Review of FEATHERHOOD

learning about life, past and present, from a magpie ...

I love crows. They are smart and entertaining. They take care of their own. I began to be trusted by those that live around our home in South Pasadena. They didn’t flee when I gardened. They really loved messing with the dogs. They might pick me to pieces come the apocalypse but until then I consider them great company. I use them all the time in one metaphorical context after another the most recent being putting up with a loud wordy gathering is like living with a crow in your kitchen. Well … this beautiful and quirky memoir combines both my versions of a crow.

Except it is their cousin the magpie that is the heart of this book. The writer rescues a fallen magpie chick and he and his wonderful wife raise him while simultaneously the bird raises the two of them. It is a charming story as long as the magpie is in it, which is most of the time. While it is odd that the estranged, disturbed poet father also raised a magpie and the son’s plight and pain are real, that part of the story, true and strange, pales compared to living with the magpie. Gilmore pulls it all together by the end, capping this touching story with a beautiful, moving ending. If you love birds like I do, this is a book to read. If you love crows like I do, this is a mandatory read.

Featherhood

A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie

Charles Gilmore

2021 304 pages