Anyways, here's my review for Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos :)
Actual rating: 4.35 stars
For a year, I've been seeing an imaginary therapist. Her name is Dr. Bird. She is a large pigeon, human-size. She wears no clothes. Because she's a bird.
This is the type of person James Whitman is. He hugs trees and talks to Dr. Bird when he's feeling depressed. He is the type of person who memorizes Walt Whitman, likes to yawp, and risks his life to save injured animals from buses, even though sometimes those animals turn out to be Tastykake wrappers, and he turns out with a broken arm. He crushes on Beth, the president of the lit magazine that no one reads, and tries to write Whitman poetry like Whitman writes.
That is his quirkier side. He has a darker one, as does everyone.
I go up to the tree that has preexisted me and might outlive me. I press my arms around the trunk and feel the bites against my inner arms... and I think about anxiety and medication and worry about losing myself or sinking further into this kind of stupid behavior. I can't keep going on like this.
He tries to distract himself from life, but sometimes life forces him to not be distracted. James wants to know why his sister was expelled, and he finds it difficult to live without her. He's plagued by guilt because all throughout his childhood, their parents (the Banshee and the Brute, as he nicknames them) beat her for things he had done, and he never thought would be discovered for. Every single time, his sister Jorie had taken the blame, until she had gotten expelled and then brutally kicked out of the house.
Now, James is alone. He wants to know why because he thinks there must be a reason, as others have done what Jorie did and have only gotten suspended for a week.
This is the novel: a tale of James Whitman's song of self. It includes Beth (his crush), Derek (his kinda friend), Jorie (his sister), the Banshee and the Brute, and of course, Dr. Bird.
My thoughts:
Evan Roskos' debut novel was absolutely hilarious and deep at the same time. His style of writing is one of ease, so it was exceedingly easy to fall deep into the story and not surface until it is finished. This novel was poignant and captivating, and James was the most eccentric (yet not completely crazy) main character that I've seen in a long time. This book tackles really serious issues in the best way possible, with a fucking barbaric yawwwwwwwwwwwwwpppppppp!
Sorry, I had to include that.
If you're still not convinced to at least give Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets a try, here's some small excerpts from around the novel:
Page one:I yawp most mornings to irritate my father, the Brute."Yawp! Yawp!" It moves him out of the bathroom faster.He responds with the gruff "All right." He dislikes things that seem fun
Page 26:I do not tell Dr. Bird I want to kill myself sometimes, but she knows. She's up in my head. She perches on the power lines of my thoughts
Page 148:I tell Derek that I had a great moment with Beth."A moment?""Yeah. More than a moment, but tere was a moment that was very important, I think.""Did she touch you where you pee?" he asks."Metaphorically.""I'm not sure how that even happens.""She said I didn't ruin her life." I feel like I'm bouncing up and down but I'm actually standing still. My heart's racing."Well, that's a good way to start a relationship: 'Hey, I didn't ruin your life. Let's date!'"
Please. This book was amazing.
Click to see this review on Goodreads!
"If you are someone who yawps, read this book. If you know someone who yawps, read this book. If you've been looking for a book that detonates the one incredible word yawp and spatters every molecule of its joy and grief and laughter across the New Jersey landscape, then you've found the book. If you are standing around reading this and thinking, 'I have no idea what yawping is,' then--come one, what are you doing? Read this book."
Once again, this section above in quotation marks isn't my review, it's Jesse Andrews :) I love it <3
