|
An intimate look at the ways of birds and men
in the wilds of British Columbia from the
noted poet, novelist, and bioregional essayist.
In British Columbia’s remote and exotic Cariboo
Plateau, “Everything is slow. Everything is happening at the
same speed, which is no speed at all.” Harold Rhenisch has
spent eleven years watching birds every day from his house on the
shore of 108 Lake — at this speed, but you wouldn’t know it
from reading Winging Home: A Palette of Birds. Known as “one
of Canada’s master prose stylists,” Rhenisch dissects
avian behaviour with the ear of a poet and the mouth of a standup
comedian. His blackbirds are a jug band in full flight, his robins
drunken bachelors on a jag, and his eagles decrepit, stumblebum
scavengers.
With lively illustrations by noted bird artist
Tom Godin, Winging Home is more than just writing about the
natural world. It is a lyrical, evocative memoir of life in the
Cariboo that crackles with humorous, often startling observations
of birds and men set amidst the wild beauty of British Columbia.
"Canada’s literary world is compact
enough that you can fool yourself into thinking you know what’s
going on, can put your finger on the exciting stuff past and present.
Then along comes a revelation like Harold Rhenisch of the BC interior,
a mid-career writer in full, glorious flight, who casts all your
comfortable feelings of omnipotence into shadows–“Nineteen
books! Where did he come from? Who else am I missing?”
Such is the shimmering beauty and conviction exuded by Rhenisch’s
latest book ... There are so many beautifully observed and turned
passages in Winging Home that after a while I gave up underlining
them all. Even so, Rhenisch avoids cloying preciousness by folding
earthy humour and self-deprecation into these marvelous pastoral
visions. " — Vue
"With a sensibility sharpened by the daily
natural observation of living and working on the land and shaped
by the transplanted European cultural traditions of his childhood,
Rhenisch is a hardy hybrid. His ability to stand at the flashpoint
where art and nature converge produces . . . prose that is almost
Japanese in its intensity and austerity." —Vancouver
Sun
"Shimmering beauty and conviction ... Whatever the subject,
Rhenisch brings the eye of an accomplished poet to all he sees."
— Vue
Weekly
"Rhenisch finds humour in the wild, and poignancy, too. ...
Even non-birders might enjoy this lovely meditation, while those
of us who like to watch will be quietly thrilled. Hurray! "
— Georgia Straight (read the full review here)
|
