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29th out of 59 books
—
29 voters
Birdy
Hailed upon its publication as "a classic for readers not yet born" (Philadelphia Inquirer), Birdy is an inventive, hypnotic novel about friendship and family, dreaming and surviving, love and war, madness and beauty, and, above all, "birdness." It tells the story of Al, a bold, hot-tempered boy whose goals in life are to life weights and pick up girls, and his strange fri...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
February 4th 1992
by Vintage
(first published 1978)
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Birdy is a weird little novel which feels like something one would be forced to read in junior high or freshman year English class. That’s not to say it’s bad, though parts of it actually read a bit like an after school special (only if that after school special were on HBO).
The novel follows two disparate teenage boys who are close friends despite their stark differences. One is a jock/muscle-man and the other dreams of being a bird and living in a bird world. We follow them on their adventures...more
The novel follows two disparate teenage boys who are close friends despite their stark differences. One is a jock/muscle-man and the other dreams of being a bird and living in a bird world. We follow them on their adventures...more
Това е още една книга на Уортън, в която направих връзка с „Франки Фърбо” (другата беше „Илюзии”). И изобщо сякаш всичките му книги са някак свързани...
Въпреки акцента върху общуването на Пилето с птиците, за мен най-вълнуващо беше приятелството между Пилето и Ал, типичните моменти от юношеството, дори в проявите, обикновено неодобрявани от възрастните ( "Като тръгнем на училище, ще има да разправяме. Е, тук-таме ще послъгваме, за да звучи по-интересно, и всеки разказ ще допълваме с нови неща. П...more
Въпреки акцента върху общуването на Пилето с птиците, за мен най-вълнуващо беше приятелството между Пилето и Ал, типичните моменти от юношеството, дори в проявите, обикновено неодобрявани от възрастните ( "Като тръгнем на училище, ще има да разправяме. Е, тук-таме ще послъгваме, за да звучи по-интересно, и всеки разказ ще допълваме с нови неща. П...more
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Holy Jesus with the canary minutiae, I mean SERIOUSLY. Although it was slightly more interesting than what one might think, it's still hours of canary minutiae. Canary minutiae does not a story make.
I'd really like to give this 1.5 stars, because I will never read it again, and I will never recommend it to anyone, yet there were definitely bits that I liked. But overall, it was just . . . the author had nothing to say. "Maybe everyone ELSE are the crazy ones!" Gee, never heard that one before, g...more
I'd really like to give this 1.5 stars, because I will never read it again, and I will never recommend it to anyone, yet there were definitely bits that I liked. But overall, it was just . . . the author had nothing to say. "Maybe everyone ELSE are the crazy ones!" Gee, never heard that one before, g...more
Birdy is a surreal fever dream that deals with mental illness and the travesty of war in a way I have never encountered before. It deals with friendship and coming to terms with the unspeakable evils that we are sometimes forced to do. The plot centers around two men, Al and Birdy, who have been friends since high school. They're an unlikely duo, seeing as Al is a sporty, athletic ladies' man and Birdy is a gawky, gangly runt of a thing, but they are inseparable friends. Both of them are drafted...more
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Al and Birdy were both scarred by their experiences in the Second World War. For Al, the damage was largely physical – he now has a jaw made of glass – but for, Birdy, it was mental. Now in a psychiatric hospital, Birdy is living up to his name and acting like a bird. Al has been brought in to try to get through to his old friend; he recounts to Birdy stories of their younger years in Philadelphia. Alternating chapters chronicle Birdy’s developing fascination with birds as a child.
For me as a fi...more
For me as a fi...more
What a book. It forces you to think about some interesting questions. Who is really crazy? Am I crazy for trying to mold the world into my perception of "normal"? Are crazy people really sane and just using insanity as a protection for their "humaness". We are de-humanized every day. Scary. Makes you want to fly away--or at least buy a canary.
Birdy a skinny kid obsessed with birds and flying, and his muscled atheletic friend intrested in girls are an unlikely pair, yet they spent much time together growing up having interesting experiences as boys. They keep pigeons for a while then Birdy becomes obsessed with canaries. He builds an avariy and breeds canaries. He spends hours watching them wishing he could fly, could be a bird himself. He falls in love with a female canary, Perta, and nightly dreams that he is a canary and is Perta'...more
Told by two narrators who were childhood friends, Al and Birdy, this is a strange and poetic story about a man who always wanted to be a bird. The only thing is that Birdy's words are in his head, not spoken aloud (unsurprisingly for a bird). Al's words are spoken to Birdy who is in a secure cell in a mental hospital. Al has been persuaded by Birdy's psychiatrist to come and talk to his childhood friend, to try to get through to him, to try to persuade him out of his catatonic state. The book is...more
I probably wouldn't have chosen to read this book, but a friend recommended it.
A story about one boy's (Birdy's) building fascination about birds and his unlikely friendship with an athletic boy (Al) who had more typical teenage interests - sports and girls. Both face the horrors of WW2 & return scarred. Al physically & Birdy mentally - convinced he's a bird and that he flew to survive the battlefield. Their deep friendship helps them deal with their wartime issues & face the future...more
A story about one boy's (Birdy's) building fascination about birds and his unlikely friendship with an athletic boy (Al) who had more typical teenage interests - sports and girls. Both face the horrors of WW2 & return scarred. Al physically & Birdy mentally - convinced he's a bird and that he flew to survive the battlefield. Their deep friendship helps them deal with their wartime issues & face the future...more
A good friend lent it to me, saying it was his favourite book. I gave it five stars because the structure is so original, the voice pitch perfect...he pulls off something that i would never imagine possible, it is brave, fascinating, funny. The best parts are where Birdy is trying to distinguish between his daytime life and his nighttime dream, between being a boy or a bird, it is delicious, the blending of reality and dream, you start to believe the dream more than the reality, to want him to f...more
There are flashes of brilliance all throughout this book, no doubt, and an admirable humanism as well. I even thought there was a fairly deep meditation on the nature of matter vs. spirit where birds take the place of angels as a medieval philosopher might look at it. But it is so much of its time, in a frustrating rather than wonderful way. It made me wonder if things got so weird by the 1970s partly for the reasons Mr. Wharton's book seems to working through: WWII was so horrific that the PTSD...more
A good book. Well written, entertaining and puzzling. A challenging read.
Some people have commented unfavourably about the focus on birds, particularly the upbringing of Canaries. I was enthralled by these passages, just proves it takes all sorts. His writing is good enough to carry these passages and they do relate to the book's themes of escape (via flying) and identity.
My criticism is that I found the change between the two main characters narration for each chapter a little irritating as I h...more
Some people have commented unfavourably about the focus on birds, particularly the upbringing of Canaries. I was enthralled by these passages, just proves it takes all sorts. His writing is good enough to carry these passages and they do relate to the book's themes of escape (via flying) and identity.
My criticism is that I found the change between the two main characters narration for each chapter a little irritating as I h...more
This is an unusual book. The story revolves around two boys who grow up in Philadelphia and enlist in the army to fight in WWII. The characters are what make the novel unusual. Birdy is a strange, introverted, scrawny kid who becomes obsessed with birds and with wanting to fly. He eventually enters the world of birds so completely that he believes himself to be one. His friend, Al Columbato, is a tough kid who is into sports, bodybuilding and girls. They seem to be polar opposite personality typ...more
I liked 'Birdy' and read through it pretty quickly (which almost always means I liked it because when I don't like a book it takes me forever) but I only give it 3 stars because I wasn't crazy about it. It probably deserves more than 3 stars though because it's really well written, creative in story content and in the telling, and the characters were likable (though Laura calls them somewhat accurately "dirty boys").
More than one of us at bookclub commented that we enjoyed the detailed descript...more
More than one of us at bookclub commented that we enjoyed the detailed descript...more
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Who hasn’t at one time wanted to fly? When I was a kid I longed to be a seagull, soaring over the waves, riding the onshore uplift, sweeping over the shore. Birdy wants to be more, not only to fly, but to become a bird. His best friend Al wants to become a tough guy, to fend off his father’s physical abuse.
Birdy raises canaries, not for their song but for their flight. Along the way we learn an awful lot about canaries, but it never seems like a lecture. It’s just what Birdy is passionate about...more
Birdy raises canaries, not for their song but for their flight. Along the way we learn an awful lot about canaries, but it never seems like a lecture. It’s just what Birdy is passionate about...more
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An unexpected little gem. I found this novel at a hock shop somewhere in buttfuck Manitoba. What attracted me to this piece of lit wasn't the author, nor the 80s movie starting Nick Cage, but the soundtrack for the latter; the score was composed by Peter Gabriel. Being somewhat of a Gabriel completist I had picked up the record a few years ago at some other buttfuck hock shop. The album is pretty unlistenable to anyone that isn't a Gabriel freakazoid; it consists of ambient rearrangements of pre...more
This is the story of 2 Vietnam vets. One is, or appears, to be fine. THe other, Birdy, (who grew up breeding birds in his house) has regressed into thinking he is a bird. He sits on the headboard of his bed perched like a bird and makes bird noises and movements. He doesn't respond to anything human. But gradually as you learn what he and his friend went through in the war and you understand that Birdy is saving his sanity and gradually recovers. Also a great movie.
i have yet to read a book by wharton i haven't liked but 'birdy' was the first and best of what i've read by this author. sharing a long fascination with anything in flight or that rides the wind, eg., flags, smoke, or birds, the story was not so much the thing tho there was that. more the sheer detail of bird-background info, what they're actually doing when it appears they're cleaning themselves? they're zipping up their feathers, like velcro, to hold the wind in flight.
Very strange story. The story is basically about how one friend, Birdy goes to war and comes back with a head wound, that now makes him believe he's a bird. He acts like a real bird. He was obsessed with birds before and would learn everything imaginable about them. He became so obsessed he wanted to learn every aspect about how they fly so that someday he would be able to make a set of wings that he would be able to fly with.
