One For Sorrow Two For Joy [Hardcover]

A book in two parts, One for Sorrow, Two for Joy is the tale of anthropomorphic birds and their battle to save the song birds and then to restore the native population. Magpies in Birddom are leading a crusade to kill all of the small birds in their territory and claim the land for themselves. Hunted and exhausted, the last robin redbreast, Kirrick, seeks the help of the wisest of owls, Tomar. Together they devise a plan to defeat the magpies and their supporters, but first Kirrick must fly to the ends of the word he knows in order to garter support and find troops for battle. In the second half of the book, Kirrick's mate Portia must traverse the sea in order to find songbirds from Windland to bring back to repopulate Birddom. This is not a kids' book: the battles are violent, the magpies are depraved, good birds are murdered, and rapes are committed. However, the two-dimensional characters, clear delineation of good and evil, and friendly, and simplistic writing style mean that this isn't quite a book for adults, either. One for Sorrow, Two for Joy fails to live up to it's epic premise, creating a brief, underdeveloped story with flat characters. The premise, however, is a good one, and the book is a fast read. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this novel. Look to the Redwall series and Watership Down for your anthropomorphic animals and epic journeys. In this book, those elements are weak and disappointing.

I was drawn to this book by its premise, and that premise is still a promising one. Kirrick's journey and the war in Birddom has the potential to be epic, emotional, and exciting. Indeed, Woodall seems to see the elements that would make a good story: there is conflict, there are journeys, there is love, there is a battle, there are repercussions, and some of the good birds die. In fact, some of the deaths, and the order of the others, is fairly daring and surprising as far as general fiction goes. If this same plot had been written, in more detail perhaps, by almost any other author, it would probably make a very good book. Woodall, however, fails to make his story particularly exciting or even epic. He moves too quickly, making journeys seem brief and uneventful rather than arduous and long, his characterization is brief and flat and as a result his characters fail to be compelling or believable and it's difficult to become personally involved in their trails and tribulations, his villains are so unrealistically and unquestionably evil that they and their plots seem impossible, and the climaxes to both stories are almost identical and are therefore predictable and read like deus ex machina.

My other, somewhat smaller, complaint about this book is its setting: unlike the Redwall series, this story takes place in the human world, and unlike Watership Down, it forgoes to much of bird nature that is visible to man. Contrasted against the humans that we know are out there, the birds are either unrealistically human or poor parodies and copies of humans. Woodall's constant use of human turns of phrase with bird references thrown in ("a weight across his wings," "a grin playing on his beak," etc.) remind us again and again of the humans aspect and make the birds seem even more like pale copies. Moreover, some of the things the birds do are so entirely unbirdlike that it goes against the established nature of birds in our human world. Birds of disparate species become close friends, the birds vow to stop eating insects, robins congregate with, persuade, and fight alongside eagles, and so forth. In the human world, birds don't do that; moreover, it's the sort of thing we would perhaps notice if they suddenly started. Trapped within our world but failing to fit the boundaries of that world, the book becomes even more unconvincing.

This is a genre that I adore, but the book is a failure. I don't recommend One for Sorrow, Two for Joy. I give kudos to Woodall for an interesting premise, promising plot, and a number of brave decisions in terms of events and deaths, but even those attributes can't save this book. The writing is poor, too fast and therefore without depth, characterization is horrible, the setting is troublesome, and in the end there's not much left to make this book worth reading. If you do pick it up, you'll probably get through it: the plot at least keeps the reader interested in how things turn out. However, it isn't worth the time or energy to bother.

One for Sorrow is one more in the vein of animal kingdom books, the classic one of course being Watership Down. Sorrow doesn't approach the skill, majesty, or emotion of Watership Down but that's hard to fault it for as few books do. The problem is not that it doesn't hold up well against a classic but that it doesn't hold up well against your average book either.

The story's premise is sound enough. Birdom is threatened by a great evil in the form of marauding magpies committing genocide against the other species. One lone robin, seemingly the last of his kind, is sent by a Great Wise Owl, part of the Great Council, on a quest to enlist the aid of three other Bird families. The second half of the book continues the story, though on a smaller, less epic framework (to say more would be to give away too much of the first plot).

The book has its stock characters: the heroic against the odds robin (Kirrick), the wise old mentor willing to sacrifice himself if necessary (Tomar the owl), the just-as-plucky-as-the hero female (Portia, Kirrick's mate), the roguish ally cracking wise (a goldfinch), the evil overlord (Slyekin) and his as-evil aide (Traska), as well as the usual crew of unexpected allies in strange places who pop up as needed.

The plot too is pretty as expected, with the journeys (three of course) coming one after the other, the lone small hero against a more numerous, more vicious group, the falling in love, and so on. The moral is worthwhile (aren't they all) but pretty clearly Meant To Be Learned. The most unexpected plot points are also the most graphic and most violent (including a brutal rape scene), and seem out of place in comparison to the rest of the tone. Other minor surprises are more the product of contrivance than a natural outgrowth of story or character.

The premise and characters have potential, if predictably so, but the whole thing is so shallowly and predictably presented as to bleach the book of any true impact. Characters do not grow, we are told way too much as opposed to being shown, and events, especially in Book 2, are often anti-climatic for their build up. The biggest downfall, however, is that one just doesn't care much for the characters; they're just too sketchily drawn, too stock, too predictable. Add that to little spark in either language or narrative and the book as a whole is disappointing and at times dully so. If one is interested in reading animal world books such as this one, try Watership Down if you haven't already done so (even re-reading it would be a better use of time) or Rabbit Hill or Duncton Wood ). Not recommended.

I took a chance. In spite of the warnings above, because the premise sounded intriguing. The book cover looked pretty interesting also, so I got this as a book on tape.

Big mistake. It was exactly, perfectly, incrediably, as disappointing as described by the reviewers above. Amazing.

One redeeming thing is, I also got a copy of Watership Down, also because of the recommendations earlier. Clearly it will be wonderful, since this book was a dog.

One for sorrow, Two for Joy truly started out fairly strong with the characterizations of a small robin -the last one known to be alive-- assigned the dangerous mission against an evil plot and impossible odds. Little guy with big courage can accomplish big things.

Like the message.

But then quickly teetered into trite. The villianous magpie was just way over the top. Kill everyone! Use everyone! Rape in the animal kingdom was a bit creepy.

In the middle of the book, when a very major character died, its passing was ...very ....anti-climatic. Kinda 'oh well'. Now that message of the little guy accomplishing great things is getting pretty mucked up. The characters at this point became Tedious. The characters acquired a one dimensional element that made them annoying, disappointing, puzzling, and underwhelming. As if parts of the book seemed better suited for third graders. Or written by one.

Don't want to trash the authors's work out of hand--there were definitely some good ideas there...no question.

But he ran out of steam. Lost focus. It went meaderanding into MarlonBrandoLand.

I can appreciate the undertones of ecology and environmental protection. But the murder and rape by the villian of his loved ones/immediate family was just unsettling.

The villian's intimated end was anti-climatic. This villian was more evil than Hitler and basically his end, if you call it that, was an afterthought. Practically by tripping over a crack in the sidewalk.

Very disappointing.

The movie rights have been purchased to this book. I can't imagine going to the movies to see it. It didn't make sense with unaddressed loose ends still waving in the breeze. And it was depressing.