I didn't realize until the end that this is a prequel to All the Little Live Things, a favorite of mine.

Joe Allston is agreeably irascible, which makes him a great foil to his wife Ruth.

Ruth, on the other hand, is likely more composed and perhaps more understanding.

Then there is the unfortunate and intriguing woman of secrets, Astrid.

Her presence adds an element of mystery and complexity to the story.

The psychological and philosophical aspects of the characters and their interactions are true to life.

It makes the reader think about human nature, relationships, and the consequences of our actions.

Overall, this prequel has given me a new perspective on the original story and has made me appreciate it even more.

I look forward to seeing how the characters develop and how their stories unfold in the future.

The Spectator Bird, published in 1976, delves deep into the profound themes of love and aging. It occupies a significant position between Angle of Repose (1971) and Crossing to Safety (1987).

Stegner is truly a maestro of reflection. He ponders over the essence of life and one's purpose for existence. Novels with such themes have an irresistible allure for me. In The Spectator Bird, Stegner employs the clever device of reading a journal to seamlessly transition between the past and the present. This is the same technique he utilized in the earlier novel The Angle of Repose, where the wheelchair-bound writer uncovers the history of his parents through diaries and memorabilia.

In Spectator Bird, we are confronted with the poignant feelings of remorse and guilt as the narrator contemplates his own past experiences of love and loss. Stegner masterfully weaves into the novel the time spent with Karen Blixen, the renowned author of Out of Africa. He also paraphrases Willa Cather's beautiful and poignant essay Light on Adobe Walls. Stegner's words, “you can't paint sunlight, you can only paint what it does with shadows on a wall,” are both profound and thought-provoking. Concluding the passage with, “What if you never cast a shadow or rainbow of your own, but have only caught those cast by others?” In this same passage, Stegner alludes to Socrates, whose maxim, “Know Thyself,” is a central theme in many male-centered novels that focus on self-actualization. The novel becomes a profound rumination on Joe's feelings about whether his life was worth living. His interior dialogues and journal entries are a desperate search for meaning, a study in elusive identity, and a longing for a lost sense of the past.

But at the end of the novel (a minor spoiler), Joe concludes that he has not been a spectator bird. He draws another literary allusion from The Venerable Bede. “We are presented with another literary illusion paraphrasing the Venerable St. Bede. Stegner writes: The truest vision of life I know is that bird in the Venerable Bede that flutter from the dark into a lighted hall, and after a while flutters out again into the dark. It is something—it can be everything—to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafter… a fellow bird whom you can look after and find bugs and seeds for; one who will patch your bruises and straighten your ruffled feathers and mourn over your hurts when you accidentally fly into something you can't handle.” This final allusion adds a layer of depth and meaning to the novel, leaving the reader with much to contemplate about the nature of life, love, and aging.

For such a short novel, which is only 200 pages, it offers a surprisingly deep meditation on various aspects such as aging, midlife crisis, obligation, and married life.

At the beginning, it took me a little while to get a clear understanding of the story and find my bearings. However, as I delved deeper, I ended up absolutely loving it. In fact, I was so engrossed that I even flipped back to the start of Chapter 2, right when Astrid's postcard shows up, and continued reading a few pages right after I finished the whole book.

As a middle-aged married man myself, I can truly say that Joe Allston is a highly relatable character. Although I might have exercised a bit more agency than he does in some situations, I have definitely experienced many of the same emotions and feelings that he goes through.

I also really loved the dual settings of California and Denmark. They added a rich and diverse backdrop to the story. But what I loved even more was the dialogue, especially the exchanges between Joe and Ruth in Part 5. The dialogue was both funny and extremely realistic. It was so well-written that I had no trouble at all imagining their conversation actually taking place in real life.

After reading this wonderful novel, I am now extremely interested in exploring more of Stegner's work. In particular, I am eager to read All the Little Live Things, which is a sequel to The Spectator Bird. I can't wait to see what other精彩 stories and insights Stegner has in store for me.

The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner was my first encounter with this author, who had been on my TBR list for some time. I chose it first because I have a penchant for short books, especially when delving into a new author.

The writing in this book is truly remarkable. Stegner weaves words together with such ease, much like I experienced when I read my first John Updike earlier this year. The book is filled with astute and profound phrases that made me envious of his use of language. I couldn't help but jot down several examples from the same chapter.

The story has two distinct settings and is mainly a slow-burning character study. Joe Allston, a retired literary agent, receives a postcard from an old friend.随后，he gets a call from another literary agent asking if he and his wife Ruth can host a last-minute lunch with a writer he once worked closely with. There's a storm that causes drainage problems at their house and they lose power, but Joe and Ruth still manage to prepare lunch. Their larger-than-life lunch guest, along with the earlier postcard, sends Joe on a journey of self-reflection and life insecurity.

