Book Review: Birding While Indian

 

Image: The cover of the book is a lime green background with birding while Indian in large white letters in the center on the top and bottom are two opposite facing illustrations of crows with wings held our in black and teal with red eyes. I'm the upper left corner in blue is things c Gannon's name and in the lower right corner is a mixed blood memoir.

I love encountering books that span genres and cultures, especially in the nonfiction realm. Birding While Indian by Thomas C Gannon is one of those books. Labeled as a "Mixed Blood Memoir," I expected less birding than there was in it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the book functioned as sort of a birding travelogue divided by species with philosophical and political commentary mixed in. He mentions the impossibility of discussing birds without being political- something I wish far more birders understood. I am frequently frustrated by the boring or even insultingly one-dimensional ways many writers discuss other species.

Gannon was kind enough to join us at VINE book club where I learned that the publisher really wanted him to lean in more to the memoir side of things when editing down a much longer initial draft. Based on my own experience and that of other reviewers, this seemed an odd choice on their part since it seems most of us wanted the birding/philosophical/political stuff and more of it! That said, the memoir outside of birding adventures was very interesting and engaging. The life Gannon has led is immensely interesting and often harrowing. This memoir shows how birding and nature can truly save us from the struggles of life that may otherwise destroy us. I can't express how much I relate to the idea that birding- and in relation, the existence and importance of the avian world and their sharing space with us- as being a life and sanity saving venture.

At the book club, Gannon mentioned his surprise that he received little critique on the structure of the book since to him it sometimes felt like a first draft. I had already spoken a lot, so I didn't get to mention in group that I would have liked a bit more structure. I would not say it reads like a first draft, it feels more organized than that. But, the book does jump from one category into another often by paragraph. This made things hard to follow or left me thinking, "Wait! Finish your thought on that," or, "I wanted to hear more about that." I would have liked it to be divided by chapter rather than hopping so quickly between paragraphs which, for instance, could go from experiences of childhood familial and boarding school abuse to a birding walk.

I also have criticism, as I do with 99% of birding and nature books, of Gannon referring to other birds as "it," even when they are dimorphic and very easy to refer to as s/he/they. He has valid criticisms of humans pushing systems onto other animals, which I generally agree with. But, I believe calling birds "it" is still pushing objectivity onto them rather than acknowledging them as living beings.

Gannon overall though navigates the complexity of his own identities and beliefs as well as that of his family and others around him deftly. There are no surefire, set in stone analyses in this book. He dwells in the contradictions and asks more questions than are answered, which to me, shows great self awareness and honesty often lacking in memoirs.

Something I thought of a lot was how he relates being a "lister" birder like myself to his other life experiences and beliefs. It's something I think about constantly in my own life. The book offers excellent analysis of colonialism and animality among other things. The discussions had about this in the book club were enriching as well. How do we as birders justify our exercise of a hobby which was in part highly designed or influenced by colonizers and slavers? Can we be more in touch with indigenous interpretations of birds without abandoning birding? At what point are we, also, as animals in this world, simply living in and experiencing these environments and when are we taxing resources or causing more harm than good?

A final side note: I was quite surprised to see so much Pittsburgh area action in the book! The book begins referencing a local birder, Frank Izaguirre's excellent labeling of the lifelook and fantastic cover designer- Melissa Dias-Mandoly who I had to Google- is Pittsburgh based as well.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading about Gannon's life and his travels birding across many locations. This book would hit the spot for both birders and people interested in memoirs and thoughts about indigeniety, identity, and the greater than human world. His analyses were engaging and refreshing even when the structure was a bit tough to follow. I hope that he pursues more writing and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.

This was also posted to my storygraph and goodreads.

Book Review: These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart

 

Image: the cover of the book is a pixelated and scrambled image of a feminine person from the neck up made of jumbled pinks, purples, and blues. The center of the face is very dark making it tough to make out their features. In large yellow letters going down word by word is the title of the book. I'm the center in small pink letters is the author Izzy Wasserstein.

Izzy Wasserstein's debut novella, These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart is what I would call a great start. It's a book I wanted more from, but there is something here worth expanding upon.   

The cover and title really caught my eye, both are great. The description sealed the deal- cyberpunk with an anarchist commune. The thing is that I believe this book had to be novel length to build the technothriller world the author wanted to create. Wasserstein's previous work is with short fiction, so it makes sense that she'd stick to a method she's familiar with. But, more time seemed to be spent on the political attributes which felt more real to me.   

Whenever I see a debut novel with a trans author and trans characters, I admit that I really want it to be good in a more personal way than other texts. I wanna give other trans folks praise, but I also don't write fake reviews. Luckily this book was at least giving me something to work with even if it wasn't perfect.  

 As other reviews have stated, Wasserstein makes the same error that many new writers do in not implementing the "show don't tell" aspect of good fiction writing. This is not the worst example I've seen, but I did frequently feel a rollercoaster of being immersed in the story then pulled back out by the telling aspect. I think, for instance, we could have understood the workings of the commune and corporations by what they were doing and how it felt to experience it rather than being told what they are and what they do and why like a pamphlet some of the time.   

There are lots of common cyberpunk noir themes that were executed ok enough to be enjoyable. But, they could have been expanded upon and meshed better with the world. I liked the juxtaposition of the commune life against the world of corporate rule though, it felt genuine.  

I liked the way being trans was used as a plot point in ways I won't expand too much upon to avoid spoilers. She might have gone a little too heavy on pre transition references (I heard more about the pre-t main character more than the present.) There is an interesting nature/nurture thing going on that also allows for choice rather than biological determinism (as should be our right) which I like. I like the idea of being faced with what others wanted us to be and learning to love all versions.   

I really did not like the sexual relationship that developed. If the book were not so mired in radical politics even in the ways character flaws were portrayed, it could have fit into high tech low life cyberpunk. Instead, the book portrayed something that was an inappropriate power dynamic at best as gee golly good and I felt a bit sick reading it.   

I found the afterword, written from the actual authors pov, to be somewhat off putting for this reason. It takes the tell over show thing to an even higher level by further analyzing her own story in language that is pretty academic when read right after the book. It then goes on to explain why said sexual relationship had to happen. I think the book would have been much better if a caring, platonic only relationship replaced it. Our culture always teaches us valid relationships have to be sexual.

I really do think this book has a good foundation though. The closing paragraphs before the afterword were very affecting. I really felt the last few melancholic sentences on a very intimate level. I wish it had ended there. I think this would be a great outline for a comic book or video game that has other media to help with world building. I think with some more time and practice that this author could put out a novel that really captures the world she has devised in her imagination.   

In the end, this book is short and imperfect, but interesting enough to give a chance especially given its length. I would definitely read the authors next book if it is written with things she learned from writing this one in mind and more time is spent with world building and show over tell.  

This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.