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“A vivid set of tales about connection to other people and to the natural world…Hale’s lovely prose shows a keen eye for detail…”
— Kirkus Reviews
A Wall of Bright Dead Feathers by Babette Fraser Hale is one of those books that made me take a second look at what I thought I knew and realized that while I may have had an inkling, I am definitely not an expert. Intrigued? You should be.
I have always had mixed feelings about collections of short stories. If I am feeling like a particularly lazy type of reader, I get annoyed when all of the stories don’t converge nicely into a neat little package. Other times, I revel in the author’s ability to evoke such varied and strong emotions from bits and bobs of stories that just materialized in their wonderful mind.
Because I had no clue what I was jumping into exactly, I started reading the first half of this book waiting for the connection between the stories. And once I realized that there was no connecting plot, I was able to sit back and experience the simple, yet complex, characters and be captivated by someone else’s mundane life. That might sound a little boring, but it wasn’t at all. Especially when you take into account the different time periods that Hale sweeps you away to briefly, sometimes a little too briefly. That’s always the problem with short stories, isn’t it? They very often leave you wanting more.
And just as I was accepting the idea that there was no connection between the stories, alas, I found at least one. A woman trying to appease or figure out a man (or boy) at the detriment of her own happiness. I don’t know if that was Hale’s intention, but that was my takeaway from this book. At any rate, I felt like I was reading a cautionary tale of a woman losing herself.
I recall perking up when I got to the “wall of bright dead feathers” part of the book. My brain was jumping up and down, gesticulating wildly for me to sit up and take note. I did, kind of, but I realize that the significance was lost to me until I got to the very end. I guess that taking a mental inventory of the stories when I reached the end helped me to draw my own conclusion about the meaning behind the book’s title.
So who should read this book? Definitely women. There’s a strong vibe of casting off the patriarchy mixed in with a dash of throwing caution to the wind. But I think that the stories are so deeply Texan that this book could be part of the curriculum for a southwestern literature class as well.
TWO WINNERS each receive a signed bookplate
+ $20 Brazos Bookstore Gift Card to buy the book
(US only. Ends midnight, CDT, 4/2/2021.)
for direct links to each post on this tour, updated daily,
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3/23/21 |
Author Video |
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3/23/21 |
Excerpt |
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3/24/21 |
Review |
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3/24/21 |
BONUS Promo |
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3/25/21 |
Review |
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3/25/21 |
Author Interview |
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3/26/21 |
Review |
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3/26/21 |
BONUS Promo |
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3/27/21 |
Excerpt |
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3/28/21 |
Guest Post |
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3/29/21 |
Review |
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3/29/21 |
Author Interview |
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3/30/21 |
Review |
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3/31/21 |
Review |
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3/31/21 |
Guest Post |
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4/1/21 |
Review |
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4/1/21 |
Review |
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