Birds of Sorrow: Notes from a River Junction in Northern New Mexico

Ireland, Tom

ISBN 10: 0939010194 / ISBN 13: 9780939010196

Published by Zephyr Press, Somerville, Massachusetts, 1991

About this Item

231 Pages. Map by Charles Bahne and the Design by Ed Hogan. One-line inked author signature on title page. Tight bright book with no marks or stamps and a faultless interior. This is a collection of stories About Ireland's sojourn in northern New Mexico. Contents in 16 Stories: Jesus, I'll Be Back, The Two-Headed Calf, Law of the Land, Dog Days, The Ravens of La Junta, Out of Work, The Great Blue Heron Archaeopteryx and the Throwback Chicken, The House and Its Inhabitants, Shooting the Well, Willows, Magdalena, Jangle Gently As You Move, Perils Not Insured Against, Gifts and Creatures, and Farewell Flesh: A Story. Ireland grew up in New York City and Angie Coleman grew up in Chicago. Both adopted, with their families, northern New Mexico for their homes. Ireland lived on an acreage called La Junta for a time before moving to Santa Fe.

Seller Inventory # 11712

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Birds of Sorrow: Notes from a River Junction in Northern New Mexico
• Publisher: Zephyr Press, Somerville, Massachusetts
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0939010194
• ISBN 13: 9780939010196
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Illustrator: Coleman, Angie - Color Woodblock Prints
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Details the author’s experiences after leaving the East coast to live on a 10-acre farm called La Junta in northern New Mexico, where he built a house, fenced in land, lived, and wrote.

Reviews

During the '70s, the author, originally from the East Coast, settled down with his family on a plot of land called La Junta at the junction of two rivers in the isolated community of La Madera, N.M., 50 miles north of Santa Fe. In a lively, informal fashion, Ireland ( Mostly Mules ) regales readers with tales of the eccentricities of the region's natives; of trying to make ends meet by working at a cement-block plant; of the travails of building a house and digging a well; and of time spent immersed in nature raising sheep, obsessing over the significance of ravens and domesticating a magpie. Ireland has an sharp eye for nuance, whether he's describing the disease infecting his beloved willow trees--"those wormy bumps, or blisters, as if a great, sudden heat had passed, searing the bark of the willows and raising multitudes of tiny welts"--or washing his daughter's hair--"How she screams and hollers! How sweet and clean and obedient she is when it's done! Saying, in these very words, 'I'll do anything you tell me to do.' " This collection offers a refreshing account of Ireland's experience in the American West, one whose appeal is delightfully idiosyncratic and universally human. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One persistent form of the American dream is to flee the urban area in search of a simpler and thus somehow more satisfying life in a remote area. Some excellent literature has resulted from this experience, and Ireland continues the tradition. After moving to La Madera, New Mexico, in the mid-1970s, he built a home, nurtured a family, quarreled with his neighbor over water rights, lived in fear of the menacing "bad boys" who drank beer in a parking area nearby, and eight years later moved to Santa Fe. Ireland is a fine writer--introspective but articulate, sensitive to his environment, and brutally frank.
- Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.