The love triangle between Jesse, Abigail, and Mark was the low point of the book. It really wasn't a triangle at all...there was no contest...Abigail and Jesse were destined to be. Deze roman is dus vol van zwaarmoedige ellende, maar tegelijk toch vederlicht van stijl en vorm. Een wonderlijke combinatie. En even wonderlijk vind ik dat deze roman, die ook nog eens behoorlijk wanhoopt aan de toestand in de wereld, eindigt met een apologie van hoop. In dat einde, dat speelt in 2030 en dus in de toekomst, denkt Marco terug aan de science- fiction verhalen waar zijn ongelukkige vader zo van hield: verhalen waarvan je kunt "leren hoelang men al wacht op de nieuwe mens, hoe poëtisch en onschuldig hij al duizenden keren is bedacht in dromen en fantasieën." Maar hij denkt vooral vooruit, omdat voor hem deze fantasie gestalte gekregen heeft in zijn kleindochter: de gedroomde man van de toekomst die gelukkig een vrouw is, die alle rassen in zich verenigt, die ogen heeft die niemand ooit heeft gezien, en die zich ontpopt als een soort Greta Thunberg 2.0 vol van idealistisch activisme. Wat allemaal niet kan, maar wat in de romanwereld van "De kolibrie" gewoon toch zo is. En het is zo briljant opgeschreven dat ik nog in deze fantasie geloof ook. Ik kan en ga dat verder niet analyseren, want dan maak ik het dood: lees, en oordeel zelf.

Hope and despair. Love and loss. Anger and acceptance. Aggression and surrender. These are all emotions that we as human beings will feel at some point in our lives and all are touched on in this quietly affirmative novel. Because no life should be a whisper. Remember that, okay? You’re not a miracle because you have brittle bones or because you use a wheelchair or walker. You’re not a miracle if you don’t. This is my second book by this author and I loved everything about it! How have I missed this amazing talent? The copy I just finished is a loan from the Library, dog-eared, tattered with yellow, crinkling paper held together by tape! The printing date is May 1983! But this one is timeless and I would never have known it’s age if I hadn’t looked! Where have I been not to have read some of her books? To think I could have missed this wonderful gift if my GR friend Jill had not recommended her Morning Glory! As hospice worker Deborah cares for Barclay, a dying history professor, he teaches her how to help husband Michael recover after serving three tours in Iraq. Threaded between each of the main chapters is a secondary story about a Japanese WWII bomber pilot and his relations with the American town he once bombed during the war. By providing an analysis on the moral implications of killing during times of war, it handily parallels the struggles that Deborah’s husband is also facing having just returned from war himself.Visiškai už pakarpos pričiumpanti knygos architektūra, sodrumas meninių šaltinių net žandikaulį išnarina (pabaigoje autorius pateikia savo įkvėpimų nuorodas). Sometimes a new novel is accompanied by so much advance praise it seems like a sure winner. So it can feel disconcerting to discover that after actually reading the book it hasn't worked for me. Jhumpa Lahiri states that Sandro Veronesi (winner of multiple literary prizes in his native Italy) is “long considered one of Italy's leading writers” and that “his latest novel 'The Hummingbird'... has already been hailed as a classic.” High praise for this book also comes from Ian McEwan, Howard Jacobson, Michael Cunningham, Richard Ford, Edward Carey and Edward Docx. It's described as a “reinvention of the family saga” and generally I really fall for multigenerational stories. So all the elements were in place for me to fall in love with this book, but I didn't. This naturally makes me wonder if I'm missing something or if my expectations were set too high. But generally I've found that no amount of overarching high praise will spoil my enjoyment of a book if it's actually good and “The Hummingbird” is a novel that I keep finding faults with the more I think about it. Spencer is known for creating realistic characters and stories that focus on families rather than only the relationship between a man and woman. These "ordinary" men and women are warm and vulnerable and are always portrayed sympathetically.[1] Her heroines tend to be a mix of fire and warmth, strength, savvy and soft–heartedness who must overcome some sort of adversity, such as pregnancy, divorce, a lengthy separation, the loss of a loved one, and then undergo a catharsis. The stories center on themes of abiding love, family ties and strength in difficult times.

