The Birds Fall Down (buddy-read)

[Mela]

Who wants to read The Birds Fall Down by Rebecca West? This is our buddy-read in August 2024.

If you have read it already, or you are reading it at another (later) time - write here what you think about the book too.

[Please keep in mind to hide spoilers in spoiler brackets.]

[Sonia]

"One afternoon, in an early summer of this century, eighteen-year-old Laura Rowan sits on the garden steps of her house embroidering a handkerchief. She overhears a conversation between her father, an English Member of Parliament, and her mother, Tania, the daughter of an exiled Russian royalist. Tania's decision to take Laura to Paris to visit her grandfather, Count Nikilai Diakonov, means that Laura will unwittingly become a witness to the momentous events leading up to the Russian Revolution...Through a vivid canvas layered with intrigue, conspiracy and murder, Rebecca West has created a story that is at once a family saga, a political thriller, a philosophical drama and an historical novel.'

[Sonia]

I have started. Laura and her mother have gone to Paris to visit her grandparents. Her grandfather has been exiled by the Tsar to Paris, but we don't know why. We sense that there are conspiracies, and we are unsure who is reliable. The intrigue starts when Laura and her grandfather board a train to the country. Initially it seems to be a genuine holiday, while Laura's grandmother has medical treatment, but I am beginning to wonder whether it has been engineered, and if so by whom.

Like a lot of historic fiction there is quite a bit of detail to absorb and a big cast of characters. I am at that stage of reading when I think I will never get to grips with it all - who are these people, what is their relationship to each other, are they important? But, from past experience, I know it will all click into place. Am enjoying it and am intrigued to find out what happens.

[Mela]

I looked at it (or rather, I have read a few pages), just to see what it is - it looks promising. I hope to start in next week.

[Mela]

Just started it, and I am fully absorbed already.

[Sonia]

I have finished, weather here over the weekend was very hot, and I didn't want to move far from the air-con, so reading was perfect. Am still thinking about the story. There were passages in the middle that, when reading, I felt could have been shorter, but then later I realised they had to be like that. I have given the book 4* on Goodreads and 4.5* on Storygraph. I didn't read the introduction (in my book by Victoria Glendinning) until I had finished the book, but it was very interesting.
Looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

[Mela]

I am still gripped.

[Cphe]

Read it a number of years ago - one of the first West novels I read.

[Mela]

I have just finished and loved it. It brilliantly pictured the soul of a Russian aristocrat at the end of the XIX (and beginning of the XX) century.

By the way, Sonia, I didn't know about Storygraph. It looks nice. I have imported my GR library there and slowly I will correct my rating into fractions (where I wanted to add), and I will answer the questions. I am going also to delete "verbal reviews" - I will keep them only on GR.

[Sonia]

Mela wrote: "I have just finished and loved it. It brilliantly pictured the soul of a Russian aristocrat at the end of the XIX (and beginning of the XX) century.

By the way, Sonia, I didn't know about Storygra..."

Glad you loved The Birds Fall Down. I may upgrade my rating as I am still thinking about the book. I use both Goodreads and Storygraph. I think that Goodreads is more comprehensive, not all editions are in Storygraph. But if you can live with that I find Storygraph easy to use, and is visually less messy. I like be able to set my own private reading challenges or join in public ones.