I agree with everything Mary said. I enjoyed the story I enjoyed the descriptions of the landscapes, but I got really tired of the coincidences, the unbelievable (you couldn’t tell that Gus was the same bad guy that Leila referred to? Especially after Maria, Elmer and Mirabel are clearly reluctant to say anything about him?) Of course the volcano exploded conveniently. Of course the mother shows up. Of course… I didn’t notice timeline issues, but I noticed other inconsistencies. Sorry I’ve forgotten what, I’m up at our Vermont cabin without internet and didn’t bring my copy down to the valley (and internet) with me.
I’ve always been reluctant to pick up Joyce Maynard because of her relationship with J. D. Salinger who wrote the book I probably hate most in the world.
FWIW, I did not mind Maynard having indigenous characters in the book. The book is almost entirely told from a gringo point of view and the ex-pats in the book reminded me a lot of the British ex-pats I knew in Somalia and Tanzania. (Albeit I was quite young and it was a generation earlier.)
The only other written during the pandemic book I can remember specifically being inspired by it is The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi. It is light and fluffy even for Scalzi. He describes it as a pop song and meant to be enjoyed as such.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it was a fairly easy read and entertaining. The lovely scenery and descriptions of the landscape and mountain were exquisite. I thought the hippie culture of the sixties was captured well. The variety of guests at the hotel were interesting and unique. However, the character Irene is not very likeble, and the absurd coincidences in the book start getting irritating after a point. The volcanic eruption destroys Gus and Dora’s property but leaves Irene’s mostly okay when it’s right next door? Really? Jun Lan sees a picture of a herb and finds it in a mountain in South America? Talk about finding a needle (or more like a molecule of a needle) in a haystack!
I also had a hard time keeping track of some of the more minor characters when they were referenced later in the book. Mine was a regular hard copy, and sometimes I was wishing this was an e-book so I could backward search names to remember who they were.
Last month, or maybe in June, I posted that I read this book a few years ago but my opinion of Maynard is poisoned by an adoption disruption of hers, of an older sibling group. I started reading it again and she’s still on the bus in Mexico/Guatemala. That in itself feels like a conceit–it was so obvious that the hotel was on the shores of Lake Atitlan. Anyway, I hope to read more of the book and more of your commentary.
Regarding the mistake in timeline I mentioned above:
At the beginning of chapter 82—before she has met Tom—Irene says:
Suddenly, there I was, thirty-nine years old, soon to be forty. Somehow it happened that ten years had passed since I first arrived in La Esperanza (p. 359).
A short time later, Tom arrives, and in chapter 92, as Irene wonders what their future holds, she emphasizes her age again:
He would go back to New York, to his job, whatever it was. I’d go back to being a thirty-nine year-old woman who ran a hotel (p. 409).
Then she discovers Tom’s betrayal, gives him the boot, and never opens any of his letters over a 10-year period:
More than ten years after Tom’s departure from La Esperanza—and my mother’s, and the volcanic eruption that followed—another letter arrived. The New York return address was familiar. This time I ripped the envelope open.
So when Irene opens that final letter, she is 49, almost 50. And yet, she writes later, in chapter 100, “I was forty-six years old.” And still later, at the very end of the novel (chapter 101), “I had recently turned forty-six.” Nope. Even if Tom and Irene re-consummate their love the same day she arrives in New York, and she immediately downs those magic herbs, she’s giving birth at 50 years old, more likely 51. The age doesn’t bother me— it’s not impossible (especially with the secret herbal ingredient). It’s the sloppy editing that bothers me.
Yes! That part I liked. I could really picture the surroundings. Maynard was describing what she knew well. And when I saw the photo in the article that @jerseysouthmomchess posted, I thought: “Perfect. That’s the view from La Llorona.”
I wasn’t a fan of the book but I enjoyed reading some of the little farcical and somewhat fantastic stories involving minor characters that sprinkled the book. I liked the descriptions of the landscape and the garden design. The garden that Leila creates is magical and resonated with my design style.
The main storyline following the life of the main character as she plumbs the depths of despair, then embarks on a slow journey to recovery that takes her to new heights of happiness wasn’t interesting to me. Lately, it feels like every other book I read has a variation of this.
I haven’t experienced any of the losses that Irene has so I put this opinion out with caution but it seemed too much that Irene had to lose not just a mother or a husband (seemingly a too perfect husband) but also her child. It was as if Maynard wanted her readers to be sucked into an emotional black hole. But, Irene’s first person account of her life is so dry of emotions and just feels like a commentary. I don’t really care about her or her life and I’m someone who tears up very easily.
The count of years that pass and Irene’s age didn’t add up by the end but I was too lazy to go back to the relevant section to verify the discrepancy.
As for the convenient plot devices, there were so many! Following the story was like following a river that has been channeled out of its natural basin at every turn. It never flows naturally.
Right from the beginning, when the bus driver Dave/Roman (?) shares his casino winnings with the passengers and just gifts $1500 to Irene because he felt she needed it more than anyone?
And really, when Gus turns up out of the blue after Leila dies you never question why he didn’t visit while she was alive if they were good friends?
