The Bird Catcher

by Laura Jacobs

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 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. 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, she moves 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.

Genres: Fiction, Birds, Contemporary

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2009

About the author

Laura Jacobs is an American novelist, journalist, and cultural critic whose work spans fashion, design, dance, and the performing arts. Raised in Chicago, she earned a degree in English literature from Northwestern University and began her career as a dance critic before moving into national arts journalism. From 1995 to 2018, she was a staff writer at Vanity Fair, where she produced widely praised essays and profiles on iconic designers, performers, and American cultural figures. She is also a longtime contributor to The Wall Street Journal, reviewing museum fashion exhibitions, and writes regularly for other leading publications. In 2019, she became Arts Intel Report editor at AIR MAIL, the international digital newsletter co-edited by Graydon Carter. Jacobs is the author of several books, including the novels Women About Town and The Bird Catcher, and the acclaimed nonfiction work Celestial Bodies: How to Look at Ballet.

Reviews

[John Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the editorial reviews currently quoted at Amazon are any guide (and I'm not sure they are), Laura Jacobs's first novel, Women About Town, may have been more widely admired than this, her second. Thought it's been some time since I read the former (and, for that matter, it's been a while since I finished the latter), I'm inclined to think that The Bird Catcher is an advance, in ways both large and small, over Jacobs's earlier work.

In this book, Jacobs has raised the stakes for Margret Snow, her central character (there's only one this time around), and for herself. For her character, there are bigger challenges to deal with. For Jacobs, there's a more ambitious thematic scheme (based in part on oppositions such as art and nature, observing and making, detachment and engagement), a more complex narrative structure, and an attempt to deal with longing and loss and that troubling question of deciding how to use oneself in the world.

Margret is a window dresser, although there's enough interweaving of past and present that one must say she is also a young girl being initiated into the mysteries of bird-watching by her grandfather, and a graduate student pursuing art history, and a number of other things as well. Jacobs is so good at devising and reading shop windows that the phrase "window dressing" seems an unjust dismissal; still, just as there's something out-of-the-mainstream about windows, so is there something peripheral, not quite on the path, about Margret's place in the world. To use the Manhattan terminology, she has encounters with the downtown art scene and the world of uptown dinner parties, not to mention an increasingly intimate involvement with birds and birding and birders. (Many of the novel's pleasures come from this last; even if you're not one who thrills simply to hear the names of some of these creatures, you'll have to have a high degree of immunity not to want to go out and see some of them yourself after reading this.) But you can't help feeling, as some of the other characters do, that Margret could be doing more, and the working out of what that more will be is satisfying enough that I'd count this as a novel about growing up even though it's not about being young.

Many reviews (and a Publishers Weekly excerpt that's likely to show up) have chosen to reveal something that comes up on page 59 of this 292-page novel, as if it were part of the situation, not the development. While it is part of Margret Snow's situation, the way it emerges, and the fact of it not being disclosed at the outset, seems to me an essential part of the way the novel works, one of its prizes as well as one of its surprises. Instead of naming it, I'll say only that there's a hurt in this book, one of those things that smolders underground, like a coal-mine fire that can't be put out.

The Bird Catcher is more lyrical than dramatic, but that's not a criticism. Luckily for us, fiction nowadays is far less subject than mainstream film is to the expectation of eventfulness. Though there is action and drama here, one is apt to remember conversation and tone and evocation as much as anything else.

Nothing I've said yet conveys what it feels like to read the novel. Maybe a sentence from the opening chapter will be enough of a taste: "They had discussed this subject often: the power of beauty, how it takes you, and the attempt to turn the table and take it, and that's where the trouble begins."

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bird watching is a very subtle hobby. Birders focus on the small things that are around us all the time, ignored by the masses of people who may be nearby. Birders have patience and a quiet, inquisitive mind that enables them to pursue a specimen in any kind of weather, and go where ever the search may take them. In Central Park, it's especially imaginative to think of these bird lovers spending their free moments searching, admiring, and carrying nothing away but their memory.



This is the backstory to The Bird Catcher. The lead character Margaret falls in love with a fellow birder, a man named Charles who is actually one of her professors. They spend their early courtship exploring birds in Manhattan. In her real life, she's a window dresser for Saks, and she assists her friend Emily in acquiring unique pieces for an art gallery. These three form the backbone of the book, and each of them are well-developed characters. The story doesn't fall into any expected formula, and the characters are actually very interesting. Jacobs manages to display each characters unique personality by showing what they say and do. While the main characters are female, I wouldn't dream of calling this "chick lit"; it has more depth and more complexity by far.