The postcard specifically prompts Joe to retrieve three journals he wrote during an extended stay in Denmark with the postcard writer (Astrid) 20 years earlier, after a tragic family event. Ruth convinces Joe to read these journals aloud, for reasons that aren't clear until the end. Primarily, the book consists of Joe reading the journals to himself and Ruth in their bedroom, with their cat, and then Ruth and Joe analyzing the events and experiences. The two settings are Joe reading to Ruth and the actual content of the journal.

Through the journals, we learn that Joe and Ruth develop a deep friendship with Astrid during their stay in Denmark, but they constantly notice that Astrid is never a welcome participant with others. At the end of the book, we discover why. However, Stegner's revelation about Astrid's deceased, scientist father was a bit of a letdown for me. He drops this bombshell but doesn't provide any details about how it came to be. I wanted to know more about the circumstances surrounding this revelation.

Despite my previous concerns, in recent years I've really enjoyed books where the main character reflects on their own life. For this reason, I did like this book. I particularly found the way Joe and Ruth, who have been married for a long time, communicate to be a meaningful exploration. Even in their difficult conversations, they remain devoted and committed to each other and give each other the space to work through their emotions.

I can't quite give this book a 5-star rating because of its slowness and the unresolved bomb I mentioned earlier. Otherwise, it's a solid book by a masterful writer.

The Spectator Bird is definitely worth a read for those who appreciate character-driven stories and beautiful writing.

In this relatively short novel by Stegner, every word is precisely in its place. This is highly appropriate for a novel that centers around the retelling of a'memoir' (diary notes were indeed taken at the time) and 'life memories' from a specific earlier life-period of a'retired literary agent', the protagonist of the novel.

So, put on your 'literary thinking caps' and rouse your own memories of every 'lit. course' you ever took, way back when. Because the references and allusions to almost everything you've ever read will come thick and fast. Once again, this is very fitting for a fictional character who is a 'literary agent', although it may not suit every reader's taste in storytelling.

Without revealing too many spoilers here, the story (the memories, the diary notes...) does involve a trip to Denmark in the 1950s and a side-meeting with a real author, Karen Blixen (also known as Isak Dinesen, and now perhaps best known and remembered for a book ("Den afrikanske farm") that was Anglicized and made into a movie as "Out of Africa"). What Stegner does well here, in yet another level of literary layering (and the reader has to remember it themselves, as it's not mentioned in this book, and Blixen is really a side-character to the main story), is Blixen's authorship of a number of "gothic tales". Because what unfolds in this book is quite the 'gothic tale' of the literary agent's discovery of his own family's history in Denmark, a generation earlier, during his and his wife's short stay in 1950s Denmark... and also a love story that remains a might-have-been, something never fulfilled, in the agent's earlier life.

This is not a cheery, optimistic, American 'charge-ahead' story (again: literary overtones, not explicitly mentioned in the book, of course, suggesting James' contrastive pairings of 'Americanism' and 'Europeanism'). But it is a deeply imagined, skillfully written, elegiac, and with some humor too, although somewhat on the dark side. So, I'll be reading my next Stegner soon, whatever that may be, because I'm discovering him a little late in my own life's'readership'.... It's definitely worth the read.

In The Spectator Bird, Joe Allston, a former New York literary agent, has retired to a peaceful suburban life in Palo Alto in the 1970s. One day, he receives an innocuous postcard from an acquaintance in Denmark whom he and his wife met on a European trip twenty years earlier. This postcard prompts him to retrieve his travel journal from the attic. For the rest of the novel, he reads it, mostly aloud to his wife, Ruth. They reminisce about the trip, the people they met, and their long marriage.

However, the story line is as dull as dirt and twice as unbelievable. Firstly, the travel diary is written in detailed, writerly, third-person prose, which is not at all convincing as a diary. Diary writing has its own unique syntax and content, which Joe's does not possess. So, the diary is merely a framing device to tell a long, elaborate backstory, with a smaller, lighter story about Joe and Ruth in the present tense taking the foreground. The framework should never be so obvious.

The second unbelievable aspect is the diary's story. It involves the couple encountering a failed Danish aristocrat, renting a room from her, and then visiting her old castle in the country, where they discover all kinds of dark secrets about her and her family. The climax is the revelation that Joe might actually be related to her! What are the odds? It's not only an uninteresting story but also completely unconvincing.

The best part of the book is the expertly crafted writing. Every scene is written to perfection, with a clear purpose and a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. The same goes for every paragraph and every sentence. Anyone with writing experience cannot help but admire this craftsmanship. However, that's all it amounts to - not lyricism, not insight, not innovation, not provocation. The book is simply very well-written, despite the lack of a plausible or compelling story. The characters are also one-dimensional and seem like puppets. Joe is a mouthpiece for the author's rants about life, old age, society, and marriage, while Ruth is his foil.

