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Julian Barnes "Flaubert's Parrot" (Picador)
Gregory Braithwaite is a long married and now retired doctor who has taken an obsessive amateur’s interest in Gustave Flaubert after discovering what is purportedly the taxidermied remains of the parrot that the author kept in his study while writing Madame Bovary. Then he discovers a second parrot, also supposedly the inspirational bird.
What follows is a close examination of Flaubert’s life as pursued by Braithwaite, fascinating in itself, but less fascinating than the revelations about Braithwaite that emerge unintentionally on the part of the narrative voice. It is the death of his wife, Ellen, that is the major revelation that fuels our understanding that Braithwaite, like Flaubert, suffers from debilitating loneliness.
Lovely, ingenious, witty, rich, and “wallowy” in spite of its brevity. This is a literary novel in every sense of the word, including a scolding of literary critics. Thoroughly enjoyable
Gregory Braithwaite is a long married and now retired doctor who has taken an obsessive amateur’s interest in Gustave Flaubert after discovering what is purportedly the taxidermied remains of the parrot that the author kept in his study while writing Madame Bovary. Then he discovers a second parrot, also supposedly the inspirational bird.
What follows is a close examination of Flaubert’s life as pursued by Braithwaite, fascinating in itself, but less fascinating than the revelations about Braithwaite that emerge unintentionally on the part of the narrative voice. It is the death of his wife, Ellen, that is the major revelation that fuels our understanding that Braithwaite, like Flaubert, suffers from debilitating loneliness.
Lovely, ingenious, witty, rich, and “wallowy” in spite of its brevity. This is a literary novel in every sense of the word, including a scolding of literary critics. Thoroughly enjoyable
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