Border Songs
(Sprache: Englisch)
An extremely tall dyslexic is pushed away from his family's Washington dairy farm to join the Border Patrol, where he indulges his obsessions with birds and art while occasionally catching smugglers and illegal immigrants on the British Columbian border.
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An extremely tall dyslexic is pushed away from his family's Washington dairy farm to join the Border Patrol, where he indulges his obsessions with birds and art while occasionally catching smugglers and illegal immigrants on the British Columbian border.
Klappentext zu „Border Songs “
Set in the previously sleepy hinterlands straddling Washington state and British Columbia, Border Songs is the story of Brandon Vanderkool, six foot eight, frequently tongue-tied, severely dyslexic, and romantically inept. Passionate about bird-watching, Brandon has a hard time mustering enthusiasm for his new job as a Border Patrol agent guarding thirty miles of largely invisible boundary. But to everyone s surprise, he excels at catching illegal immigrants, and as drug runners, politicians, surveillance cameras, and a potential sweetheart flock to this scrap of land, Brandon is suddenly at the center of something much bigger than himself. A magnificent novel of birding, smuggling, farming and extraordinary love, Border Songs welcomes us to a changing community populated with some of the most memorable characters in recent fiction.
Lese-Probe zu „Border Songs “
IEVERYONE REMEMBERED the night Brandon Vanderkool flew across the Crawfords snowfield and tackled the Prince and Princess of Nowhere. The story was so unusual and repeated so vividly so many times that it braided itself into memories along both sides of the border to the point that you forgot you hadn t actually witnessed it yourself.The night began like the four before it, with Brandon trying not to feel like an impostor as he scanned the fields, hillsides and roads for people, cars, sacks, shadows or anything else that didn t belong, doubting once again he had whatever it took to become an agent.He rolled past Tom Dunbar s dormant raspberry fields, where in a fit of patriotism Big Tom had built a twenty-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty, which was either aging swiftly or perhaps, as the old man claimed, had been vandalized by Canadians. Brandon reluctantly waved at the Erickson brothers who laughed and mock-saluted once they recognized him in uniform and rattled past Dirk Hoffman s dairy, where Dirk himself stood on a wooden stepladder completing his latest reader-board potshot at the environmentalists: MOUTHWASH IS A PESTICIDE TOO! Brandon tapped his horn politely, then swerved through semifrozen potholes across the center line to get a cleaner look at the fringed silhouette of a red-tailed hawk, twenty-six, the white rump of a northern flicker, twenty-seven, and, suspended above everything, the boomerang shape of a solo tree swallow, twenty-eight.Brandon traversed the streets of his life now more than ever, getting paid, so it seemed, to do what he d always loved doing, to look closely at everything over and over again. The repetition and familiarity suited him. He d spent all of his twenty-three years in these farmlands and humble towns pinned between the mountains and the inland sea along the top of Washington State. Traveling beyond this grid had always disoriented him, especially when it involved frenzied cities twitching with neon and pigeons and
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bug-eyed midgets gawking up at him. A couple hours in the glassy canyons of Seattle or Vancouver could jam his circuits, jumble his words and leave him worrying his life would end before he had a chance to understand it.Some people blamed his oddities on his dyslexia, which was so severe that one giddy pediatrician called it a gift: while he might never learn how to spell or read better than the average fourth grader, he d always see things the rest of us couldn t. Others speculated that he was simply too large for this world. Though Brandon claimed to be six-six, because that was all the height most people could fathom, he was actually a quarter inch over six-eight and not a spindly six-eight either, but 232 pounds of meat and bone stacked vertically beneath a lopsided smile and a defiant wedge of hair that gave him the appearance of an unfinished sculpture. His size had always triggered unreasonable expectations. Art teachers claimed that his unusual bird paintings were as extraordinary as his body. Basketball coaches babbled about his potential until he quit hoops for good after watching that huge Indian in Cuckoo s Nest drop the ball in the hole for a giddy Jack Nicholson. Tall women fawned over his potential too, until they heard his confusing raves and snorting laughs or took a closer look at his art.Near dusk, Brandon wheeled up Northwood past the no casino! yard signs toward the nonchalant border, a geographical handshake heralded here by nothing more than a drainage ditch that turned raucous with horny frogs in the spring and overflowed into both countries every fall. The ditch was one of the few landmarks along the nearly invisible boundary that cleared the Cascades and fell west through lush hills that blurred the line no matter how aggressively it was chainsawed and weed-whacked. From there, as thin as a rumor, the line cut through lakes and swamps
