A2: Book Review

Writing on the blog Damn Arbor, Erika Jost reviews a memoir by Howard Norman, “I Hate to Leave this Beautiful Place,” which begins in Grand Rapids in 1964.

About Norman’s book, Jost offers: “His boyhood swan-killing is incidentally the beginning of his lifelong fascination with birds. These essays are Mr. Norman’s thoughtful reflection on his life’s trauma, and the birds serve as the physical reminder of the world’s loveliness, a loveliness that Mr. Norman is compelled to see … [T]his finely crafted collection will be a salve to what ails you, a soaring oystercatcher to enchant and expand your suffering heart. The world seems a larger place after reading Mr. Norman’s book; I don’t know a higher compliment to give a writer or a person.” [Source]