I’ve also mentioned before that I enjoy the hobby of birding. What a great coincidence, then, that an author whose works I’ve enjoyed previously has written a book about birding! I waited what felt like a long time for my local library to have the book in circulation, but finally it was there, and I dove into the reading.
Bur first, for those who aren’t familiar with Amy Tan, here’s some background. I’ve read all of her novels to date: The Valley of Amazement, Saving Fish from Drowning, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Joy Luck Club, which is probably her most famous novel since it was made into a movie. All of these books are profiled on her website. She’s also written two memoirs, Where the Past Begins and The Opposite of Fate, and two children’s books, Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat and The Moon Lady, and these are also profiled on her website.
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Amy Tan (Library
of Congress 2020 National Book Festival/Julian Johnson) |
As for The Backyard Bird Chronicles, it could be considered a type of memoir, as it recounts Amy Tan’s experience of backyard birding from September 16, 2017, through December 15, 2022. However, while a memoir tends to emphasize the author as the main focus of the book, in this book, the birds she watches take the starring role, so in that way, we could say the book is a nature guide. It’s not that simple, though, as she provides narrative descriptions not only of the bird behaviors but also of her reactions to them, so in that way, she is the medium through which we learn about the birds, placing her in a primary role and making the case to place this book in the category of memoir. Is there a genre of book called “nature guide memoir”? If so, this would fit there.
David Allen Sibley, renowned expert on birds and gifted bird illustrator, captured the complexity involved in classifying the genre of this book when he described the book this way in his foreword:
In her preface, Tan is humble about her drawing skills, noting,
As for learning about birds, I found it interesting that the birds Tan writes about are all found on the US West Coast. She mentions that she and her husband live in New York and California, but the bird observations this book captures are all from her time in California. I’ve lived in Arizona, so I’ve been introduced to some of the same birds Tan focuses on in the book, but most of my birding has happened in the Upper Great Plains and the East Coast, so many of the birds she writes about in the book are not birds I’m familiar with. Nonetheless, even though their appearance in unlike birds I’m more used to, their behaviors are similar. Which birds are dominant at the feeder? Which birds take just one seed at a time from the feeder before flying off, and which sit for long spells feeding themselves? Which feed off the ground and which feed off hanging feeders? Which fly off at the first sight of a human and which watch humans curiously? The names of birds might be different, but an Anna’s Hummingbird on the West Coast seems to behave similarly to a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird on the East Coast, for example. (Speaking of hummingbirds, I never knew it was possible to feed them out of your hand as Amy Tan does!)
Tan writes about her experiences with taking nature journaling classes from John Muir Laws, which reminded me of birding classes I took through the Fargo Parks District. She writes about a then-13-year-old girl, Fiona Gillogly, who she met on the fieldtrips she took through these classes and who impressed her with her bird knowledge, which reminded me of a similarly aged boy in my Fargo Parks District birding classes who seemed to me like a bird genius. She also collects a list of birds she’s seen in her yard, which numbers 62, an activity that will be familiar to most birders. I’ve kept bird lists in many of the places I’ve lived. Some people keep life lists, a compilation of every bird seen throughout a person’s life.
Throughout the book, Tan documents the ups and downs of birding: injured birds, sick birds, the joy of seeing a previously unseen bird for the first time. She tells of shopping for birdseed and of making homemade birdfeeders. Of shooing away neighborhood cats and of trying to keep her lapdog safe from owls. Of learning to identify birdsongs. For anyone who enjoys birding, the book will be relatable, and for anyone interested in starting with birding, the book will provide an entry into the daily experiences one can expect. I highly recommend it!
David Allen Sibley, renowned expert on birds and gifted bird illustrator, captured the complexity involved in classifying the genre of this book when he described the book this way in his foreword:
On the surface, this book is a nature journal; a collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words. Writing, like drawing, works best when it simplifies the complex, using just the essential words and phrases to show us the outline of a scene and convey an idea or a feeling, and Amy Tan, of course, is a master of that art. The drawings and essays in this book do a lot more than just describe the birds. They carry a sense of discovery through observation and drawing, suggest the layers of patterns in the natural world, and emphasize a deep personal connection between the watcher and the watched. (xi)Whatever we call its genre, The Backyard Bird Chronicles was a pleasure to read and provided insights into both Tan and birds throughout. For example, I learned that Tan is a great visual artist in addition to a great writer. There are 34 full-page color portraits drawn by Tan included in the book (33 of birds and one of a Western Gray Squirrel, the bane of many a backyard birdwatcher for its raids on birdfeeders). In addition to these portraits, the book includes additional drawings, mostly in color, on the 91 reproduced pages from her journal, as well as 6 black-and-white sketches. That’s a lot of drawing for someone who’s known primarily as an author!
In her preface, Tan is humble about her drawing skills, noting,
I still have much I want to learn how to do, like backgrounds as context and flying birds at takeoff and landing. As is, the feather structure I’ve drawn for a number of birds would have kept real ones land bound. From my not estimating the size of birds to the size of the page, tails and wings run off the edges into the gutters….I gave the birds big cartoon eyes…. (xvii)In my estimation, her drawings are highly skilled, especially the full-page portraits. Even the black-and-white sketches exceed anything I would be able to produce.
As for learning about birds, I found it interesting that the birds Tan writes about are all found on the US West Coast. She mentions that she and her husband live in New York and California, but the bird observations this book captures are all from her time in California. I’ve lived in Arizona, so I’ve been introduced to some of the same birds Tan focuses on in the book, but most of my birding has happened in the Upper Great Plains and the East Coast, so many of the birds she writes about in the book are not birds I’m familiar with. Nonetheless, even though their appearance in unlike birds I’m more used to, their behaviors are similar. Which birds are dominant at the feeder? Which birds take just one seed at a time from the feeder before flying off, and which sit for long spells feeding themselves? Which feed off the ground and which feed off hanging feeders? Which fly off at the first sight of a human and which watch humans curiously? The names of birds might be different, but an Anna’s Hummingbird on the West Coast seems to behave similarly to a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird on the East Coast, for example. (Speaking of hummingbirds, I never knew it was possible to feed them out of your hand as Amy Tan does!)
Tan writes about her experiences with taking nature journaling classes from John Muir Laws, which reminded me of birding classes I took through the Fargo Parks District. She writes about a then-13-year-old girl, Fiona Gillogly, who she met on the fieldtrips she took through these classes and who impressed her with her bird knowledge, which reminded me of a similarly aged boy in my Fargo Parks District birding classes who seemed to me like a bird genius. She also collects a list of birds she’s seen in her yard, which numbers 62, an activity that will be familiar to most birders. I’ve kept bird lists in many of the places I’ve lived. Some people keep life lists, a compilation of every bird seen throughout a person’s life.
Throughout the book, Tan documents the ups and downs of birding: injured birds, sick birds, the joy of seeing a previously unseen bird for the first time. She tells of shopping for birdseed and of making homemade birdfeeders. Of shooing away neighborhood cats and of trying to keep her lapdog safe from owls. Of learning to identify birdsongs. For anyone who enjoys birding, the book will be relatable, and for anyone interested in starting with birding, the book will provide an entry into the daily experiences one can expect. I highly recommend it!