Birdy by William Wharton Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Birdy
Book Review: A Classic of American Literature
Summary: 5 Stars
If a book is really true, you'll always need it. You'll always come back to it. "Birdy" is one of those books; my copy is a yellowed and dog-earred paperback with the front cover torn off, yet I find myself year after year coming back to the novel, digging into it, nibbling on its tasty paragraphs, savoring its language and cool understanding of the world. I'm convinced that "Birdy" will rank one day as a truly original American classic, right up there with Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." There's so much energy and passion in the story: it literally overwhelms. You live inside the character of Birdy as you listen, all ears, to a guy named Al speaking about his friend. You begin to soar, to fly, to be free, just as Birdy is trying to be all those things himself. Truly an extraordinary work!
-Tom Maremaa, Author of the Forthcoming novel "Metal Heads" from Kunati Books in Spring 2009
Book Review: A novel that soars and nests in your soul.
Summary: 5 Stars
Just as Moby Dick is not all about whales, Birdy is not all
about pigeons and canaries. In the novel, two young boys in
pre-WW II Philadelphia become strange but geniune friends
and grow to manhood sharing wonderful and bitter experiences.
That many of these experiences center around the charatcer
Birdy's desire to fly and become even more birdier is only
part of the story.
Told in a wonderful original style that gracefully shifts
in narrative perspective and language, the novel -- like a
bird in flight -- soars to uncommon heights from which we
see life from a new view.
Fantastic and artful writing.Book Review: A wonderful, unclassifiable novel
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Birdy challenges ridgid convention
Summary: 5 Stars
Birdy, as a novel, does not so much tell the story of friendship and its associated triumphs, or eleviate common support for the horrors of war. Instead, Birdy acts as a wake-up call for traditional notions of insanity, human behaviour and the traditional belief that individuals, as varied and complex as they are, can be labeled."We all have our own private kinds of craziness. If it gets in the way of enough people, they call you crazy."
Birdy is a disturbing insight into the minds of two men, each effected by the past, war and their own calculated decisions as rare individuals. I believe it makes the reader think twice before labeling the people that occupy their lives. Such a positive result can be no better applauded by a second reading .. and a third .. and a fourth.
"Sometimes you cant take it anymore yourself, so you tell somebody else you're crazy and they agree to take care of you."
-Dade
Book Review: Can We Fly?
Summary: 4 Stars
Birdy is William Wharton's 1978 novel about life's biggest issues - love, friendship, death, and (above all) finding meaning. Though I believe that there are a few flaws in the book, I strongly recommend it to readers. Birdy is very good - and like nothing else that I have ever read.
The plot concerns two young friends - Birdy and Al - and their experiences in high school and World War II. Birdy is a strange boy who obsesses over the birds he keeps in his back yard. Birdy believes that he can fly, if only he can understand the birds well enough. Al is an Italian-American boy who present himself as a jock, a tough guy. The novel reveals, however, that Al actually is a deep, sensitive person. Wharton does an excellent job of developing the characters of Birdy and Al. The unlikely relationship between the two men is a central part of Birdy.
What makes Birdy remarkable, however, is something else. If the story described only the friendship between Birdy and Al, Birdy would be a good novel, but nothing special. What makes Birdy unique is that Wharton uses the story to ask us to consider the ways that we lives our lives. Birdy's desire to fly, then, is a symbol of his desire to live a meaningful, "elevated" life.
It is these little pieces of philosophy that make Birdy so special. Consider the following lines from Birdy: "I have the feeling you could pull all the feathers out of him and he could still fly. He flies because he isn't afraid and not just because it's what birds are supposed to do. He flies as an act of personal creation, defiance" (page 77).
There are a few negatives in Birdy. Readers who are not interested in birds will find that the narrative drags a bit in places.
The best thing about Birdy is that it is different. It took nerve to write a book like this, and I admire Wharton's courage. Birdy will "stay with" its readers. For those seeking something different, it is well worth reading.