Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear: Book Review of A Pigeon and a Boy

A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev

Description

I read A Pigeon and a Boy written by Meir Shalev and translated by Evan Fallenberg for my book club. One of the reasons that I love being in a book club is that it leads me to books that I might not have chosen for myself, and A Pigeon and a Boy is one of them.

Yair, the main character, narrates the story as if he were telling it to his mother. As it unfolds, we learn about Yair’s family, his wife, his mistress, and the home he seeks for himself.

In the hospital, at the end of her life, Yair’s mother gives him a large sum of money and instructs him to buy a house. She gives specifications for the kind of house he should buy, and Yair sets out to find a home of his own. With his job as a tour guide, Yair travels great distances and knows the area quite well. He knows where to look for the kind of out-of-the-way place his mother suggests and that he desires.

Along the way, we meet Yair’s family: his father, an acclaimed pediatrician, his mother, who eventually decides to live separately from the family, and his golden brother. All three of them are described as being light and lithe, while Yair is dark, short, and thick. His wife is more like his family than him--tall, beautiful, rich and successful; but living a separate life from Yair in the same house, as she has been for years. And finally, his mistress, his oldest friend, who is more like Yair in appearance.

Intertwined with Yair’s story is that of a boy growing up on a kibbutz who is taken with raising homing pigeons. The boy meets a girl who is also a pigeon handler, and their relationship begins.

Would I Teach This Book?

A Pigeon and a Boy is much quieter than most books I read and teach. It is light on plot and heavy on thinking about and retelling the character’s history. Yair is a nuanced character and his observations are curious--I often wondered how accurate his take on things was. I did not find him particularly likeable, due to how he treats his wife and mistress--though they do not treat him so well, either.

Though not my favorite book, it might be a good choice for a multicultural literature class. The book is set in Israel and translated from Hebrew. It has a distinctively different sensibility from most American fiction and sets up a wonderful conversation about what makes a home a home.

Not a beach read, but A Pigeon and a Boy will transport you and introduce you to a type of storytelling unlike the typical American best seller.

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