But there is another situation that is less a matter of disgruntlement or whimsy. It is the 'accident' of the moment of reading: specifically, reading a particular book before or after certain other books. More than 540 spectacular color photographs, illustrating all 101 hummingbird genera and over two-thirds of the world’s 369speciesJesse is a hero I love because he brings out the very best, and worst, of Abigail. He encourages her to be herself and not what her parents and the town expects her to be. Her gradual liberation is so good to see. She'd had so little love, he thought, I will drown her in it for the rest of her life". This from an alpha hero! How can you resist? Veronesi heeft overigens bewust afgezien van een chronologische vertelling. Daarvoor waren de droeve gebeurtenissen te talrijk. In plaats daarvan serveert hij 46 korte hoofdstukken die voorzien zijn van een jaartal of een tijdvak (van maximaal 10 jaar). Spencer can do a million times better. That saying, “I’m not mad; I’m just disappointed,” comes to mind, but it wouldn’t be true. I am extremely disappointed, as evidenced by how many times I’ve used that word in this review, but I’m mad, too.

There is plenty for the plot junkie – Carrera is pummelled by events – but what makes the book special is that The Hummingbird is such an intelligent meditation on life, family, the human heart and the “dictatorship of pain” that comes with grief. I was reminded of how very much I used to enjoy the kinds of writers who have you underlining passages or making notes in the margin – not just about the book itself, but about your own thoughts on, say, friendship, or lust, or loss. I’m thinking of my early adventures as a reader with Milan Kundera or Umberto Eco, though Veronesi has a very different atmosphere: more tender, more emotionally exasperated, less sure and continually at home to Rudyard Kipling’s “six honest serving men … What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” And to make it EVEN WORSE (that would have been enough, but this is the piece that just makes it even more incomprehensible to me), Jesse ISN’T EVEN THE VILLAIN train robber he’s accused of being. He is a photographer. Just a regular guy. Who?? Thinks this is okay?? And then LAUGHS after she leaves the room, his own private joke because only he knows that the gun has been empty the whole time. Many thanks to librarything.com for the advanced uncorrected proof of The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan in return for my honest review. The composition of this novel is very particular: Veronesi has cut up Marco's life story into some 45 episodes, shaken up quite well through time. He also experiments with different forms, alternating dialogues, letters, chat sessions and ordinary narrative passages. This means that a lot of puzzle work is involved, especially in the beginning, at the expense of the content of the story. I must admit that because of that, the story only started to captivate a little halfway through. Until then, I noticed the very light narrative tone of Veronesi, which is strange, because quite a lot of sad things happen to the protagonist Marco, at a certain moment one disaster follows the other. But Marco seemingly struggles through them with a large dose of stoicism, very reminiscent of Williams' Stoner. Also, quite a few psychiatrists are involved, both for better and for worse (Veronesi clearly has a thing with psychoanalysis).This book has been languishing on my TBR since 2015. Thankfully a new book club I just joined had selected it for their December read. The Hummingbird is narrated in first person by Deborah Birch, a hospice nurse with years of experience caring for and standing by her patients as they leave the world. I believe it takes a special kind of person to do a job like that over and over again without spiraling into either depression or indifference. Instead, Deborah takes something personal and positive from the death of each of her patients. There were times I felt she might actually be a little too good to be true but in the end, I was ok with that. This is a story that hit a little close to home at the moment so I am not sure if I can give it a truly unbiased review. So this will be a short one. This is a story of someone who is dying from a horrible disease and the caretaker whose job it is to stay with him until he passes. It is the story of healing during the dying process as well as a story of learning and growing right up until the end. It is a story about how those at the end of their path still have the ability to teach those who are not.

The Hook Author Stephen P. Kiernan was a speaker at Booktopia 2016 sponsored by Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont. Though Kiernan was promoting this, The Hummingbird, his latest book, it was when he spoke about end of life issues, both of the living and the dying, that I knew I had to read his books. Si lessa il tacchino dopo averlo disossato; poi si mette tutto in frigo in modo da far solidificare il brodo e far formare la gelatina. Qui c’è tutto quel che bisogna sapereSevgili Sinekkuşu, zihnimin "bu sene okuduğum en güzel şeyler" çekmecesine hoş geldin. Açıkçası yıl bitmeden oraya yeni bir şeyin eklenmesini pek ummuyordum, nasıl güzel bir sürpriz oldun! Beni sardın, okşadın resmen; ne zarif, ne güzel, ne hüzünlü, ne komiksin. I have to admit I was curious to see what Kiernan would do with the fictional The Hummingbird. I am truly in awe of the book and the man. Gentle, loving David, promising her a happiness she'd lost hope of finding, was all a lady could wish for. I like people who aren’t afraid to sparkle. Life’s too short to blend in, right? You gotta do you.”