Reviews

Creation by Katherine Govier

larkais's review

adventurous reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

I really liked the premise of the book when I picked up this book. The eccentric painter who tries to paint all the birds in North America that he can get his hands on to preserve their beauty as they were in nature. What I don't get is why this book moved so slow for being adventurous and why I had to read so many pages about adultery. Audubon is married but still yearns huh? Well what about Lucy, Victor and Johnny who all staked their lives for Audubon to keep working on his unprofitable venture. I bet all of them yearn for a stable family and the ability to pursue lives of their own that isn't attached to  Audubon. 

Honestly poor Maria for getting caught up in it all, Audubon infantilized her and just desired to have someone under his thumb because Lucy was clearly fed up with it all. I wished Maria broke out of the cage and become an artist in her own right.

I happened to like the snap shops of when the elegant writing style would shine like of the scenery or with some of their introspective dialogue with other characters.


Okay, now watch Songbird by Lemoncholy about the recording of the last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4_dq_e4KGs   

bookthia's review against another edition

3.0

It took me a full 2 weeks to read this book. I could only get through it in small amounts at a time, partially because the detail was so overwhelming, and partly because the action moved so slowly. But. Even though Mr. J.J. Audubon was not a perfect man, or perhaps even a good man, he also was a man to be both respected and, for his dedication to his work, admired. I did like this book. It made me appreciate Audubon's dedication to his work, and also understand just how daunting his task really was. I enjoyed the bits about Captain Bayfield as much as the bits about Audubon, and since I visit Bayfield, Ontario regularly, I will view the town with a tad more insight. Audubon's prescient understanding of man's impact on wilderness is moving and revealing, and he'd be astounded to know that an entire empire has been established in his name to protect wild places. It's hard to explain. I wasn't really "enjoying" the book much until I finished it and saw all the pieces put together. Then, I appreciated both Mr. Audubon, Mr. Bayfield, and mostly, Katherine Govier for her thorough and thoughtful story-telling.

rosseroo's review

1.0

Over the 17-year course of the bookclub I'm in, there have been many times where we've picked a book I have zero interest in, only to find myself very pleasantly surprised. This was not one of those times. Like many others in the group, I made it about 1/3 of the way through this before admitting that the combination of characters, setting, themes, and pace, just weren't my cup of tea.

The idea isn't terrible: take a missing chapter from the life of famed painter and naturalist John James Audubon as he's in the midst of producing his masterpiece "Birds of North America" and fictionalize it. Although following his passage up the Canadian coast of Labrador should have been interesting, on the page it's a tepid slog. The mechanics and details of his process, and the subscription model for his massive work, are kind of interesting -- but not enough to make up for page after page of navel-gazing, a chaste romantic subplot of sorts, and a stiff friendship with another person seeking to exhaustively catalog the natural environs. I guess some readers might find the story and prose magical, but I sure didn't.

athenalindia's review

3.0

So, John James Audubon...asshole or humongous asshole? I mean, are we at usual levels of assholishness, or does he really truly achieve a new high score?

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook