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    <name><![CDATA[Garrett]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Cincinnati, OH]]></location>        
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      <rating>2</rating>
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  <read_at>Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Mar 24 07:50:15 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Apr 30 07:55:53 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Don't mix birding with complicated family dynamics. That's the take-away from this dreary, disjointed book. Koeppel basically sketches a biography of his father, one of the world's foremost &quot;birders.&quot; While the two didn't share a very good relationship, Koeppel tries to be understanding and write sympathetically, to outline and explain his fractured interactions with his dad. He also writes about birding. All the stuff about Koeppel's father is maudlin drudgery. A lot of the birding stuff is enjoyable and interesting.<br/><br/>It's not that Koeppel is a bad writer&mdash;he's not&mdash;but the topic was just too hard for him to write about without engaging in dismal reflection. He works hard to explain his father's avian mania. It's tough for us, however, to care about Richard Koeppel's psychology nearly as much as Dan does...because he's not our dad!]]></body>
    <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18499788]]></url>
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