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Bird
A caged bird, an aging mother and a family loss that no one will talk about. This short story delves into the pain and longings of a girl caring for her mother with an insight into the world through her unspoken wishes.
7 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2013
2 people want to read
About the author
F.C. Malby
12 books18 followersF.C. Malby writes novels, short stories, and poetry. Her debut novel, Take Me to the Castle, is set in the Czech Republic and won The People’s Book Awards. Her second novel, Dead Drop, set in Vienna, is a lyrical, daring thriller about the undercover world of art crime. Her debut short story collection, My Brother Was a Kangaroo, includes award-winning stories published in literary magazines and journals worldwide.
F. C. Malby's second collection of short stories, A Place of Unfinished Sentences, is intense, beautifully realised, and ice-sharp, and is forthcoming in 2024. She is a contributor to four print anthologies. The forth is forthcoming with Pens of the Earth in Oct 2024. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, magazines and podcasts, and she is a reader for writing competitions in various literary journals.
Sign up to the mailing list at fcmalby.com for pre-publication news and exclusive stories. Twitter/Instagram: @fcmalby | Facebook: fcmalbyauthor
F. C. Malby's second collection of short stories, A Place of Unfinished Sentences, is intense, beautifully realised, and ice-sharp, and is forthcoming in 2024. She is a contributor to four print anthologies. The forth is forthcoming with Pens of the Earth in Oct 2024. Her poetry has appeared in various journals, magazines and podcasts, and she is a reader for writing competitions in various literary journals.
Sign up to the mailing list at fcmalby.com for pre-publication news and exclusive stories. Twitter/Instagram: @fcmalby | Facebook: fcmalbyauthor
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 8, 2014
Grief never ends, notwithstanding a person’s outward appearances. In “Bird,” the mother displays her outward telephone personality and then withdraws to her private bitterness and irritability. The anguish lurks like an intruding squatter in the heart of this suffering individual. Like a virus, it spreads to affect her daughter, who has her own heartache to bear.
Fiona Malby has done a marvelous job of capturing the aspects of grief in her well-paced short story. Sentences flow smoothly like her metaphoric breeze through the cornfields while she uncovers the depths of psychological conflict ensuing from her father’s death, her mother’s withdrawal, and the caged bird’s silent observation. With great subtlety, Malby explores ways in which the father’s death has been a betrayal.
The eponymous Bird in its cage is a somewhat confusing object that can only ignore the mother, until it — and perhaps the daughter — can consider escape. It would be too easy to dismiss Bird as a plot device, but it remains enigmatic. Bird offers the possibility of freedom, but perhaps only if the mother grants it.
Grief is rarely tackled in fiction. It’s not an easily resolved subject, like errors of commission that require redemption or vengeance or correction. This anguish is a condition that comes from the subject having done nothing to deserve it.
Malby deserves extra credits for seizing a difficult subject and then examining its complexity and ambiguity. I rarely give any writer five stars, but this story deserves them all. Well done!
Fiona Malby has done a marvelous job of capturing the aspects of grief in her well-paced short story. Sentences flow smoothly like her metaphoric breeze through the cornfields while she uncovers the depths of psychological conflict ensuing from her father’s death, her mother’s withdrawal, and the caged bird’s silent observation. With great subtlety, Malby explores ways in which the father’s death has been a betrayal.
The eponymous Bird in its cage is a somewhat confusing object that can only ignore the mother, until it — and perhaps the daughter — can consider escape. It would be too easy to dismiss Bird as a plot device, but it remains enigmatic. Bird offers the possibility of freedom, but perhaps only if the mother grants it.
Grief is rarely tackled in fiction. It’s not an easily resolved subject, like errors of commission that require redemption or vengeance or correction. This anguish is a condition that comes from the subject having done nothing to deserve it.
Malby deserves extra credits for seizing a difficult subject and then examining its complexity and ambiguity. I rarely give any writer five stars, but this story deserves them all. Well done!
July 17, 2013
The characters in this story are a Mother with dementia, her daughter caring for her and a bird. What do they have in common? They are all trapped in their own "cage".
Bird is a beautifully written, poignant story. It tells about the loneliness and the feeling of helplessness when caring for someone with dementia. Ît also tells about the desire to be released from the "cage" and yet either you can't or you decide to stay.
Bird is a beautifully written, poignant story. It tells about the loneliness and the feeling of helplessness when caring for someone with dementia. Ît also tells about the desire to be released from the "cage" and yet either you can't or you decide to stay.
August 6, 2013
In this short story a daughter, her mother, who may be ill, maybe depressed, but is definitely cranky and a bird in a cage share a house. This story could have happened in any era as no reference to time. Everyone is free to leave. The daughter stays to care for the mother. The bird stays out of spite and the mother just stays
Parental roles are so often reversed with the child stepping up to care for the aging parent it is a story many can relate to.
Parental roles are so often reversed with the child stepping up to care for the aging parent it is a story many can relate to.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews