Carmel Hanes's Reviews> Songbirds

"Always be kind to the land, the people, and the animals that are on it. Remember that. it's the most important rule in the world."

If only.

We are so far away from this wise and important foundation of being. We live in a world where people are unkind, who exploit--the land, the animals, each other. We live in a world where we don't see people for who they are, and get lost so deeply within ourselves we don't even see who we are.

"Who was this woman whom I had previously seen only as a shadow of myself? A dark and beautiful shadow, who rattled around in old sandals and with fire in her eyes. It struck me now that it was I who had been her shadow."

Ultimately a story about traps; bird traps, human traps, grief traps. On one level the story of a woman who goes missing, and the man and woman who search for her. Descending into the depths of this disappearance, we catch glimpses of the inter-connectedness of all; the life cycle of animals, the threads that connect all living life...or the beliefs that compartmentalize if we allow them to, a compartmentalization that allows mistreatment and dismissal.

And in that dismissal, people are treated as less than human. Animals are treated as expendable. Nature is treated as though it has no expiration date. A story that holds a magnifying glass to abhorrent practices, even if performed by people who are not so much evil, as trapped.

A heart-wrenching story, told in beautiful and lyrical prose, hinting at the possibility that we can all do better. A thoughtful book that generated much discussion with my book reading buddies...C, K, D, and K.