Nearly every chapter begins and ends with extensive descriptions of the weather and the scenery. The weather! At times, I thought I was going to spit if I had to read one more paragraph about pewter clouds. It's no wonder young writers today are advised never to do this. It's extremely boring. I've read excellent weather descriptions, such as in the last pages of Pynchon's Inherent Vice, but Stegner's weather is bland and unimaginative, just like his scenery - literally the foliage and the quality of the dirt on the ground. That kind of writing for the sake of writing would not pass the scrutiny of today's gatekeepers. I've also read good descriptions of scenery that subtly serve as an objective correlative, as in the opening scene of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteredge. Stegner had no excuse, and it was a struggle to get through a lot of flowery prose.

A couple of thematic ideas manage to maintain some interest. The main one involves kinship, genealogy, eugenics, and Nazis. The core of the aristocratic revelations in Denmark is that the family is plagued by incest, which has been going on for decades and is still ongoing. The patriarch was interested in breeding humans like cattle for "desirable" traits and conducted his own experiments within the family, although the methods and outcomes are not detailed. We are simply expected to be shocked by the idea of incest. It's a cheap attempt at sensationalism, not a principled exploration.

Similarly, one of the secondary, off-screen characters was supposed to have been a Nazi sympathizer, so there is a hint of Nazi racial theories. However, again, this is not developed as an idea and is not linked to the incest theme. It's just a cheesy way to titillate the reader.

Finally, Stegner presents the strange idea that people love each other because of the relatedness of their genes. The narrator asks what's wrong with incest if the people truly love each other, as long as they don't reproduce too much. Is the best love really self-love? It's an interesting idea, but like the others, it's not developed and not integrated into the main story development. It's just thrown out there for shock value.

Another theme is about ageism. Joe, who is 69, rants about being excluded from society because he is old. He raves about how the old values were better and belittles the lifestyles of reckless, amoral youth, all while wondering if somehow life has passed him by because he never "did" anything. It's not exactly an original theme, but there are a few moments of poignant sentimentality.

Joe was simply not an interesting character. Despite his erudite allusions and educated sarcasm, he was a narrow-minded, burned-out curmudgeon who had apparently lived his life entirely on the surface, valuing only physical and social achievements. He was a mere "spectator bird" in the garden of life. Despite his introspective voice, he seemingly never developed any genuine inner life or authentic sense of self. He had no interests, passions, or guiding vision. So, if you live an empty life focused on the outside, you will end up empty in the end. How could it be otherwise?

Joe was presented as an empty shell who seemed to realize at the end that he was an empty shell. That's a theme worthy of a novel, but in this one, it is just a sub-theme, suggested but not deeply explored.

A few years ago, I tried to read Angle of Repose, supposedly Stegner's masterpiece, but I couldn't get past fifty pages because it was so boring. I tried Spectator Bird because it was short and supposedly good, having won the National Book Award in 1977. I found a few minor attractions in it, but this is definitely the end of my Stegner exploration.

When retired literary agent Joe Allston receives a postcard from an old Danish friend, a powerful urge courses through him. He decides to dust off his old diary from the time when he and his wife journeyed to Denmark in search of his motherland. Joe's wife, Ruth, is unaware that he kept a diary during that period. She somewhat reluctantly encourages Joe to read passages from it to her. The diary not only chronicles their trip but also delves into more personal details and emotions of the events in their lives at that time. It contains revelations that perhaps neither of them was fully prepared to face again. The title, of course, holds symbolic meaning and is not really a surprise when one considers that it's a book about an elderly man reflecting on his life.

Overall, it's not a bad book, but it's not great either. I recall enjoying "Crossing to Safety" by Wallace Stegner much more. Both books touch on themes that I'm not particularly fond of in my reading experiences, such as sickness, the process of growing old, emotional distance, and/or dysfunctional family dynamics, especially when all these elements are present in the same book. Nevertheless, this was a shorter and quicker read, and it has sort of helped build my anticipation for reading "Angle of Repose" by Wallace Stegner one day, hopefully soon.

3.75 ★ Rated Ɱ for mature reader
“He says that when asked if he feels like an old man he replies that he does not, he feels like a young man with something the matter with him.”

Exploring the road not taken, we often find ourselves陷入 the what ifs that rob us of happiness and contentment by fertilizing regret. This is especially true for Joe Alston, the protagonist of this story. Written 9 years after "All the Little Live Things", Joe is now 70 and is pondering the indignities of aging, loss, and the choices he made earlier in life that determined his path.

A postcard brings back memories that prompt him and his wife to revisit a time they traveled to Denmark. Something happened during that trip, but Ruth has never been sure exactly what. Joe is now thinking that life has passed him by, that he was more of a spectator than a participant. The need for clarification and reckoning has come due, and it starts with reading Joe's journal together at bedtime.

