Source: Edward Carey.
Another essay I found in Conjunctions is "Bird, Bath." I first read this author many years ago when I was still a librarian. The novel was the strangely captivating, Alva and Irva: The Twins Who Saved a City. The novel, which is set in the fictional city of Entralla is gothic and uncanny.
Carey has many other novels, but his essay, "Bird, Bath," caught my attention again because it is so completely different from his fantasy and gothic fiction. Carey celebrates many types of birds, especially the grackle, which is common here in Texas.
This personal essay relates changes in his life, by the changing landscape and bird habitats. To calm himself, when he found himself in unfamiliar surroundings, he drew birds.
When he moved to Austin, Texas to teach Literature, he learned to love the grackle. Originally from England, he also mentions the wonderful qualities of the magpies, swifts, swallows, and cynets.
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