Dreambirds [Dream Birds]: The Strange History of the Ostrich in Fashion, Food, and Fortune

by Rob Nixon

The ostrich is one of nature's misfits: a gigantic bird that can neither fly nor sing. But the fin-de-siecle fetish for feathers made ostrich plumes more precious than gold. Rob Nixon grew up near the South African desert where ostriches first boomed, and had an early passion for the outsize bird. Later, his rejection of apartheid led him to immigrate to the United States, where he encountered a new wave of ostrich mania: American ranchers were trying to convert the gawky bird into a low-cal cuisine. Part memoir, part travelogue, Dreambirds is a natural history of a fantasy and a beautifully crafted, candid revelation of a man's soul.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Africa, Memoir, History, Birds, Fashion

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Tiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely unknown, I had to read this for a graduate class on South African literature and it stunned me. The writing is poetic, the history of the ostrich is weird and wonderful, and the author's memoir of growing up in South Africa is magical. It's a book I recommend to everyone and one I've dogeared a thousand times.

[qqqq · Rating 5 out of 5]

i. ostrich ranching lives in a perpetual state of either boom or bust. it lives and dies on how fashionable the bird's feathers or meat are at any given moment.

ii. why? in part because it breeds ridiculously quickly compared to other 300-pound-plus varieties of livestock. populations can scale quickly when the boom is on, in part thanks to the invention of the ostrich-egg incubator. in fact, one of the biggest profit centers in any ostrich boom is the sales of fertilized eggs to neophytes who want in on the industry -- in that way, it's a bit of a pyramid scheme. all ratites are, i reckon.

iii. when the market goes south, as it inevitably does, ranchers often just release their birds into the desert. this is barely noticed in south africa's karoo, where there are innumerable native birds already there, but strikes me as hilariously out of place in willcox, arizona -- the nation's erstwhile ostrich epicenter. i've got no idea why there's no feral ostrich population there today, given how many have apparently been released into the desert over the years.

[élise · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was doing research for my master's thesis when i came upon a reference to rob nixon and his book about the adventures through the ages of possibly the world's oddest bird, the ostrich. i immediately ordered a copy and for two full days forgot all abotu my master's research.
from the "plume boom" of the late 19th century to wars between the ostrich vs emu farmers (in Texas and California, respectively) in the present day, nixon's book gives a comprehensive history of an animal most famous for serving as the symbol of willful ignorance. but the book is so much more than simply the tale of a bird throughout history. nixon weaves the troubled history of the bird with the troubled history of his native south africa, his won coming to terms with family and race, his pain for the loss of his continent but his need to leave due to the impossibility of apartheid.
a total work of literature!
read it! also, learn some amazing facts about ostriches.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a surprise this book was! I found an old photo of my grandmother and her family visiting a California ostrich farm around 1910, at the height of the ostrich-plume-hat era. I posted it on Facebook . . . and my friend Jewel loaned me this book. It IS a history of the rise and fall of great fortunes made in ostrich farming in South Africa and the southwest United States . . . but it is also a vivid memoir of Rob Nixon's bird-obsessed childhood in South Africa's Karoo desert . . . a bit of a travelogue as he visits eccentric people and places associated with ostriches . . . and a meditation on apartheid and colonialism. You may think you wouldn't be interested in this book, but you would. Recommended. Thank you, Jewel!

[Liz Logan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! With its stylistic use of vocabulary and beautiful way of painting images, it was a treat to read. I learned a lot about ostriches and the industries built around them, and Nixon’s childhood as well. I recommend this for anyone looking for an unexpected fresh breath of air about something completely random.

[Benjamin Dietz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent but not great; half a memoir, 1/4 journalistic stories, and 1/4 ostriches. The writer is good but this should have been an interesting magazine article. Instead he dragged it out over 300 pages and inserted himself into it - and all he did was grow up near an old ostrich town. My favorite part was when I learned about arctic terns and also now I want to try an ostrich steak.

[Anne Ayres · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun little book but I questioned some of the author's information. He had no cites or authority which I found strange given the historic context of the book.