Conceptually, this is a great book. However, I had numerous issues with the story itself. First, we learn early that Charles has passed away, but we aren't told how or when, which builds a curiosity as you read. Margaret seems to be explaining her relationship with him in flashbacks, but it's never entirely clear what is past and what is present. Even through the end, when you discover what happened to Charles, the explanation feels too brief to understand her resulting grief. Their relationship appears perfect, and the cynic in me can't imagine everything that wonderful. In addition, for a talented woman, she spends a terribly large amount of time worrying over her parents approval (she didn't finish college). She also seems strangely reserved around other people, which is odd because she describes herself as an extrovert.



A few other things struck me as off: while the descriptions of the art of window dressing for sales is fascinating, her description of her gay coworkers plays to stereotypes and is insulting in its own way. All of them appear flighty, silly, babyish, and primadonna queens. She seems to want to describe this professional career but ends up mocking the workers who put it together with such art. Additionally, she and her friend Emily are very fluent in the high-brow culture scene in New York: art, opera, and fashion. I consider myself having a good basic knowledge of popular art, but I understood maybe a tenth of the references to current artists. All of this almost feels like she's telling the reader "if you don't understand, you're an imbecile", since so much of the story is dependent on understanding the art references or the works of a particular obscure designer. It's never a good idea to make your reader feel stupid! Sure, I could have looked them up, but there were so many, I really didn't feel like doing the homework. It felt a tiny bit pretentious.



On a positive note, her explanations of the actual window dressing is interesting, and her friend's art gallery holds interest as she explains how the provenance of different objects can be manipulated for profit. The biggest bit of unexpected knowledge is Margaret's interest and decision to learn taxidermy, and the details of this further hobby are more interesting that I'd expected. This isn't a bad novel, and the quick pace makes it very readable...at times I did get overwhelmed by names and brands, but I finished it with a sense of contemplation.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had an eerie feeling like this book was written for me as I was reading it (a la The Neverending Story), but in a nightmare sense in some ways. The protagonist is married to a middle-eastern man, is a birdwatcher and insect collector, and there are elements from the dance world in it, too. After suffering a staggering loss, this thirty-something New Yorker has to pick up the pieces of her life and get on with it. The timeline jumps around a bit, but in such a fluid way that you are not distracted by it. Jacobs' descriptive language, combining art and the natural world, was highly enjoyable. Her characters also really popped for me, which was fun because they are about my age and living fairly glamorous lives in a vibrant city. A very fast and engrossing read.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautiful little book. It was deeply sad, but the writing and Jacobs' art knowledge kept it from being maudlin. So did the birds - with their implicit airness, I suppose - and I really wanted to own one of Margret's shadow boxes. They sounded beautiful and a real meditation on life and death. My only complaint was that the characters seemed much older than they were meant to be.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather disjointed story of a young woman's re-entry into life following the death of her husband. It is also a New York story with characters from the art, theater, and academic world. The writing was sometimes quite good, but overall the the story was thin and not compelling.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what it was I liked about this book. A young woman who decorates windows at Saks and wanders Riverside Park to watch birds falls in love.

[Jennifer Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that centers around an unspoken tragedy. The author flirts with this tragedy through flashbacks, innuendo, and some well-timed hints, but we never get to live those moments in the book. This may be a kindness to the reader - we never have to feel that pain - and it puts us at a strange position where we stand over and watch the intimate details of grief without ever really experiencing true empathy. That felt odd to me, but at the same time it was this same strange distance that allows the reader to understand the art and passion behind the taxidermy in the story from the heroine's perspective, which is no small feat. All in all, this a mature, sombre book, and masterfully crafted.

[Louise Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolutely mesmerizing read. I could not put it down. Perhaps the combination of artist/birdwatcher caught me, perhaps the rigorous transformation that the main character undergoes magnetized me, perhaps it was the quality of the narrative and the writing.

[Cattfrancisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are some excellent descriptive passages about NYC, birds, and central park, there was something really "off" about this story - at least for me. It did, however, make me want to find out more about the artist Joseph Cornell and his work.

[Margaret Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter, Stephanie recommended this book. It takes place in NYC. I almost missed my "L" stop this morning as I started the book.

Edgy book dealing with loss, creation and the ability to move on.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what I thought of this book. At first it seems the author is very enthralled with name dropping so many polysyllabic words, places, names etc. I was a bit put off. But, I continued on and the plot evolved and had a nice warm ending. It wasn't anything that rocked my world.

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a movingly sad or poignant book. Her descriptive passages are so deftly done, I had no realization of reading. The cover lured me in and she continued with such a little gem of a book. Really I have no criticisms as the reading experience was so sublime.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lyrical story of a loss, coming into one's self, and birds. It's not a big, flashy story but one that tells a snapshot of the protagonist's life and how she grew through a difficult loss by the means of art. You feel like you've been taken back in time just enough that it's not 21st century but with enough contemporary touches that it's a familiar world.

