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The Bird Room (Paperback)

by Chris Killen (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.06 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd (22 Jan 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847672604
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847672605
  • Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 136,931 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

A blackly comic tale of awkward young love. --Guardian


Review

The Bird Room is an astonishingly good first novel. I was gripped from the first page. (M. J. Hyland)

A strangely merry look at the agony of true love. (Dazed and Confused)

The Bird Room is a beautiful Chinese puzzle of a novel. (Toby Litt)

Sparely written, cool, jaunty, darkly comic, with a sharp ear for voice and manner. (Guardian)

Chris Killen's first novel is either disturbingly brilliant or brilliantly disturbing. Whichever, I loved it. (Steven Hall)

A darkly stylish comedy of sexual manners. (Metro)

Beautiful, laconic and chockablock with uneasy sex - like having a threesome with your girlfriend and Richard Brautigan. (Richard Milward)
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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Customer Reviews

54 Reviews
5 star:
 (10)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (15)
2 star:
 (12)
1 star:
 (9)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars bleak, funny and claustrophic - an excellent first novel, 26 Jan 2009
This is an intruiging novel about insecurities, alienation, and relationships, from a promising first-time author.

The language is sparse and considered and accurate; even in the midst of misery and depression, there's nuggets of sharp black humour and witty observation. Killen's minimalist style lends the work feel of a collection of related short stories, or vignettes: bleak snippets of the characters' lives that build into a disconcerting and compelling whole. The projections of the characters' social anxieties were almost tangible, and made me feel physically uncomfortable while reading. The author rapidly sketches out the fear and panic and pain that Will and Helen experience without getting too involved and bogged down in heavy detail, and his use of dark comedy prevents the novel from becoming too claustrophobic. The immediacy of the text is its strength.

A highly accomplished first novel; very readable; a definite recommendation.
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7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing special, 21 May 2009
By Wayne Redhart "Also on Twitter!" (West Midlands, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
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This book has one or two things going for it (including the odd humorous moment), but I couldn't really say that it did a whole lot for me. It's interesting to see the main character's paranoia being conveyed via the narrative, but it just didn't really seem to go anywhere particularly worth bothering with. Sorry if I'm getting up on my ivory horse, but (despite the curiously unsourced quotations that hype things up on the cover) I found it to be superficial and instantly forgettable. I am sure there are those who will regard this as being a triumphant example of thought-provoking post-modern literature. However, it left me feeling about as cold as an inhospitable female's reproductive tract.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Into the void, 15 Jan 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
I was not very thrilled by this book. I found it to be quite mind numbingly void of any real story plot and intensely boring.

I soon grew fed up of the ramblings of Will (the 1st main character we encounter), who constantly rambles on about his own short comings and how much he wishes he could be like the other Will! He goes into a basic meltdown and drags everyone reading the book down with him.

Then there is Helen/Claire, a wannabe porn star, that appears to be more like a prostitute than porn star, as she goes off to meet creepy men who pay her for sexual favours/porn film auditions.

All in all I found it boring, seedy (not sexy) and very depressing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of edge, but sadly no centre
If you want to see what today's publishers think exemplifies an edgy, dark, post-modern debut novel, just pick up a copy of `The Bird Room'. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Smurfy

4.0 out of 5 stars Minimalist black humour
I enjoyed the black humour of this book despite the rather depressing subject matter and the fact that it made for rather uncomfortable reading at times. Read more
Published 2 months ago by N. A. Bakhshov

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but whats it all about
A intriguing read, by the end it would appear that the person you have been reading about has a split personality. Intriguing. Very readable and thought provoking. Read more
Published 4 months ago by R. Hallett

3.0 out of 5 stars Short and interesting
This is a very short book which I read in two sittings, but since I finished it a few days ago I've found myself thinking about it more and more - the first time a book has nagged... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Peter Lee

3.0 out of 5 stars The Bird Room
The bird room is a very nice room - spacious and full of the melody of the birdsong. But I wouldn't want to live there, because there's too many birds. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Christopher Morris

3.0 out of 5 stars Right author, wrong book
The good news. Killen has enormous potential. He has a fantastic ear for dialogue, a keen sense of observation, and he is masterful at characterisation. Read more
Published 7 months ago by EmmaH

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of sex but not very sexy....
This is the story about Will, his girlfriend Alice and Will his best friend..oh and another girl called Helen. Read more
Published 8 months ago by N. Gratton

2.0 out of 5 stars Modern, but not engaging
This book did not work for me at all. I think I missed the point, but I like books that tell a story, have a beginning, middle and end, and this did not have that for me. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Rosslock

1.0 out of 5 stars I didn't get it
I know I'm going to be unpopular here but I just didn't 'get' this book. It starts dreary and confused with the boy, the girlfriend and the annoying best friend and it continues... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Lilly Penhaligon

3.0 out of 5 stars Short, Light, but Clever
Chris Killen might just be a writer to watch. The Bird Room is certainly no masterpiece, but it contains some excellent writing. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Particular Press

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