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Autoren-Porträt von Jim Lynch
Jim Lynch lives with his wife and their daughter in Olympia, Washington. As a journalist, he has received the H. L. Mencken Award and a Livingston Award for Young Journalists, among other national honors. His first novel, The Highest Tide, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, appeared on several bestseller lists, was adapted for the stage and has been published in eleven foreign markets.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Jim Lynch
- 2010, 1st ed., 304 Seiten, Maße: 13,6 x 20,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- ISBN-10: 0307456269
- ISBN-13: 9780307456267
- Erscheinungsdatum: 10.10.2014
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
[Border Songs] has the kind of ambling, provincial whimsy found in Richard Russo's small-town tales and the hard-bitten optimism that colors Larry McMurtry's. . . . A gifted and original novelist. The New York Times Wonderfully quirky, all-too-human, tender and uproarious. . . . His characters are achingly real and remarkably communal in their shared sense of one another. . . . This is a splendid, funny, remarkable novel. Providence Journal
A beautifully written novel, hilarious and tender, with rich descriptive passages. . . . A joyful song to the survival of nature and the young at heart. The Washington Times
Wonderful. . . . Lynch portrays Brandon with such tenderness and humor that you can t help but fall in love with him. . . . Tender, sad and leavened with wit. The Washington Post
One of the more inventive and unique novels of recent years. . . . A book that goes by all too quickly. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Border Songs charms. . . . An enjoyable portrait of life along our northern edge. The New York Times Book Review
Border Songs is a fable of innocence lost, or at least misplaced, and Brandon is one of the most remarkable characters created by a Northwest author in recent memory. . . . Lynch observes like a journalist and writes like a poet. . . . [He] brings a depth of knowledge and an attention to detail that should be the envy of more ivory-tower writers. The Seattle Times
Beautifully written. . . . A wonderful story. Newark Star-Ledger
A narrative tilt-a-whirl. The Plain Dealer
It takes a special kind of wordsmith to create a character like Brandon and, indeed, to craft his whole supporting cast, who are by turns ordinary and ornery (in a way that might remind you of Northern Exposure). . . . [Lynch s] turns of phrase are as light as a feather, but so precise and purposeful that you ll quickly find yourself buoyed by the vistas they show you. Louisville
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Courier-Journal
Border Songs sings. . . . Vanderkool is just one memorable character among many. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rich [and] imaginative. . . . Written with humor, striking imagery, and colorful characters, Border Songs is a winning novel that satirizes the United States government s concern about terrorism and unsafe borders. . . . Quirky, funny, fresh, and lyrical, Border Songs will win over just about any reader. New West Book Review
A sort of Empire Falls along the 49th parallel where failing farms and sleepy towns are being crowded out by tribal casinos and upscale subdivisions. [Border Songs] is fascinatingly close look at the confluence of small-town life, the global drug trade and illegal immigration, and it places Jim Lynch at the forefront of Northwest writers to watch. Willamette Week
Delightful. The Dallas Morning News
Enthralling. . . . A startling look at this country s far Northwest corner with a compelling cast of oddballs. . . . Lynch s deep empathy for his characters, no matter how off-kilter, is . . . powerful. The Daily Beast
A free-ranging tale that brings together the world of pot, human smuggling, art and love like never before. There is humor and pathos, irony and genius in this intimate look at one community struggling to reinvent itself in the wake of 9/11. Grand Rapids Press
[Border Songs s] hero is an imaginative tour de force. Lynch s comic borderland is not only palpable, it is richly metaphoric. Comparisons with Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins are not only inevitable, they are welcome. The Globe and Mail (Canada)
[Lynch] tells his story with remarkably clear prose punctuated by a sort of well-informed wink at the ridiculous attitudes on both sides of the border. BookPage
An unusual love story and a novel of hope. Daily American
There s no great mystery to Border Songs just a slice of life in a small border town, with people confronted by problems they must find ways to fix. In Brandon Vanderkool, Jim Lynch has given us a delightfully memorable character. . . . A darned good read. Bookreporter
