Chris White (6)

I'd actually rate this one 3.5, but I'm feeling generous this morning, and I really did enjoy it overall. Chris White is clearly a gifted writer - crisp, vivid, interesting. And I am a birder with a special fondness for woodpeckers, so I was happy to follow Adrian Mandrick along on his quest. Poor Adrian. A shy, anxious boy traumatized by a nasty divorce, he spends his adult life as an anesthesiologist, devoting himself entirely to the avoidance of all pain, both for his patients and for himself, using the wonders of modern chemistry. This eternal search for numbness checks him out of any real connection with his wife, his kids, his family, and leaves him utterly self-absorbed. Only birds can light him up, and even that has become corrupted by a competitive obsession with the (ahem) length of his list. White herself is apparently not a birder, but she has caught the loveliness of the birds themselves and some of the glowing ardor we birders have for them. The chat-group reports from an anonymous novice birder describing his sightings of utterly common birds are charming and touching, and they touch a chord in Adrian too. We trudge along with Adrian as he fumbles and stumbles his way through an ill-advised affair, emotional neglect of his grounded, gifted wife, and a life-threatening illness, to the realization that if a species (plant, animal, bird, or human) cannot adapt to changing circumstances, it is doomed. Towards the end, the plot veers into melodrama territory in a dangerous swamp and the appearance of a mysterious stranger, but the rediscovery of a childhood photograph is truly moving. And it ends on a note of hope... and you know what Emily Dickinson said about hope.… (meer)

Adrian Mandrick is a mess - a doctor who is addicted to pills, estranged from his mother, experiencing relationship problems with his wife, struggling to connect to his children, and all the while obsessing over his life list of birds. He is not a sympathetic character until about the last 80 pages when he finally faces his demons and perhaps, in the end, redeems himself - the ending is kind of ambiguous, so it's hard to say. I enjoyed reading about the birding portion of the story, but the tortuous journey of Mandrick left me fairly unmoved.… (meer)

Adrian Madrick's personality traits shine through in his choice of hobby and career. His obsessiveness is revealed in his hobby of birding where his life list holds third place in the national birder society. As an anesthesiologist addicted to opiates, this man will do almost anything to avoid feeling emotional pain. He loves his wife, Stella, and his children and he pops pills to avoid thinking about what dangers they might encounter. He's estranged from his mother, another way to block out emotional pain. His previous close relationship with his mother introduced him to birding when once, as a young boy, they may have spotted an Ivory Billed Woodpecker.

His obsession, addiction, and avoidance behaviors start to catch up with him as he makes a series of serious mistakes in his relationship with his wife. As well as ignoring a call from his mother who is reaching out to him. The story follows him through chasing after the sightings of several rare birds while popping pills as a means of avoiding the demands of his real life. After his mother's death, he is lured by a novice birder to Eglin Airforce Base on Florida's panhandle to search for the elusive Ivory Billed Woodpecker. This trip is where he finally confronts the pain and truth of his life.

Adrian isn't a particularly likable character mostly because his behavior is consistently that of an addict. Compact and well written, the story is well paced and engaging.… (meer)