[Nils Jepson · Rating 2 out of 5]

okay book. nixon isn't too interested in ostriches or, well, anything. i can see how this book came to fruition. it was the late 90s, early 2000s, nonfiction creative reporting was in its peak, susan orlean had just released "the orchid thief," everyone thought they could copy her style and blend odd material, colonial histories with personal journies/experiences. this style seems the easiest to do. you need, assumingly, very little reporting to do it. most of these stories revolve around assigning meaning to randomness, that gas station there, that alligator here, that accidental turnoff the freeway into the swamp wasteland hither, or at least, i guess, assigning a specific lens to these randomized journies. this type of reporting often works and often is interesting. like i said, susan orlean does it best - I'm thinking about that scene in the Library Book where she burns a book just to see what could happen. reporting-wise, it's unnecessary but that section adds surprising levity and personal stake to the broad history of libraries everywhere.

almost every chapter in "dreambirds" sees rob nixon trying to do something similar. so much of this book is made up of visits to museums, descriptions of desert flora and fauna, observations about the physical movements and makeups of ostriches, etc. this subject is an innately interesting one; the material impact of ostrich as a commodity, how ostriches have built and destroyed empires and, more personally, how nixon's life has revolved around his interactions with the ostriches of the Karoo and Southern Arizona and how these experiences shine a light on his relationship to this father. the facts of this book were interesting and who knew towns rose and fell, and continue to rise and fall, around the hope that one day ostriches can be commodified and valuable on the global market?

so why did this book end up being such a bore? why did i inch slowly to the finish, only able to read one or two pages at a time before i inevitably turned on Avatar or fell asleep wherever i was reading it? i think it's because the book relies, almost entirely, on describing the act of reporting compared to actual reporting. there's very little through-line here or thesis statement being tested. "the orchid thief," for example, found a very specific trial to use as a lens into the long history of orchids, their thieving, and their interactions with the state of Florida. here, nixon willy nillily attends conventions or goes on drives or visits his hometown but he never really discusses why or what leads him to these places besides broad statements about emotionally processing his dad's death. because of this, the content and structure of the book is aimless - never really building momentum beyond each chapter. each chapter, even, often leaves nowhere in particular, leaving you only with a couple nice descriptors and ostrich fun facts by the end of it. nixon's reporting floats and not in a good way. it floats in a way that makes you, despite the subject matter's innate quirks, wonder why any of this matters.

nixon doesn't dive deep but instead likes to maintain a safe distance from any complexity or contradiction his reporting might offer. i sometimes wish he was more judgemental of the ostrich world, more inclined to insert himself beyond simple observation. he does, sometimes, edge towards themes: the ghost town, the silliness of human ingenuity and entrepreneurialism, immigration, the increasing commodification of uncommodifiable things, the desert and it's symbolic place in the world-historical imagination. but he merely glimpses at these and, once again, we usually end up with flimsy descriptors and tangents into unrelated subjects. i did like how he tied in Mandela, segregation, and democracy in South Africa and how exports and imports to the U.S. might change as a result of wherever the election led but i think i only found this interesting probably because i didn't know anything about it and it was one of the only times nixon focused on humans. but if nixon wanted to report on these things then he should report on these things and not use the ostrich as a weak metaphor, or entry-point, to heavier topics. so much of this book is nixon reaching for weak strands of connection and meaning, and assigning this meaning to more interesting, incisive topics. by using the ostrich as an entry-point, when he really didn't need to, he convoluted the book and murkied any type of relevant point he was trying to make.

in the end, I'm glad these books are fewer and far between than they used to be. i think I've had enough descriptions of long drives through wide deserts to last me a lifetime. if you're going to report, report. if your life is interesting, your life is interesting. and if it's not, that's okay. make sure your arguments are solid and the questions you're asking are specific. otherwise, you end up with a book life "dreambirds," a real eye-roll of a book.

[Jbussen]

I forgot I had this book and had to return it.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would have been a lot better if it had been an unconnected series of essays instead of a whole. There were some great sections on the ostrich ranching industry, including the infamous "plume boom" in the early 1900s and the later American boom and bust in the 1990s, and some wonderful parts about desert landscapes and the eccentric people who live in them. Some of Nixon's more memoirish bits were good, too, though he tended to repeat himself a little too frequently. Unfortunately, for as many good parts, there were just as many that were repetitive and overwritten--this book was obviously heavily padded to try and make it a full book. Nixon's attempt to link ostrich speculation with the troubles of Apartheid South Africa were awkward as well. It's a shame it's so uneven, as the good parts truly sparkled.

[Marguerite Hargreaves · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned enough about giant mutant birds so that if there's ever an ostrich category on "Jeopardy" I'll totally kick nerd butt. I guess there's a lesson about investing in fads here, too, as ostrich feathers went the way of the telegram. I liked Nixon's memories, but this book is an odd mix.

[Hanneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between history and memoir, spanning too continents, all connected through a cultural history of the ostrich. I would have appreciated a clearer signposting, but that's obviously not how memory works. Great read!

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is somewhat misrepresentative of the superb autobiographical elements woven throughout the narrative by the author.

[Emily Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very lyrical writing at times. Did a good job transitioning between memoir and natural history. Made me want to go to South Africa...and Arizona.

[Maureen Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book on the author's childhood in Africa, and a history of the ostrich. Very nicely written.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly engaging and genre blending book. Beautifully written.