The Bird Saviors
By William J. Cobb
(Unbridled Books, Hardcover, 9781609530709, June 2012, 320pp.)
The Short of It:
When religion and love collide, what’s left?
The Rest of It:
When I first came across this book, the summary focused on the presence of a bird flu or some other phenomenon which was killing birds off over time. Me, being the doomsday lover that I am, quickly snatched it up thinking it was another end-of-the-world book which I seem to have a fondness for. About a quarter of the way through, I realized it was most definitely NOT that, but there was something about it that kept me reading.
In a small Colorado town, Ruby finds herself living at home with her father while taking care of her baby, Lily. At the age of seventeen, Ruby is young and without a husband so when her father, Lord God tells her that he plans to marry her off to a much older man, Ruby makes a difficult decision and leaves home to avoid marriage to a man she doesn’t love.
There are shades of the future in this story in that there is a bird flu and people are falling ill with fever, but the book itself is really about broken and damaged people. Small town, small town life. Wretched people and good folks. Lord God is a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so he has strong feelings regarding what a family should be and how Ruby should be raising her daughter. The mere presence of Lord God is rather disturbing at first. He literally looms over young Ruby when you first meet him, but his interactions with the baby show a different side, which in my opinion made him much more likable.
Much of the book focuses on Lord God and Ruby and the wife that left him because of his religious beliefs but there are other characters in the book with their own stories and when they all come together, as stories taking place in a small town typically do, I can’t say I was disappointed.
As far as plot, there wasn’t a whole lot going on but the characters were so unique and the dialogue between them was really quite well done. By the end of the book, I felt as if I knew these characters pretty well, given the short time I spent with them.
The Bird Saviors is slightly dark with plenty of dysfunctional characters. If you enjoy books by Cormac McCarthy I think you’ll enjoy this one too. I found it to be a compelling read.
Note from Ti: Now that the book is out, I see that many of the websites I viewed earlier have adjusted their summaries to be more in line with what it’s really about.
Source: Sent to me by the publisher via Net Galley.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
It probably wouldn’t be something I’d pick of the shelf myself, but you make it sound intriguing.
I had read that it was about some sort of disease induced dystopia, but clearly it is deeper and more layered. That’s good to know.
BTW Ti, I’ve started a health & lifestyle blog at http://beashealthliving.com/
If those topics interest you, please do come & have a look!
Hi Ti!
I had heard that it was about some disease induced dystopia, but it’s clearly deeper and more nuanced than that!
BTW Ti, I’ve started a health, food & lifestyle blog called The Bea’s Knees. If those stuff interest you, pls do check it out (it’s linked to my name )
Thank you
I will check the new blog out. I have one too but just recently deleted all the content to start over.
I had thought this was about disease and dystopia as well…glad to see that the summaries are reflecting the actual content, which sounds like it would be a good book club selection.
The promo blurb made it sound much more apocalyptic than it was but the current blurbs seem to more closely match what the book is about, so that’s good.
I do like books about small towns and dysfunctional families, so this might be just the thing I am looking for. It does sound a bit odd, and odd books always get my attention. I think the fact that one of the characters is named Lord God is weird in itself! Great review today, Ti! I am glad that even though this book was not what you thought it would be, it still made a good impression on you.
The Lord God thing totally freaked me out at first. I thought, “Oh man, here we go.” But the guy was actually a good guy, just very religious.
The title does conjure something else eh?
It sure does. There’s some field work involving birds but it’s definitely not about saving birds.
You do love these kinds of characters…this book sounds intense!
I expected it to be intense but it was pretty mild in the end.
I bought a copy of this via Unbridled’s book club and I am looking forward to reading it. It’s been awhile since I read a book with a small town setting and I am drawn to dysfunctional characters. Maybe because I can relate so well. LOL
I adore dysfunction!
Sounds interesting but I do need plot so this may not be for me.
I would much rather read about a dystopian bird flu plot than the religious aspect, so I’ll probably skip this one.
It started off as a bird flu plot but within pages, took off in a different direction. At first I was tempted to put it down because I really do not like religion to be foisted upon me, but it was mild… really something the character was into but I didn’t feel as if the author was pushing it himself. Know what I mean?
Well I love Cormac McCarthy something fierce…love that literary voice he has. I’m also intrigued with Lord God being a physical presence here, almost like Death narrating The Book Thief or the devil narrating Castle in the Forest. Hmmm…
Religion and its impact is on a lot of people’s minds these days. Sounds like an interesting plot.
Hrm, interesting. I totally eyeball rolled at a character named ‘Lord God’ (kinda presumptuous, isn’t it?!) but I’m also a bit intrigued. Too bad it wasn’t a dystopia — I’m glad the blurbs are now more accurate — and I might get this one. I sometimes like the collision of religion and life…
Glad to hear they fixed the summaries to be more accurate. And the character name of “Lord God” is quite surprising and disturbing.