The truest vision of life that I am acquainted with is that of the bird in the Venerable Bede. It flutters delicately from the profound darkness into a hall illuminated by light.

For a brief while, it enjoys the warmth and visibility of that lighted space. Then, just as suddenly, it flutters out once more, disappearing back into the vast darkness.

However, Ruth is indeed correct. It holds great significance - it can even be everything - to have discovered a fellow bird. With this companion, one can sit among the rafters while the chaos of drinking, boasting, reciting, and fighting unfolds below.

It is a fellow bird whom one can care for, seeking out bugs and seeds for it. In return, this companion will tend to your bruises, straighten your ruffled feathers, and offer condolences when you accidentally encounter something beyond your handling and suffer hurts.

This relationship between the two birds represents a form of connection and support in the midst of a sometimes tumultuous and unpredictable world.

The Spectator Bird

“I hope you’ve found your safe place”!

Doesn’t that quote truly make you pause and reflect?!!

“I am just killing time till time gets around to killing me.” ~ yep, I can completely relate to that feeling !!

As Joe recites to Ruth from the journal he maintained during their trip to Denmark, the narrative takes us on a journey back and forth in time. This makes the novel a captivating blend of two stories within one.

I had the distinct impression that I knew old Joe and his beloved Ruth on a personal level.

Listening to this novel, I couldn't help but smile often! Joe's insights, his sharp wit, his humor, and his spot-on thoughts about old age really warmed my heart. Oh, and Joe, let me share with you my experience of Rheumatoid Arthritis ☺️

His descriptions of dissecting the complex feelings in one's heart are not only prolific but also profound. They resonate deeply within my own soul.

Truth be told, I find it extremely difficult to review this book in a way that does it justice. All I can say is that I earnestly wish for Joe to continue sharing his stories with me!

Wallace Stegner is indeed a literary GIANT!!!

Stegner’s protagonist and narrator, Joe, is a character who truly feels authentic and welcomes the reader in. He is a complex individual, being sensitive, intelligent, and funny, yet also quite a curmudgeon. In 1972, he is a 69-year-old married white man living in the California Hills. The novel is specific and small in scope, as our journey takes place entirely within him. At times, I found myself longing to break free from his confines.

Stegner is undeniably a gifted writer, but I did find Joe’s pain to be somewhat confining. However, the way this confinement is constructed is exquisitely done. There are moments of great beauty, such as when his wife, Ruth, first asks him to read his journal out loud, an entry from a trip they took together long ago. They had lost their son, and in an attempt to ease Joe’s depression, they visited Denmark, the birthplace of his mother.

This is where the story really picks up. The couple befriends a countess with a sordid story of her own, and both Ruth and Joe fall deeply in love with her.

The ending chapters of the novel are truly captivating. They contain the treasure at the end of an arduous journey, and it is well worth the wait. I felt completely melted, shapeless, and quivering with a mix of sorrow and love. It also feels like a natural culmination of all that the characters and the reader have endured, making it one of the richest reading experiences I’ve ever had.

National Book Award Winner for Fiction, 1977.

This is my third Stegner book, and I now have a deep affection for the man. I first encountered his protagonist Joe Allston in All the Little Live Things, which is the sequel to this book and concludes with an earthquake.

The Spectator Bird, on the other hand, is much more subdued but offers just as satisfying a literary experience.

I completed this book shortly after attending my 50th high school reunion. I could not have been more ready to fathom what Stegner wrestled with and ultimately found peace about in this National Book Award-winning novel.

After my reunion, I departed with a bittersweet sense of happiness. I realized that my life, even those aspects that didn't seem like choices at the time but rather rejections, failures, and a seemingly hopeless inability to achieve my own goals, were in fact perfect choices.

All of these experiences have led to a life that I would not exchange for anything else. This is precisely what Stegner is writing about with such profound comprehension in The Spectator Bird. I am content.

I have always had a profound love for reading Wallace Stegner. He is an incredibly thoughtful writer, and his prose is so beautiful that it has the power to bring my own life into sharper focus in a unique way. One day, I happened to spot a book of his on a lonely library shelf and immediately brought it home with me, despite not knowing anything about it at that time.

As I delved into the book, I discovered that it is about a retired couple in California who are revisiting a trip they took in their 40s to Denmark. The narrative skillfully weaves back and forth between a fascinating journal that the husband had meticulously kept during the trip and the present moment. It was astonishingly easy for me to envision looking back on my own life when I reach that age, wondering if everything would make sense or not, yet still having the urge to try and understand it all. He wrote, "From up on that chilly platform you can look back down your life and see it like a Kafka road dwindling out across the Siberian waste. You can raise your head and look into the infinite spaces whose eternal silence terrified Pascal." (Regrettably, I forgot to take a screenshot of the page number!)

Although the story was a little on the somber side, one of the aspects I truly appreciate about Stegner's writing is how he takes on challenges and sadness and transforms them into something meaningful and beautiful. This book is a good and short read, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking literature.

This is a rather extraordinary little book.

The author devotes a significant portion of the opening to depicting what a cantankerous old man the main character is.

I had the audiobook for a brief period and wasn't even certain if I wanted to take the trouble to complete it.

However, as it delved into the retelling of his time in Denmark 20 years ago, I simply had to know the remainder of the story.

I managed to find a copy at the library and was pleased that I did.

There are some interesting plot twists, but be cautious!

It focuses on confronting aging and may not appeal to everyone.

Nevertheless, I always seem to have a penchant for this author, regardless of the subject matter he writes about.

His writing has a certain charm that draws me in and keeps me engaged until the very end.

Even though this particular book dealt with a somewhat sensitive topic, it was presented in a way that made it both thought-provoking and enjoyable.

I would highly recommend it to those who are interested in exploring the themes of aging and self-discovery.

