the church and he offers Fabian the job so Fabian can have some income and so he might work out his own guilt as he paints the village, its people and a part of its history. As much as I disliked the minister in the early pages of this book, I began to admire the way in which he ministers to Fabian in this proposal.
Fabian throws himself into the task, working night and day. He paints into the mural the birds of Witless Bay which he has come to love devotedly, and he paints the people of the village and he paints the victim of the murder, with arms like angel wings unfurled, looking out of the top window of the lighthouse. And Fabian paints himself face down in the mud of the wetlands near the bay.
Fabian and Margaret find each other again by the end of the book and they set out to make a life together and the mural on the walls of the church reflects the people, history and the glory of the birds of Witless Bay.
The writing is so spare, careful and beautiful it is a memorable experience to read.
Trent
The story is set in the early 20th century, before the First World War and geographically, it takes place in a small coastal village called Witless Bay in Newfoundland. The story is narrated by Fabian Vas who in the first paragraph identifies himself as a bird artist and as the one who killed Botho August, the light house keeper.
The life of a small coastal village unfolds in the pages of the book. We see something of the centrality of the lighthouse for a village dependent upon fishing and other endeavors that involve the water. We also get some flavor of the proud isolation of Newfoundlander in their distance from Canada in mind set, if not in fact. We also catch some glimpse of the place of religion and the church in the life of the people.
Fabian is found by his mother to have a talent for drawing, so his mother encourages him. At one time Fabian, in looking through the small library of and his early education is almost exclusively being tutored by mail in the drawing of the birds of Newfoundland. Fabian becomes adept enough to sell some of his drawings. His relationship to his tutor Isaac Sprague, upon whom he becomes dependent for help and praise, is as distant and cool as the relationships of all the folks of Witless Bay.
But at the heart of the story are a pare of tragedies, two deaths, one of them a murder and the other a death out of desperation and carelessness at the betrayals that have taken place. As indicate above, Fabian kills the light house keeper. And his father, betrayed by Fabian’s mother, leaves Witless Bay and works to have the blame for the death of Botho August fall on him. Through a visit by Fabian’s father’s brother, Fabian is told to put the blame for the death of Botho on him so that he, Fabian, might be free to live his life. Through the complexity of these events and tragic happenings the deep flaw that runs through human life and all of human history is disclosed again. The strange fact of life that is worked out in the church in the doctrine of The Fall and Original Sin is grounded in profoundly moving ways.
Near the end of the novel, the minister of the local church, a character painted as a most unlikable man, who has not believed that Fabian’s father commited the murder that sent a shock through the whole community. He believed that Fabian did.. He had the practice of grounding his sermons on sin by using Fabian’s mother’s infidelity, and Fabian and Margaret’s relationship as illustrations.
But he comes to Fabian with a proposal. He wants a mural painted for the inside of the church and he offers Fabian the job so Fabian can have some income and so he might work out his own guilt as he paints the village, its people and a part of its history. As much as I disliked the minister in the early pages of this book, I began to admire the way in which he ministers to Fabian in this proposal.
Fabian throws himself into the task, working night and day. He paints into the mural the birds of Witless Bay which he has come to love devotedly, and he paints the people of the village and he paints the victim of the murder, with arms like angel wings unfurled, looking out of the top window of the lighthouse. And Fabian paints himself face down in the mud of the wetlands near the bay.
Fabian and Margaret find each other again by the end of the book and they set out to make a life together and the mural on the walls of the church reflects the people, history and the glory of the birds of Witless Bay.
The writing is so spare, careful and beautiful it is a memorable experience to read.
Trent
