- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada (Jun 16 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307357368
- ISBN-13: 978-0307357366
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #167,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Amazon.ca
Amazon Best of the Month, June 2009: Preternaturally tall and painfully innocent, Brandon Vanderkool is more bird than border patrol agent, prone to mimicking birdsong and building nests. But he's also a remarkably acute defender of a North American border that Jim Lynch describes as "multiple-choice...with incoming settlers finding an American, a Canadian, and a compromise in-between" in Border Songs. Brandon is a rookie agent on a streak of successful smuggling busts during a period when border traffic is at an all-time high, bringing a swift and seismic stroke of change to a corner of the continent that once felt settled and secure. It takes a special kind of wordsmith to create a character like Brandon--and indeed, to craft his whole supporting cast, who are by turns ordinary and ornery (in a way that might remind you of the best moments of Northern Exposure). Jim Lynch writes with enviable restraint, and he sees in a most unexpected way how a person's life clicks and tumbles into (or out of) place. His turns of phrase are as light as a feather, but so precise and purposeful that you'll quickly find yourself buoyed by the vistas they show you. --Anne Bartholomew
Review
“Border Songs is 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, author of On Kingdom Mountain
"An imaginative tour de force. Lynch's comic borderland is not only palpable, it is richly metaphoric. Comparisons with Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins are not only inevitable, they are welcome."
— The Globe and Mail
"A wonderful and important read. It turns out that a novelist's eye is exactly what we need to begin understanding the subtleties of what's happening between our two countries in the post-9/11 era."
— Ottawa Citizen
"Entrancing. . . . Border Songs reads just like the news, except that it is far better written."
— Maclean's
— Howard Frank Mosher, author of On Kingdom Mountain
"An imaginative tour de force. Lynch's comic borderland is not only palpable, it is richly metaphoric. Comparisons with Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins are not only inevitable, they are welcome."
— The Globe and Mail
"A wonderful and important read. It turns out that a novelist's eye is exactly what we need to begin understanding the subtleties of what's happening between our two countries in the post-9/11 era."
— Ottawa Citizen
"Entrancing. . . . Border Songs reads just like the news, except that it is far better written."
— Maclean's
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (62 customer reviews)
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Capturing smugglers - and my heart, May 18 2009
By S. Lionel - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Border Songs: a Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Brandon Vanderkoool... notices things. Six foot eight, socially awkward and with a tendency to say his sentences backward when he is nervous, Brandon is most comfortable among the birds, cows and other animals of his home along the US-Canada border in Washington state. Nevertheless, he takes his job as a US Border Patrol agent seriously, and his ability to see what others don't brings him unexpected success in capturing smugglers, as well as the grudging respect of his colleagues, even if the townspeople still think of him as weird.
Border Songs might succeed if it simply focused on Brandon, but Jim Lynch also weaves in the stories of others in Brandon's life. There's Brandon's dad Norm, a struggling dairy farmer who refuses to sell out, Wayne, the retired professor across the border ditch who is (literally) trying to reinvent the light bulb, Madeline, Wayne's daughter and a childhood playmate of Brandon's, who gets involved in things that put her in conflict with Brandon, Sophie the massage therapist that all the men pour their hearts out to, and many more.
When Brandon (accidentally!) nabs a man suspected of being a terrorist, suddenly everyone is interested in him and this neglected stretch of the border. Tensions escalate, as does the smuggling, and Brandon finds himself trying to reestablish a connection with Madeline, who has her own agenda for contacting him.
I was about two-thirds through the book and found myself wondering how Lynch would resolve all the threads. I've read too many books that crashed into a disappointing ending. Not this time - I found the conclusion of Border Songs delightfully satisfying. Full of unusual yet realistic-sounding characters, compelling stories and more than a dollop of social issues, Border Songs is a true delight. I look forward to more from Jim Lynch.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's obvious that somebody loves Whatcom County, July 4 2009
By Nagronsky "Nagronsky" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Border Songs: a Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Having ancestors who settled in Whatcom County 120 years ago, and crossing the border monthly(and later today)between British Columbia & Washington, I was naturally suspicious of Border Songs, but this could have been set anywhere along "the longest un-defended border on Earth". I agreed with one reviewer's mention of A Confederacy Of Dunces, although the character of Brandon VanDerKool is not nearly as weird as Ignatius J. Reilly, and totally unconfrontational, unlike Reilly.
The peripheral characters of Brandon's life who populate Jim Lynch's book, his parents, co-workers, neighbors, and even the people Brandon busts during his time as a Border Patrol agent serve to paint portaits for us, as well as serve as subjects for Brandons paintings, and I've seen small dairy farmers around Lynden and Sumas go through many of the same travails that Brandon's father goes through.
I received this as part of Amazon's Vine program. Books like this are the reason I signed up
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Characters, May 8 2009
By Richard A. Mitchell "Rick Mitchell" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Border Songs: a Novel (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
What makes this book enjoyable is the terific cast of characters. There is the focal character - Brandon, the 6'8" severely dyslexic border patrolman who is nearly an idiot savant. Then there are the co-stars like his father - a down and out dairy farmer building a yacht with a wife who is entering dementia. Across the border is Maddy, the marijuana growing specialist towards whom Brandon obsesses. Better is her father - a pot smoking former professor who is busy reinventing things by reenacting the original work (i.e.: he retries thousands of lightbulb efforts tried by Edison before getting the one that works) and never misses an opportunity to hurl hilarious insults across the border. In addition, the mysterious masseuse who films everything.
Then, there is the supporting cast to the stars, which is a fine mix of zany small town characters, border patrolmen and officials from both sides of the Canadian-American border.
The border in rural Washington/B.C. is the setting and the smuggling of dope and aliens is what centers the book.
Beyond the humor of the characters and their idiosynchrosies and foibles are several larger issues. The entire concept of borders is explored. Not only the borders between countries, but between what is right and wrong, between people, between what is normal and not normal.
The exploration of borders runs right into freedom - to be different, to be odd, to do what one loves, to be free from harmful forces.
Every character looks at these issues of borders and freedom; at times explicitly and always implicitly. Mr. Lynch uses his characters, who are often zany, yet never crossing the line to absurd, to look at life's borders and freedom in many different lights from several different angles.
My only criticism is that the book lagged a bit in the middle, when it did not seem to be moving anywhere. It picked right up again, though.
These characters will stay with the reader for a very long time after the last page is done. Highly recommended.
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