After his accident he's put in a mental hospital where his friend come...more
After his accident he's put in a mental hospital where his friend come...more
След няколко опита най-накрая успях да се преборя с полунаръчника за отглеждане на канарчета и гълъби. Колкото и органично да са свързани птиците с желанието за летене и полудяването, подробностите около тях заемат излишно, дотягащо голям обем. Без тази част би се получила чудесна, стегната книга за красивите и болезнените моменти на възмъжаването и приятелството.
This was weak at the beginning and end for me, but the middle was packed. Some chapters I loved, loved, loved... some lost me. Toward the end, I got tired and I think Wharton got tired. I understand why it was awarded, I looked forward to reading it, and I also know more about birds than I ever thought that I would care to know. I think parts of this story will stick with me for a long time, and I would highly recommend it for some people, but for whatever reason, it is not a 4 or 5 star for me....more
The story is that of two men who have known each other since childhood, both of whom are locked up in a military hospital. The book goes back and forth between present day and the past. The past mostly involved one of the boy's obsession with breeding canaries and learning how to fly. This is the kind of book with a plot I don't even want to discuss because if you knew what it was about you'd likely have no interest in it. 10 pages of detailed descriptions of tending to canary breeding? It shoul...more
I gave this too a couple of members of my book club to read and they didn't finish it. I have read it 3 times. I guess if you cant imagine being a bird or any reason why you might want to, and you weren't a weird kid, then you might not get anything out of it. I love this book.
The late William Wharton was popular in Poland, and my Polish friend has very strongly recommended the book for years. "Birdy" includes an extremely detailed account of raising canaries, a vivid portrayal of a World War II battle scene late in the book, and a terrific ending. The character Birdy is vividly wrought and as memorable as Ignatius in "The Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.
Not sure why the movie is set during Vietnam, when the novel is set during WWII. There is probably the most intense fight/war scene I've ever read at the end of the novel, during the reveal of Birdy's trauma. Brilliant.
this is a fantastic dual narration about two friends who go to war. one is your everyday stereotypical jock while the other has this facination with birds and hopes of becoming one some day. a great book which questions what is true insanity and what is freedom. an argument can be made that the language and writing isn't that stellar but the defense for that is that the writing reflects the youth and immaturity of these 19-year-old boys sent off to war. i read this while i was in high school and...more
Good story about a boy and his friend who reunite after traumatic war experiences in a mental hospital. Birdy falls in love with his canary and thinks he is a bird himself. Al has always been a tough-guy but combat breaks him. At the end they help each other over some hurdles of life.
Melodic writing and imaginative storytelling, though the ending felt almost abrupt after the meditative and focused-in pace of the main story.
While I can't say I loved this book, it has stuck with me. It's weird and endearing, and a little disturbing, but most of all it memorable.
really good story seems like it's true. not easy to believe, but the characters and the stories told seem to fit very well.
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William Wharton (7 November 1925 - 29 October 2008), the pen name of the author Albert William Du Aime (pronounced as doo-EM), was an American-born author best known for his first novel Birdy, which was also successful as a film.
Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1943, and was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1997. He volunteered...more
More about William Wharton...
Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1943, and was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1997. He volunteered...more
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“Not many people are interested in what somebody else is thinking, or what they have to say. The best you can hope for is they'll listen to you just so you'll have to listen to them.”
—
7 people liked it
“Ще трябва да свикна да приемам себе си такъв, какъвто съм. Бедата е там, че не се познавам изцяло. През целия си живот съм изграждал личността си, както се изгражда здраво тяло според предписанията на „Сила и здраве“. Само че не съм изградил нищо отвътре, а само отвън, колкото да се браня от едно-друго.
Сега голяма част от тази щурава структура се разпада. Ще трябва да започна всичко отново и аз се вглеждам в себе си, за да разбера какво има там. Не зная дали ще успея. В крайна сметка сигурно ще събера части от някогашния Ал, макар някои от тях да липсват, и ще ги слепя някак.
Трябва да свикна със страха, да живея с него. Той е нещо вродено и няма никакъв смисъл да се бориш срещу него. Да не е страхът, никога не можем да бъдем преуспяващи животни. Човек няма защо да се срамува от страха. Подобно на играта и болката, той е нещо естествено, нещо необходимо. Трябва да свикна с него.”
—
4 people liked it
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Сега голяма част от тази щурава структура се разпада. Ще трябва да започна всичко отново и аз се вглеждам в себе си, за да разбера какво има там. Не зная дали ще успея. В крайна сметка сигурно ще събера части от някогашния Ал, макар някои от тях да липсват, и ще ги слепя някак.
Трябва да свикна със страха, да живея с него. Той е нещо вродено и няма никакъв смисъл да се бориш срещу него. Да не е страхът, никога не можем да бъдем преуспяващи животни. Човек няма защо да се срамува от страха. Подобно на играта и болката, той е нещо естествено, нещо необходимо. Трябва да свикна с него.”
Jan 13, 2013 07:53am