Reviews for Parrots' Wood

The average rating for Parrots' Wood based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-23 00:00:00 Robert Matthews I picked this book up for free, never for a minute guessing what a priceless treasure I held in my hands or how deeply it would affect me. Presuming it to be Erma “Jonnie” Fisk’s account of an adventuresome month she spent banding birds in Belize in the mid-1980s it actually recounts her journey through two decades of widowhood. Jonnie used her notebook, intended for recording four weeks of data about birds sighted and banded, to scribble her deepest thoughts each day. While in her mid-70s, Jonnie is a young at heart birding expert from the U.S. living for a month in a mix of students, some young and eager, some older and well seasoned by life. Encamped in tropical Belize, she grapples with loneliness, loss and aging in the everyday world of handling a host of birds, washing muddy laundry by hand, baking bread in an antiquated oven or shaking out her forever wet shoes in case of hidden snakes. This is not her first such trip as she frequently signs on for these adventures to distract, divert, avoid……….she’s not sure which. She rambles through time, writing as she must’ve spoken; articulately, enthusiastically, with feeling and intelligence. While she clearly has friends far and wide, you sense that she’s distanced herself from her three grown children and their families. There’s pain there, but she leaves it unexplored. She aches for her husband twenty years deceased, wonders about her life’s purpose, whether she’s needed, where she belongs and what does it all mean. She ponders being authentic, open and honest, and wonders why we all hide behind facades and pretense. This is the river that runs deeply in her, but on the surface she is bubbly, warm, full of stories, helpful, patient and ready with a laugh. My kids are grown and gone, I am pushing into a new decade and more often these days, while life’s deeper questions run circles in my mind, I find myself thinking of my mother at my age. Coincidentally enough she, like Jonnie, was also a bird bander. She too was lonely. Whatever anyone’s passion or pain, Jonnie’s struggles were universal and they ripple backward and forward through all humanity. Ultimately we are all human. Thank heavens for people like Jonnie, who – devil may care what people think – choose to be honest about it.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-04-20 00:00:00 Robert Stabile "Adventure is a state of mind." Ostensibly about her bird research in Belize, but much more a memoir/examination of widowhood, loss and family, aging/need to be useful, reconciling wanderlust with social mores, remembrance of friends and loves. Her informal style annoyed me at first - digression, self-reference, lack of direction - because I was expecting something different. Once I realized what I was in for, though, and I let her just ramble on, she endeared herself to me - as I imagine she did in life. She is so open with her rumination, and insightful in her introspection, but also charmingly witty....I found a lot of resonance in character, though I am not quite at the same stage of life. I will be seeking out her other books, and wishing I could have met her in person. The touches of Belizean wildlife and sights were icing on the cake...a perfect travel read.