I had read Angle of Repose a few years ago and was truly astonished by the profound enjoyment I derived from Wallace Stegner's writing. I had always intended to return and explore more of his literary works. Well, finally, I managed to get around to it. And once again, I am vividly reminded of the sheer pleasure that stems from a well-crafted story.

Joe, who is approaching the age of 70, is a cantankerous retired literary agent. It wasn't his first choice of career, of course. Looking back, nothing that has transpired in his life has been by his own conscious choice. He has simply drifted along with the current, almost like a passive spectator in his own existence.

A postcard arrives in the mail from an old friend, dredging up deeply painful memories from the distant past - the tragic death of their son and unresolved issues that have been casting a long shadow over him and his wife Ruth for a full 20 years.

I do indeed relish these stories of reflection and re-examination, especially now as I am "getting on" in years and find myself engaging in such activities quite frequently. Whether I desire to or not! And more often than not, it occurs in the middle of the night. :-O Memories can be truly unrelenting, can't they?

This is a remarkable study on the human condition. Stegner was a master at delving into the seemingly ordinary life and excavating the inner psyche, thereby making it both relatable and utterly fascinating.

One really twisted story line (containing filthy content) that appeared around 85% through the book was an absolute deal breaker. I will definitely never recommend this book. It was just so revolting. Gag.

I initially had high hopes for this book. It promised to explore themes such as marriage, aging, and of course, the works of Stegner. The opening paragraph was quite promising. The sky boils with cloud, the sun glares out now and then like the opening eye of a doped patient, and the brief beam of intelligence it shoots forth lights on the hills...

A postcard from Astrid, a woman in Denmark, prompts Joe to dig out his notebooks that he had written twenty years ago when he met her. His wife, Ruth, convinces Joe to read the notebooks aloud, thereby exposing his private thoughts and putting the strength of their marriage to the test.

Here are some notable Stegner sentences:

Faultfinding doesn't let off pressure, it only builds it up.

Regret and guilt are selfish and secret emotions.

MARTIAL is the anagram for MARITAL.

However, without the offensive content that still makes me shudder, I would have only given this book three stars. It was just too cynical and too grim. Getting old is like standing in a long, slow line. You wake up out of the shuffle and torpor only at those moments when the line moves you one step closer to the window. This description really captures the essence of the book's rather depressing tone.

I discovered this to be some truly delightful literary fiction. The writer was previously unknown to me, but it turns out he is quite accomplished and prolific. I am now determined to read more of his work. Perhaps Angle of Repose will be next, as it won a Pulitzer. The writing is simply sublime.

I won't go into details about the story since it has already been well-reviewed by others here. It is largely an introspective character study that explores themes such as long marriage, regret, aging, the meaning and purpose of life, and the consequences of choices. The protagonist, Joe, can be quite dark and broody at times, but he also manages to make me chuckle.

As the story alternates between the present and 20 years ago, there is a mild mystery that is skillfully woven in through journal entries from the past.

I rate this book 4.5 stars, rounding down to leave room for my love for Wallace Stegner's genius to grow. I will definitely be reading more of his works in the future.

A dark and truly surprising book indeed.

For starters, it came as a shock to me that the indignities associated with old age were a central theme in the fiction of the 1970s. The novel skillfully alternates between the present and the past. In the present, literary agent Joe and his wife Ruth have retired to California. In the past, they made a trip to Denmark in the wake of their only son's death. Twenty years ago, after Curtis passed away, perhaps by suicide, Joe and Ruth decided to spend a few months in Denmark, the country from which Joe's mother had emigrated as a teenager.

By a rather convenient coincidence, they ended up renting rooms from an impoverished countess who, as it turns out, has some sort of connection with Joe's mother. It is a postcard from the countess that prompts Joe to search for the diary he kept in Denmark, and his wife, who feels she never fully understood all that happened there, insists that he read it aloud to her.

The unfolding of the Danish plot is highly suspenseful, and the cameo appearance of Karen Blixen adds an interesting twist. The old writer can't resist shaping what little Joe knows about his mother into a story, much like the reader attempts to do as she sorts through the clues, trying to anticipate what Stegner will ultimately reveal as "the truth."

The parts set in the present are a bit less fulfilling. Joe is haunted by the signs of his deteriorating health and is miserable being mostly surrounded by dying friends. There is perhaps a bit too much emphasis on him being an old curmudgeon, always taking everything others do or say as a reflection on his own behavior. However, the final confrontation between Ruth and Joe regarding their brief encounter with the countess masterfully ties together both threads of the book and is deeply poignant.

I sometimes get the feeling my whole life happened to somebody else.

How many of us truly live our lives, or do we exist in a state of estrangement, passively watching life go by without bothering to take the reins and direct it? And among those who do, how many are honest about their situation?

This is the story of Joe Allston. One day, his past comes alive, and he witnesses it resurfacing right in front of the one person who should have known about it but didn't. Joe is a man who dreads old age yet keeps most of his fears to himself. He is also a man who, at one point, let go of something and has never considered holding onto anything since then.

The most interesting aspect of this protagonist is that he is far from being a hero. He is just like us, a bit frustrated with life, a bit ignorant of certain things, and a bit scared of what the future holds.

If you are faced with a choice between two good options, do you completely abandon the one you don't choose?

People with a million thoughts swirling around in their heads are often the ones who have the hardest time expressing themselves. We come to understand this as the story unfolds through the pages of a journal kept by our protagonist.

This is the second book I have read by this author, whom I know is highly revered. However, I did not have a favorable impression of 'Crossing to Safety', and yet I was still looking forward to liking this book. Unfortunately, that anticipation did not materialize. I'm not entirely sure what it is about his writing style or some other factor that makes me not enjoy his books.