With [an] unlikely hero and his supporting cast of odd ducks, author Lynch spins a tale that investigates how political posturing from on high affects the common folk, skewering the attitudes and cringe-worthy jingoism of the post-9/11 paranoia. The Bellingham Herald
A wonderful and important read. . . . Lynch has a delightful satirical yet human touch in the way he tells us about this border culture, a subject rarely explored in literature. Vancouver Sun
Marvelous, funny, and gentle. The Spokesman-Review
Jim Lynch masterfully tiptoes the line between delicate observation and satire with unexpected humor, all the while following the coming of age story of an unlikely hero. The National Post (Canada)
Whimsical, sensitive and full of heart. . . . The sense of place the author creates is only possible through humility, a slowed-down attentiveness and sensitivity to nature. Cascadia Weekly
The quirky, colorful characters that populate Border Songs fill this book with charm, but it is misfit Brandon Vanderkool and his obsession with birds that enables the novel to take flight. Curled Up With a Good Book
Jim Lynch s new novel reads as an antidote to the 21st century: a kind of metaphorical insistence on hope and simplicity and art in the face of a surrounding storm. Border Songs is a quietly ambitious book and it just gets better as it rises to the final satisfying image. Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong
Border Songs sings. . . . Vanderkool is just one memorable character among many. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rich [and] imaginative. . . . Written with humor, striking imagery, and colorful characters, Border Songs is a winning novel that satirizes the United States government s concern about terrorism and unsafe borders. . . . Quirky, funny, fresh, and lyrical, Border Songs will win over just about any reader. New West Book Review
A sort of Empire Falls along the 49th parallel where failing farms and sleepy towns are being crowded out by tribal casinos and upscale subdivisions. [Border Songs] is fascinatingly close look at the confluence of small-town life, the global drug trade and illegal immigration, and it places Jim Lynch at the forefront of Northwest writers to watch. Willamette Week
Delightful. The Dallas Morning News
Enthralling. . . . A startling look at this country s far Northwest corner with a compelling cast of oddballs. . . . Lynch s deep empathy for his characters, no matter how off-kilter, is . . . powerful. The Daily Beast
A free-ranging tale that brings together the world of pot, human smuggling, art and love like never before. There is humor and pathos, irony and genius in this intimate look at one community struggling to reinvent itself in the wake of 9/11. Grand Rapids Press
[Border Songs s] hero is an imaginative tour de force. Lynch s comic borderland is not only palpable, it is richly metaphoric. Comparisons with Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins are not only inevitable, they are welcome. The Globe and Mail (Canada)
[Lynch] tells his story with remarkably clear prose punctuated by a sort of well-informed wink at the ridiculous attitudes on both sides of the border. BookPage
An unusual love story and a novel of hope. Daily American
There s no great mystery to Border Songs just a slice of life in a small border town, with people confronted by problems they must find ways to fix. In Brandon Vanderkool, Jim Lynch has given us a delightfully memorable character. . . . A darned good read. Bookreporter
With [an] unlikely hero and his supporting cast of odd ducks, author Lynch spins a tale that investigates how political posturing from on high affects the common folk, skewering the attitudes and cringe-worthy jingoism of the post-9/11 paranoia. The Bellingham Herald
A wonderful and important read. . . . Lynch has a delightful satirical yet human touch in the way he tells us about this border culture, a subject rarely explored in literature. Vancouver Sun
Marvelous, funny, and gentle. The Spokesman-Review
Jim Lynch masterfully tiptoes the line between delicate observation and satire with unexpected humor, all the while following the coming of age story of an unlikely hero. The National Post (Canada)
Whimsical, sensitive and full of heart. . . . The sense of place the author creates is only possible through humility, a slowed-down attentiveness and sensitivity to nature. Cascadia Weekly
The quirky, colorful characters that populate Border Songs fill this book with charm, but it is misfit Brandon Vanderkool and his obsession with birds that enables the novel to take flight. Curled Up With a Good Book
Jim Lynch s new novel reads as an antidote to the 21st century: a kind of metaphorical insistence on hope and simplicity and art in the face of a surrounding storm. Border Songs is a quietly ambitious book and it just gets better as it rises to the final satisfying image. Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong
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