And of course Diana turns up, you just know it even as you read about the finger that was found that she will. I wanted to know if the owner of the finger lost just the digit or her life as well? If her life, why isn’t she mentioned in the missing or killed list? Unless I missed it. I confess I did check out a bit for portions of the book.
And Irene finds love again with the son of the policeman who died in the house explosion! It’s as if everything has to be connected in some way!
There were many more things that bothered me but I’ll stop now with one last complaint. I am a curmudgeon about grammar and inclined to nitpick. The wrong use of ‘bring’ constantly was just too much.
Still reading little by little on my phone, via Hoopla. I will join you when I finish, ignoring all your undoubtedly wise and insightful comments till then!
The extreme grief / loss plotline that leads to “found-family” joy seems overused: Everything from Lessons in Chemistry to The Garden of New Beginnings to A Man Calle Ove to The Story of Arthur Truluv. Taken separately, it’s fine, but I think I’ve had too large a dose of late.
The finger mystery had a peculiar resolution:
When the FBI tested the DNA of that fingertip–when such tests came into existence–it turned out to match that of someone else who’d been on the street that day of the explosion – a completely different missing person who had nothing to do with the group in the house that day, except that she’d been unlucky enough to be walking down East Eighty-Fourth Street that day (p. 419).
There are too many things in that paragraph that don’t make sense. Also:
If some detective had been really smart, maybe he or she would have noticed the time stamp on the box [of records] was a good forty-five minutes after the blast. But nobody ever seemed to follow up on that. They were all so sure I was dead, I guess there didn’t seem to be a point (p. 594).
What kind of detectives were handling this case? Harriet the Spy would have done a better job.
And to your point, @AnAsmom, the repeated “that day” above (three times in a single sentence), although not grammatically incorrect, was typical of the awkwardness of many of her sentences.
It is very odd that Irene is so gullible with Gus & Dora. She had others and plenty of warning because of how the others in the hotel did not warm to them and he had a falling out with Leila.
Yes, there were SO many convenient co-incidences. It didn’t bother me, nor the inconsistent timelines but the editors could have helped at least with keeping timeline consistent.
All in all, this book was a quick & easy read for me. It was a nice distraction.
Youtube has quite a few interviews of Joyce Maynard talking about the book. I’ve listened to a few. She personally went to the area when she was heartbroken after her 2nd husband died of pancreatic cancer shortly after they were married and found it healing.
Her descriptions of the area were lovely. However, the last chapter bothered me. She really never left the hotel for any length of time, but who took care of the hotel when she left for Boston? I need to know these things.
One thing I really appreciated was the number of chapters. I am getting very fed up with books that are 450 pages long and have like 21 chapters. I read at night before going to sleep. It is so nice to not have to stop in the middle of a chapter. It was an easy read but I don’t think that it will stay with me as some of our other books have.
Agreed! The book I read immediately prior to The Bird Hotel was the 560 page, often rambling (but fascinating) Demon Copperhead. So when I opened Joyce Maynard’s book afterward, I was like, “Oh, thank goodness.”
This is link to the Guatemalan / Mayan artist who painted the disaster mural mentioned in the book
Joyce Maynard has commissioned many paintings by this artist plans to donate to Museum in Guatemala
In the YouTube she talks about the 100 chapters -
Initially the Bird Hotel - was simply a fairy tale being told during 6 months to two women attendees of her writing seminar nightly during the pandemic -
Hence the 100 chapters each was a stand alone story about characters - like the Arabian Nights - 100 chapters !
I really, really enjoyed reading this book, and loved it. I quickly accepted this was a fairy tale, and agree with all the criticisms of the book, but the journey for me, the magical moments discovering the bird hotel, the feminist point of view, strong female characters just swept me away.
Nothing was hidden, everything transparent, the “ finger tip” - knew Diane would return
Dora- as the legal representative saw that coming, Gus always slippery, Irene wasn’t the most reliable narrator or judge of people. Was Leila a guardian angel, knew she would leave the hotel to Irene.
This was just a magical journey and I didn’t want to put it down.
Until, the ending, and while it was happily ever after, fairy tale style, just thought this enlightened woman would end up without Prince Charming. But, alas, it was a fairy tale, a journey I’m glad I took.
I especially agree with all @Mary13 and @AnAsmom wrote, but I’m a fan of this one.
Oh my, Demon copperhead, couldn’t be more different than this one, each book deals with tragedy and loss. Interesting books to read back to back.
Thank you! These images are wonderful. Seeing samples of the artist’s work really gives color (literally!) to Irene’s descriptions as she looks at the mural (p. 76, if anyone wants to go back to it).
In the you tube clip Joyce mentions that the artist always paints of disasters - but she says ironically they aren’t depressing at all.
So she commissioned a huge mural about the Guatemalan civil war - 10,000s died, ended in 1996 and she says US was not on the right side of that one- ( she didn’t elaborate )
Fascinating Maynard also said she dropped out of college twice and after extensive testing learned she has major learning disability, making reading very difficult for her. Believe she also has ADHD, which gives her hyperfocus and allows her to write books very quickly.
Harriet the Spy would have done a better job.