[Yasmin Salinas-Román · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book about grief, i really enjoyed this book

[Ariel Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the birds.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grief is personal. Coping with grief is also personal. We all have our own methods of coping with the grief of losing a loved one. Grief can be so consuming that it leaves one unaware of how our grief changes the way we treat our friends and family, and also how the behavior of those who love and care about us shifts to make allowances for the self-centeredness we sometimes unthinkingly wallow in.

I loved this book. It was quiet. It was poignant. It's the story of a woman who dresses windows in Saks and who loves birds. It's a story about a woman and her relationship with her grandfather, her soulmate and her best friend. It's a story of a woman who finds herself adrift after a tragic event. As certain events in her life appear to spiral out of her control, it's also a story of a woman who gradually finds her way again and sees light at the end of a dark tunnel.

There are some good descriptions of birds found in Central Park, NY and incredible details in the art of taxidermy - at least the taxidermy of birds which I found fascinating, but which I can see might revolt those with a lighter stomach for this art.

I liked how the story focused on this one woman, Margret, and her love of birds, and how her thoughts and fears were gradually shared. We know she has a secret with the birds she looks for, but we're not quite sure what she's doing. There are little hints that all is not well in her life at the start of the book, but we're not given the full details until much later, after we've already started to suspect a tragedy and we're already starting to feel we want to wrap her in our arms. While we may not whoop out loud at the end of her journey, there is a definite lift in our spirits as we see her start to straighten her shoulders, lift her head and look forward with clear eyes and a spring in her step.

[Eclectic Review · Rating 3 out of 5]

Margret Snow is lonely and figuratively lost at sea. After the tragic loss of her husband, Charles, she loses interest in her promising job of dressing windows at her friend Emily’s art gallery and at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. Instead, she is a secret, amateur taxidermist by night, finding small dead birds in the city parks and near buildings to take home and stuff. “[She] always had a Baggie in her pocket, just in case she found something fallen.” Marget’s fascination with birds started with her Grandfather Milton who was a birder and entomologist who took her bird watching when she was young.

Jacobs’ writing is poetic and very descriptive, especially in the way she describes Margret’s love of birds. “To find them and lift them off the ground. To hold them weightless in her hand. To smooth with the side of a finger the nape of a broken neck. It filled Margret, this ownership of something that cannot be owned.”

This is a novel about a woman with an unusual hobby, but the story is good and encourages you to find out what happens to Margret and her bird collection. I also enjoyed the detailed descriptions of Margret’s window dressing projects. A fascinating job unto itself.

Thank you to Laura Jacobs and LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers for giving me the opportunity to review this book. You may find more information on Laura Jacobs at http://www.laurajacobs.info/.

[Alistaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the Umpteenth time, I'd have to express just how much this Novel had moved me, Thus I've given it a complete five star, and how it also ignited my passion for, well, Birds! Laura Jacobs was a new author for me, I started reading the book since the whole summary that's been given seemed to be promising, as I started reading the first chapter, I instantly wanted to be a part of the story being narrated, unfolded, revealed before me, it's society. The book Meditates around New York a place where people are recognized by their work ethic and also being one of the Fashion platform of the world it showcases Art; And the Main Character, Margret Snow... A tough, cultured woman which will go through, let's say, self discovery, and will later become an intuitive person as she'll come to ignite her deepest passion that's been locked up on the deepest trench of her consciousness. I've taken my time into reading this, a lot of googling was involved as I was new to the way the author writes. I'll never regret nor forget the moment that I've dug this moaty book up at a Bargain Bookstore✌

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so beautifully written that it is worth reading just for the language and imagery. The story is well woven, as well. The setting is New York, and the characters are elegant, intelligent, obnoxious and self serving (New Yorkers!). While I liked and felt sorry for Margret, I sometimes felt as though the author was condescending to me. It is hard to put a finger on it, certainly the writing is worth five stars, and the story was compelling. But, something made me withhold that last star. Perhaps I am simply envious of her intellect and the breadth of play on the esoteric references to plays, theater, music, and the arts...or maybe she is just a New Yorker, and these are the things that all New Yorkers know. Still, this county girl, and casual birder, could not put the book down until I had inhaled the entire story in all its marvelous winged colors and richness. [Perhaps I should give it that extra star?]

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"'You're a pretty girl, but is that all you're going to be? Haven't you noticed? Nature has one purpose for good looks, and that's breeding season. Beauty is a trap, Margret. All well and good in its place, but it goes.' He motioned farther up the flat. 'Look at those scruffy sandpipers heading into winter plumage.' She looked. 'Don't be a person who courts attention. Pay attention.'"