Both books were nominated for awards, and this one was the winner. However, I enjoyed reading its precursor more as the Danish segments here seemed a bit disconnected from the story that was unfolding. But ultimately, as expected, it all came together. Stegner's observations of married life are always sweet and sorrowful, profound and full of truth and wisdom.

As always, I loved where he took me in the end, as I have with all his stories. His ability to create complex and relatable characters and to explore the human condition in such a nuanced way is truly remarkable.

They say that as we draw near old age, some people look back with satisfaction and contentment regarding the life path they have trodden. On the other hand, some reflect with regret and guilt, and in hindsight, wish they had chosen other paths that seemingly led to greener pastures. Our narrator, who is approaching 70, firmly belongs to the latter category.

Despite the narrator and his wife enjoying relatively good health, having an accomplished career as a literary agent, and residing in a suburban villa just an hour away from San Francisco, he is burdened with guilt for driving away his only child. Their son became a'surfer bum' and unfortunately drowned.

The narrator is completely whining as he looks at his body in the bathtub, seeing it as 'a museum of dereliction.' He regrets 'the affair not taken' during a long-ago trip to Denmark in search of his mother's ancestral home.

The book was penned in the mid-1970s, and the narrator has numerous unfavorable remarks to make about the carefree lifestyle of the flower children and their disrespect for the elderly. Does the phrase 'crotchety old man' spring to mind? No wonder he drove his son away.

There isn't much of a plot aside from what we might term a genealogical mystery as he discovers things about his Danish ancestors that he didn't truly desire to know.

It's a story about how seniors reflect on life and wonder 'who's next?' while those around them pass away one by one. His wife is a saint, enduring his resolute crotchetyness, so the book is also a tender love story of an aging couple.

All in all, it's a good book. I gave it a '4,' and perhaps I'm being stingy considering I see strings of '5s' as I scroll through my friends' reviews on GR. 'Spectator Bird' won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1977. In a sense, it's a manual about the aging process in America, similar to two others I have reviewed: 'Everyman' by Philip Roth and 'My Father's Tears and Other Stories' by John Updike.

Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was a novelist and a historian. Many of his 25 books, both fiction and non-fiction, revolve around the American West. He has been dubbed as 'the Dean of Western Writers.' His three most renowned works are, in order, 'Angle of Repose,' 'Crossing to Safety,' and 'Big Rock Candy Mountain.' I have read and reviewed the first two of those, and both are truly excellent and among my favorites. If you consider GR ratings, note that 'Angle of Repose' with a GR rating of 4.25 based on almost 150,000 ratings is truly exceptional.

Photo from azquotes.com

[Revised 6/6/23, shelves and picture added]

I'm truly sorry.

You see, I'm just feeling extremely bored at the moment.

There's nothing much to do that really catches my interest.

I find myself just sitting here, looking around, and not really engaged in anything meaningful.

I thought maybe writing this little note would help pass the time.

But even as I'm typing these words, I still can't seem to shake off this feeling of boredom.

It's like a cloud hanging over me, making everything seem a bit dull and uninteresting.

I hope something exciting comes along soon to break this monotony and bring some life and energy back into my day.

Until then, I'll just have to endure this boredom and try to find some small ways to amuse myself.

I unfortunately no longer remember how this - at least from a German perspective - relatively obscure American novel managed to get on my reading list, but it was worth it.

It is an outstandingly composed coming-of-age novel with a lot of irony, warm and witty scenes, and excellent descriptions of Denmark in the post-war period.

The story likely takes the reader on a journey through the life of the protagonist, showing their growth and experiences in a unique and engaging way.

The use of irony adds a layer of depth and humor to the narrative, making it both entertaining and thought-provoking.

The warm and witty scenes bring the characters to life, making them relatable and endearing.

Overall, this novel seems to be a hidden gem that offers a fresh perspective on a particular time and place, and is well worth the read for those who enjoy well-written and engaging literature.

Now that I am in my sixties, I find myself enjoying this book even more on this second reading. I first came across it several decades ago, but at that time, it didn't have the same profound impact on me.

Written from the perspective of a 69-year-old retired literary agent who is not aging gracefully, the story delves into many of the unwelcome losses that come with the passing years. Joe, the protagonist, feels as if he has been a mere spectator in his own life.

However, things take a turn when he begins to read his diary aloud to his wife, recounting a trip they took to Denmark twenty years prior. During that period, a complex situation unfolds, a mystery is gradually solved, and a resolution occurs that serves as a significant turning point in both of their lives.

This novel is yet another testament to Stegner's remarkable writing skills. His ability to bring the characters and their experiences to life is truly outstanding. The story is filled with emotional depth, thought-provoking themes, and beautifully crafted prose. It makes you reflect on your own life, the choices you've made, and the relationships you've cultivated.

Overall, this is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone who appreciates a well-written and engaging story. It's a literary gem that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.