WINTER BIRDS: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Behind the face before me
Review: A friend loaned me this book without comment but knowing that I am a juvenile court judge. I know this family in dozens of permutations, but I will empathize more when I see them next thanks to Jim Grimsley. I started and finished the book in one sitting last night. It is a powerfully executed visit inside the life of a boy who is surviving a violent family minute-by-minute. The characters cry out for peace, for relief from the cruelty of a father and husband who views them as property, and from a society that agrees. Excellent book that makes me crave more of the same, but only after I manage to exhale.

Rating:
Summary: The ultimate rape
Review: A friend recommended highly "Winter Birds" to me. It is one of the most remarkable gifts I've ever been given. Cold and winter outside my window, and in this book too. Electric and frightening and so bare bones nostalgia it left me shaken. Danny might be everyboy. I've known people who were in this brooding sad violent despair. I've known Danny in a way. A brave frighened gentle child with hemophilia which, my friend believes, might be symbolic of homosexuality. Having to be aware of the smallest cuts. Having to be aware of the blood pouring out of you and people staring who are afraid and so superior. They having never to think of such things, therefore, why should anyone? It is a book of such sadness and courage and bleak beauty, the smells of the outhouse, the fears of snakes under beds and in closets (and there being there in actuality too), the father who is a broken man, even more broken than his mangled arm from a farm machine accident. Violent and alcoholic and filled with such terrible anger at the world and not being able to do a thing about it. Only able to lash out at the family who care, or once cared, about him, and feeling justified in alienating them as well. Proof that the entire world is out to get him. Good, at any cost, at such a cost, to know he is right. The violence is epic in proportion. What, perhaps, all children suffer psychically. Here though in this rude clapboard house where mother and children hide from him, hoping he will leave them just alone this time, knowing he will not, the violence and danger are most palpable. The giddy feverish pitch of those chapters of terrible suffering. The lovely stark poetry of the writing and the feel for wishing even this childhood could return for a time. Especially this one. And the ending that is the true rape, beyond physical, the rape of a woman who holds her family together, and of her son who has been, I feel, denied the ability to dream of river gods and golden lions and Technicolor movies where he can hide. Keep everything on the outside. Out of mind. Out of heart. But Danny, as my friend said, becomes a diamond from this. Extends his hard won understanding and compassion to the dark corners of people and lives. Because in the end, as Danny knows, it's the only way to survive. Understand them and their sadnesses. Envelop them. Forgive them. There is only insanity in the other direction.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Haunting
Review: Although only 200 pages, this book packs an emotional wallop that is unforgettable and stays with you for days. Danny Crell (whose later life is featured in Mr. Grimsley's Comfort and Joy) tells his story of family abuse as if in a long dream. Highly recommended with a truly shocking ending.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Haunting
Review: Although only 200 pages, this book packs an emotional wallop that is unforgettable and stays with you for days. Danny Crell (whose later life is featured in Mr. Grimsley's Comfort and Joy) tells his story of family abuse as if in a long dream. Highly recommended with a truly shocking ending.

Rating:
Summary: And so it began........
Review: Having just read "Comfort & Joy" and finding it a highly successful novel, I took fellow reviewers' suggestion and traced this author's literary progress by reading his initial novel, "Winter Birds". An incredible journey! Not only is his first novel enormously engrossing (like the fascination of watching an autopsy), learning the narrator's (Danny Crell) history supplements his further life voyage in "Comfort...". After being absorbed in Winter Birds for one evening, my immediate response was to re-read "Comfort & Joy" with a better knowledge of the polarity of that last book's main characters. Grimsley is a gifted writer, and knowing that his first successes were in playwriting is no surprise. "Winter Birds" is an intense, credible study of the type of dysfuntional family that we'd all rather not believe exists. But by writing this book I think Grimsley sensitizes us to look beyond the adult RE-actions of troubled people to find how incredible it is that many of these injured and abused people made it into adult life. Powerful, thought provoking writing.

Rating:
Summary: And so it began........
Review: Having just read "Comfort & Joy" and finding it a highly successful novel, I took fellow reviewers' suggestion and traced this author's literary progress by reading his initial novel, "Winter Birds". An incredible journey! Not only is his first novel enormously engrossing (like the fascination of watching an autopsy), learning the narrator's (Danny Crell) history supplements his further life voyage in "Comfort...". After being absorbed in Winter Birds for one evening, my immediate response was to re-read "Comfort & Joy" with a better knowledge of the polarity of that last book's main characters. Grimsley is a gifted writer, and knowing that his first successes were in playwriting is no surprise. "Winter Birds" is an intense, credible study of the type of dysfuntional family that we'd all rather not believe exists. But by writing this book I think Grimsley sensitizes us to look beyond the adult RE-actions of troubled people to find how incredible it is that many of these injured and abused people made it into adult life. Powerful, thought provoking writing.

Rating:
Summary: A portrait of the cruelty of unforgiving rural poverty
Review: I came to this book after reading the unedited pre-release copy of "Comfort and Joy". Dan, the child hemophiliac of "Winter Birds" becomes the adult survivor and lover of Ford in "Comfort and Joy." In "Winter Birds" Grimsley paints the most agonizing pictures of what must be the most dysfunctional family of recent literature. A beautiful and excruciatingly painful read! Even the Thanksgiving snow cannot erase the agony of the unremitting suffering that permeates the book. River Man is Grimsley's "Everyman", a symbol of hopeful endurance. The taught style of the prose and its cryptic language grip the reader as much as the savagery of the story itself. The two novels will become inseparable companions, completing each other with hope as relentless as the torment and struggle that propels and sustains that very self same hope. If the two works should become part of a future tryptych, a little "softness" would be a relief. Bravo to Mr. Grimsley for such a fine read, again. Comments refer to the paperback edition. Fortunately most readers will have read "Winter Birds" first. It works much better that way since it clarifies Dan's actions of the second novel.

Rating:
Summary: A portrait of the cruelty of unforgiving rural poverty
Review: I came to this book after reading the unedited pre-release copy of "Comfort and Joy". Dan, the child hemophiliac of "Winter Birds" becomes the adult survivor and lover of Ford in "Comfort and Joy." In "Winter Birds" Grimsley paints the most agonizing pictures of what must be the most dysfunctional family of recent literature. A beautiful and excruciatingly painful read! Even the Thanksgiving snow cannot erase the agony of the unremitting suffering that permeates the book. River Man is Grimsley's "Everyman", a symbol of hopeful endurance. The taught style of the prose and its cryptic language grip the reader as much as the savagery of the story itself. The two novels will become inseparable companions, completing each other with hope as relentless as the torment and struggle that propels and sustains that very self same hope. If the two works should become part of a future tryptych, a little "softness" would be a relief. Bravo to Mr. Grimsley for such a fine read, again. Comments refer to the paperback edition. Fortunately most readers will have read "Winter Birds" first. It works much better that way since it clarifies Dan's actions of the second novel.

Rating:
Summary: Continuous Dream
Review: I've just finished reading WINTER BIRDS and wasn't able to speak. I immediately turned to page one and began the book again. Faulkner's THE SOUND AND THE FURY, my favorite book in the whole world, had this same effect on me some 20 years ago. I can't thank Jim Grimsley enough for writing this book, for standing his ground, for his unflinching look at this world. I'm especially drawn to the voice of the novel, to the continuous dream he has so beautifully woven.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Its hard to believe that I just picked this book up a few hours ago and now I'm done! The book is gutwrenching and at times outright scary! It brings fear to a new height! The narration of the book is very unusual!