The discovery of an old man who has been living in an abandoned storeroom in a Kansas City train station for decades opens an investigation into his past, which includes a stay in an asylum and an intense but brief relationship with a stranger long ago.
But hopefully not depressing - just the train thing made me think of the movie, "the station master" which I recommend -
I read someplace that this is based on true facts but then was enlightened that the truths were the atrocities that both characters witnessed separately - (one the massacre and the other much earlier at end of civil war, I believe) - not the characters themselves - (I'm a stickler for details like that so thought I'd share)
I read this book several months ago. Not one of his best but an interesting read. His first humorous books were really good in a quirky way....'Kick the Can'. If you had to guess who the author was, Jim Lehrer would not even be on the list. So far from the serious TV newscaster.
I think this is one of the best suspense novels I have started to read. I want to know how Birdi came to be at the KC rail way station. How did he manage to live there undetected for so long? Jim is a good writer! One day I want to be as good.
Hi all, I'm new here but loving the book samples. I read "Flying Crows" just a couple of months ago, and enjoyed it. I have to agree with ABS, the last part of the book was a bit anticlimactic. Overall a good read, though.
Today's read made me wonder if Birdie's screaming was real or contrived - is he really crazy (emotionally disturbed) or is he hiding out or was he put there because of something he had witnessed that was not to be told? - I have them holding this book for me at my library -
Picked it up yesterday - but am still reading Faulkner's "Light in August" - which I like but is getting a little tiring as I have to read so slowly -(he packs so much into one sentence) - so may take a break from that and start on this one right away - (and you know me, I'm going to have to do some research on the two events that I think are the factual parts of the book) -
Quite a book, in my opinion - liked the ingenious way he told the story tho' must admit I did have to look back at times to see just what year we were in, etc. - as for it being anticlimatic, if by that you mean, sort of left you not quite knowing the "real stories" of the two men, that did not bother me - just pick your own belief and even then you may vascilate back and forth - but definitely a book that held my attention to the very end and beyond - A thought I did have about the book, even tho' the setting was in a mental asylum, and the primitive ways they dealt with mental illness at the time, or rather did not deal with it, just warehoused the patients, that was just a backdrop to the story of these two characters I came to love - (Josh, the more stable one, and Birdie, the more flighty - no pun intened - and also perhaps the more wily one) -
Just returned Flying Crows to the library. I had read the excerpts here then went and got the book from the library. It was good!! even my husband read it and enjoyed reading it. He spent 6 straight hours reading it from front cover to back. I took about the same time but over many days.
Jim is a great writer, I will be sure to look for more of his books.
Gladys
