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Border Songs
 
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Border Songs (Hardcover)

by Jim Lynch (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.97 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Border Songs + The Highest Tide + The Hook and the Badge: Life on the Waterfront
Total RRP: £27.98
Price For All Three: £22.26

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; UK First Edition; 1st printing. edition (3 Aug 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747599750
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747599753
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 3.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 256,610 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review

'A masterwork, and Jim Lynch, for my money, is our best new storyteller since Larry McMurtry: deeply in touch with the natural world, the absurdities of our era, and the hearts and minds of his unforgettable and endlessly surprising characters' Howard Frank Mosher Praise for The Highest Tide '***** This novel is so very special. If you reach the last page without having laughed out loud, felt tears well up or at least once sat back in wonder at the extraordinary descriptions of the sea and its creatures, then you may, quite simply, be inhuman' Independent on Sunday 'Original and appealing Even the most hard-hearted readers will finish this book wishing they had their own bay to explore' Matt Thorne, Sunday Telegraph 'The Highest Tide is one of the best novels it has been my pleasure to read for many a day. It is lyrical, moving, funny and breathtakingly well-written' Susan Hill, Spectator

Product Description

Six-foot-eight and severely dyslexic, Brandon Vanderkool has always had an unusual perspective. He knows the mating calls of all the local owls, and can feel a flock of swans taking off before the sound reaches him. But he finds human feelings harder to read - especially lately. His father has got him a job with the Border Patrol, a reluctant and miscellaneous outfit that polices the often invisible frontier between the United States and Canada. What used to be a sleepy hinterland of farms, with foreign neighbours saluting each other ironically over a shallow ditch, suddenly appears to have become the frontline of an escalating war on drugs and terror. As CCTV cameras sprout up all over the forest, previously law-abiding farmers find themselves increasingly tempted to turn a blind eye. And Brandon, on his excursions to spot red-tailed hawks and solo tree swallows, seems to be accidentally stumbling upon every illegal immigrant and bud trafficker in the area. Closer to home, Brandon's father is dealing with diseased dairy cows, his mother battles encroaching dementia, and their Canadian neighbour's daughter Madeline turns her gardening skills toward the cannabis underworld. And overseeing everything is a mysterious masseuse who seems to know everybody's secrets Filled with eccentric characters and unique histories, Border Songs is that rare delight: a gently satirical portrait, an extraordinary love story and a celebration of the coincidental and the miraculous.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Border Songs
80% buy the item featured on this page:
Border Songs 3.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£9.97
The Highest Tide
20% buy
The Highest Tide 3.8 out of 5 stars (34)
£6.29

 

Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars On our porous national border ... the other one, 16 July 2009
By Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Border Songs (Hardcover)
To those of us living in the American Southwest, the national border of greatest concern and porosity is perhaps the one along Mexico. We may be forgiven for forgetting that there's also a border with Canada, one that can be just as problematic. And it's the refreshing backdrop for a story, as in BORDER SONGS by Jim Lynch.

The setting is along that length of the boundary spanning the coastal flatland between Abbotsford, BC and Blaine, WA, where it meets the Pacific. The unlikely hero of the piece is young Brandon Vandenkool, a recent addition to the U.S. Border Patrol. Unlikely because he suffers from severe dyslexia, a condition that causes awkward problems in his personal relationships, but which also makes him a successful BP officer; he perceives the things and makes the mental connections that his "normal" colleagues miss. For instance, what's with those logs and bales of hay floating down the river?

BORDER SONGS is peopled with a cast of well-drawn and intriguing main characters: Brandon, Brandon's father Norm, who struggles to cope with a gimpy knee, a trouble-plagued dairy business, and a wife in the initial stages of dementia, Wayne, an obnoxious anti-American Canadian neighbor of Norm's dying of MS just across the frontier ditch, Wayne's daughter Madeline, who's up to her eyeballs in pot smuggling, and Sophie, the mesmerizing and enigmatic masseuse who seems to know everybody's business.

The author's intent, presumably, is to illustrate the special love-hate relationship binding the residents sharing both sides of America's longest land border, especially now in this post-9/11 time of heightened border security. That said, the book's plot is essentially a series of mildly interesting one-act scenes mostly involving any two of the aforementioned players. Unfortunately, BORDER SONGS never amounted to more than that for me and it sputtered along to an unrewarding conclusion. Brandon and Sophie especially never seemed to meet their potentials to engage my affection. I skimmed the last pages just enough to get the general drift; I wanted to finish as quickly as possible and move along to a more promising volume. This, for me, is a sure predictor of a 3-star assessment at best, which, in this case, was a disappointment considering the initial possibilities afforded by the fresh locale.
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