"Use them, he counseled, don't wish for a different space; let the space you have tell you what it wants."

"'It's such a contradiction,' she replied, 'baked cream. But so much art begins in contradiction. My thesis adviser is, or was, always urging me to see ballet, an art of the body that's about transcending the body.'"

"You saw a lot of ghosts, driving alone at night. Shadows, coronas, and blurs; probably floaters too. Margret liked that, liked that sleeping-breathing feeling around her, the peace she felt being awake when others were lost in dream."

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book at the perfect time, personally. Mar is grieving an unimaginable heartbreak/loss and discovers a way to a new life through renewing her commitment to art. I love all the name-dropping in this book and the way it doesn't shy away from talking theory, either intellectual or social. There isn't much "action" but the characters are full and lovely and each has its own life spinning like a different world in her orbit. The prose is almost poetic. I find myself thinking of birds through a new lens of understanding. Some of my favorite scenes include the various NYC parties Mar attends with her best friend Emily. I love the way friendships, especially female friendships, are portrayed in this book as well. Laura Jacobs really understands how to write women, which should be obvious because she is one, but isn't always the case in real life...Overall, a great book that I will definitely be reaching for whenever I want to re-read something beautiful and familiar.

[Dar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margret is a well-schooled and promising artist, but she ekes out a living in NYC, dressing store windows. Before the book begins, she marries her Professor of Pre-Raphaelite art. The book goes back to tell the story of their romance, and it is absolutely lovely. Despite their urbanity, he entices her into birdwatching in NYC. She takes it a step further, becoming an amateur taxidermist. Gradually we see that her life has been interrupted and she has been set adrift. But the seeds of “adriftness” were already there, sown by her family dynamics – and offset by her close relationship with her austere grandfather.

I rejoiced in Margret’s return to the art world, and her gradual return to feeling grounded. This was a very quiet and sad book, but if you love NYC and the art scene, you’ll enjoy your time immersed in the story.

[Cathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me awhile to read this book, but I actually enjoyed it. I started reading it when I lost my job and I was under medical disability for my hands, arms and shoulders, which made it difficult for me to hold a book and read for any length of time. The main character, Margaret Snow, is a window designer in New York City who is also interested in bird watching. She finds some dead migrating birds and mounts them as a hobby. The book is well-written and the author engages the reader in the story. I won this book on Goodreads and I'm glad I was selected.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I empathized so deeply for the main character in The Bird Catcher. I fell in love when she feel in love, grieved when she grieved, and was distracted, then slowly pacified, and finally, empowered, by her rebound obsession as she was also. As someone who also has a love for birds, I found the descriptions of the quirks of bird watchers and their habits to be authentic, right down to described tedious attention to detail required for the preparation of study skins.

One of my new favorite books, highly recommended.

[Cadillacrazy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, the way the flashbacks skip around and then finally settle at the end was nice, and the story was interesting even though I can't really relate to the pretentiousness of some of the characters. The author obviously knows a lot about the subjects she touches on, art, window design, bird watching and taxidermy, or she at least studies them thoroughly before she wrote the book.

[Nan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and surprising story about a window dresser in NY with a taxidermy hobby. I know it sounds like the weirdest thing in the world, but it's a great book. (Full disclosure: writer is a friend.) Laura (author) is brilliantly precise in her descriptions, and brings contemporary NY and a particular generation of women into crystal focus. One of the most beautifully written sex scenes I've ever seen. Loved it. My full review here: http://wp.me/p4d9B-95

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it.. I mean, I dont really like bird watching but I did love the art-iness and how the chapters went from the "now time" to the past.. it was a smooth transition and I liked it. It was sad at times but the main character pulls her life back together after the death of her husband and realizes whats important to her and how to get back to it.

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never been to a large city like New York, so I really love reading books set in the city. One of the things that really makes this book different from others I have read is the descriptions of the natural beauty of New York. It really gives this book a different feel. The characters are well-developed and really held my interest. I enjoyed it very much!

[Kate McNierney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this out of the library and read it over a long weekend on vacation. It is very NYC centered which is not something I usually look for in a book, since I am not much of a New Yorker. I did enjoy the birds, the art world, the characters and their relationships, and the way the book flowed unevenly from one chapter to the next moving forward and backward in time.

[Mary Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ayuh, I live in Maine now, but I grew up in the NYC burbs and this is how I imagine literary, artistic grown-ups in the Big Apple live, work and generally carry on. I loved how the main character, Margret, deals with finding love, losing love, her weird hobbies (taxidermy, birdwatching) and a cast of unusual, very NY, friends and coworkers.