The bird catcher

Format:

Book

Title:

The bird catcher

Author:

Jacobs, Laura.

ISBN:

9780312540227

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2009.

Physical Description:

294 pages ; 22 cm

Contents:

A Week in Early March -- Night Flight -- Goldenrods -- Fallout -- The Birds -- Spring Migration.

Summary:

As they shuttle between their Manhattan apartment, birding in the city's parks, and weekends out of town in their house near Cape May, a violent upheaval pushes Margret beyond the boundaries of her hobby and into the city's bright, but sometimes unwelcome spotlight."--Jacket.

"Margaret Snow is the quintessential New York woman. She dresses the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue by day and mingles in the downtown art world by night, always searching for her niche in a city intent on capturing the Next Big Thing as it flies into view. Married to Charles, a professor at Columbia, Margret lives on the Upper West Side, and the backdrop to her life is made up of the poetic rhythms and colors of the Manhattan day: slow-running buses, the gray morning light striking the Hudson, the winter landscape of Riverside Park, the endless round of gallery openings, cocktail parties, and grand dinners in the palatial apartments on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Against this metropolitan whirl, Margret and Charles pursue a lifelong hobby of bird watching, a passion for which was kindled by her grandfather during long-past summers near the shore in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Subject(s):

Women artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction.

Women -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction.

Bird watching -- Fiction.

Birds -- Collection and preservation -- Fiction.

Diorama -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

New York (State) -- New York

Genre:

Psychological fiction.

Fiction

Psychological fiction

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Stayton Public Library	JACOBS	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Margret Snow is the quintessential New York woman. She dresses the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue by day and mingles in the downtown art world by night, always searching for her niche in a city intent on capturing The Next Big Thing as it flies into view. Married to Charles, a professor at Columbia, and living on the Upper West Side, the backdrop to Margret's life is made up of the poetic rhythms and colors of the Manhattan day: slow-running buses, the gray morning lightstriking the Hudson, the winter landscape of Riverside Park, the endless round of gallery openings, cocktail parties and grand dinners in the palatial apartments on Manhattan's upper east side. Against this metropolitan whirl, Margret and Charles pursue a lifelong hobby of bird watching, a passion for which was kindled by her grandfather during long-past summers near the shore in Gloucester, Massachusetts. As they shuttle between their Manhattan apartment, birding in the city's parks, and weekends out of town in their house near Cape May, a violent upheaval pushes Margret beyond the boundaries of her hobby. Overnight, she becomes an art world sensation and just as suddenly has fame ripped from her. As Laura Jacobs proved in her first novel, "Women About Town", she understands the natural habitat of the New York Woman in all its complexity. In The Bird Catcher, her second, shemoves deeper into that territory with the story of a remarkable woman who is as rare and special as the birds that fill the skies above her.

Author Notes

Laura Jacobs lives in New York City with her husband.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The latest from Vanity Fair contributing editor Jacobs (Women About Town) has, at its core, a charming story about a grieving widow reborn, but it's pockmarked by pretentious dialogue and flat characters. Margret Snow quits her Ph.D. program in art to escape the romantic feelings she has toward her bird-watching partner (and Columbia University adviser), Charles Ashur. She whiles her time away as a window display designer at Saks and eventually works up the courage to confess her feelings, and they marry. Margret's memories shift between her and Charles's early bird-watching days and their marriage. But the most vivid parts of the novel are set in the gloomy present, when Margret, now a widow, throws herself in a new artistic direction that involves dead birds. Her connection to the dead sparrows and warblers seems more natural than the off-key relationships she has with the living, and her isolation from family and friends raises the question why she tries to keep the connections alive, while the grating banter between Margret and Charles only serves to caricaturize them. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Margaret learned her birding skills during the summers she spent in Gloucester with her grandfather. Once she became a graduate student at Columbia, these sojourns provided a link to her new dissertation director, one that led to love, marriage, and tragedy. Margaret moves in rarefied Manhattan circles populated with artists, dancers, and collectors. The parties and guests glitter, conversations soars, but Margaret is more observer than participant. Her work as a window dresser for Saks uses her artistic talents, but helps keep her insulated. It takes a betrayal to shake her loose, so that she sees herself and others in a realistic light. The rare birds she loves provide an outlet for her art, plied first in secret, then shown to acclaim, which is followed by disgrace. Jacobs presents a measured and compelling yet nonlinear narrative so that readers encounter Margaret's life in pieces. And it is well worth the effort to get to know her. Jacobs' incisive writing captures her characters' moods, while her graceful descriptions of the birds that inspire her protagonist illuminate the story.--Hoover, Danise Copyright 2009 Booklist