Bird in Hand by Christina Baker Kline
First line: For Alison, these things will always be connected: the moment that cleaved her life into two sections and the dawning realization that even before the accident her life was not what it seemed.
Some titles suck you in. Some covers reach out from their place on the shelf and scream for you to rip open that cover to start gobbling up the story. Neither happened for me with this one, perhaps because it reminded me I need to make my bed and I couldn’t for the life of me remember the saying about a bird in hand until I asked my husband later: a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Despite a less-than-stellar blink reaction to the book, judging by its cover, I was so surprised, nay, delighted, when I began reading and loved the book. The third hook, the FIRST PAGE, has to seal the deal on whether or not the book and I are going to be friends for the duration of the read.
Kline’s novel and I were immediately joined at the eyeballs for a whole day. That’s right. I was the girl on the diet who saw a bowl of M&Ms and scarfed down every last one and then skipped around the room on a sugar high. I know BIRD IN HAND doesn’t look like an M&M book, but it is. You’ll devour it and not hate yourself in the morning.
The novel begins with an incredible hook: Alison, the stay-at-home mom protagonist and sometimes freelancer, has been in a car accident and a passenger in the other car, a three-year-old boy, has died as a result. The accident becomes the catalyst for the deeper examination of what is happening in Alison’s life – her stale marriage, her estrangement from her best friend from her hometown, and her loss of identity. If it weren’t for the accident portion of the plot, you may THINK you’ve read a story similar. After all, infidelity and identity are two biggies in women’s fiction. However, you would be wrong. Kline’s writing is such a joy that you’ll relish every word. If you love the written word, truly beautiful language, then Kline is your gal.
She writes not from on high, as some literary writers do, writing “down” to you, but with a strong sense of relevancy and spark. Moms will be able to relate to Alison and we can only imagine the pain of being a part of someone’s death, especially a child’s, when your own children are safe at home. Her friendship with Claire, a long-time best friend since childhood, is complicated because Claire is also a writer and has just published her first novel, a thinly veiled memoir which Alison has yet to read even though she is sure she is a character in the book. What Claire does to Alison is unspeakable and because Kline gives us the story in alternating points-of-view between the two couples as well as flashback scenes from college to present-day, we see the red carpet of infidelity rolled out before our eyes. We see where it came from, and strangely, how it all makes sense, even if we don’t approve of it.
BIRD goes one step further, digging deep into our psyches, where the dreams and mis-steps of our own lives come clearly into view. How we’ve ended where we are now may be a mystery to us, but thanks to Kline’s brilliantly assertive novel, we may actually be able to solve it.
For: A fast-paced literary read about friendship and marriage. – Malena Lott