The Bluebird Café: Novel

by Carmel Bird

Published in 1988, this collection of twenty-four stories introduced American readers to a wonderful new writing voice from Australia. Carmel Bird's stories are funny-sad, frightening-gentle, mysterious-matter of fact. The world of Australian writer Carmel Bird is one in which no hard line is drawn between everyday reality and unvarnished fantasy. Her new novel,  The Bluebird Café , is a delectable concoction. In the brew are an Historic Museum Village (a Tasmanian Disneyland under an enormous glass dome), a verdant horizontal forest, the mysterious disappearance of midget child Lovelygod, anorexic teenager and later famous writer Virginia O’Day who pens letters to long-deceased Charles Dickens, a Japanese student’s research paper, recipes for Heavenly Tart and Cherry Ripe Slices, information about aborigines and thylacenes. Ms. Bird describes her books as being in some sense a meditation on extinction––of races of people, species of animals and plants, language meanings, the human spirit. Equally it is a celebration of the hope that continues to burn in human hearts, of delight and wonder that still abound.

Genres: Fiction, Australia

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this book but although it was short I really had to concentrate hard to follow the interconnected stories.

I am still a bit confused.

[Lesley Moseley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read a very long time ago, and liked it.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A unique short novel in three sections, exploring loss, extinction and survival. The novel is set in Launceston, Tasmania. Lovelygod, a dwarf, disappeared when she was ten years old. The year was 1970. Lovelygod’s mother, Bedroick Mean, still waits in the Bluebird Cafe for her return. Nearby in the small ghost town of Copperfield, was a life size replica of the original mining town.

Virginia O’Day, a niece of the Means, is seventeen in 1950 and she wants to be an author. Virginia visits the Mean’s of the Bluebird Cafe and stays three months. Her parents were hoping she would begin eating again.

Forty years on, Virginia is a successful author. She visits the Bluebird Cafe and is interviewed. She states she proposes to write about the 1970 Lovelygod mystery, providing alternative scenarios. A Japanese exchange student, staying in Launceston for three months, writes a short historical fantasy story about the Lovelygod mystery.

The last part of the book is a ‘Readers Guide to the Bluebird Cafe’, which includes short notes on topics covered in the first two thirds of the book.

An odd, memorable, thought provoking novel.

This book was shortlisted for the 1990 Miles Franklin Award.

[Julie Seager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique and bizarre but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to make me love it

[Jerry]

review text for 1437

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I think there are two kinds of stories; there's the kind that answers questions, and the kind that asks them. The ones that answer questions are the simple ones...At the end of books like that you are left in no doubt about where the characters came from, where they went, and what happened in between. I am now more interested in stories that ask questions". - p126

The Bluebird Cafe by Carmel Bird is certainly a book that leaves the reader asking questions, specifically: "What the hell is this story about?". It jumps from one place to another, from one character to another, but it's obvious that the gaps in the story are deliberate, and that the reader isnt supposed to know the whole story.

Despite this, The Bluebird Cafe is a quick, easy and interesting read. The gaps in the storyline simply made me want to read more, to find out more, and it doesnt even bother me that I will never, ever know, because the novel is overall enjoyable: odd without being confusing, witty without being silly, interesting without being overbearing. I must admit I kind of liked it.

Having said that, it's not a book I'd read again, but then I dont think it's supposed to be.

[Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 2010 bookcrossing review:

This was a quiet little tale that meandered through a little town's history and didn't really come to any particular conclusion, but I did enjoy it. It's an interesting way of story telling too, as the chapters hop between monologues, diary entries, letters, interviews, essays and even recipies, to build up an image of life in this town, Copperfield. It's a little town in Tasmania, that is now essentially a ghost town bar the sole resident Bedrock Mean, who stays there waiting for her missing daughter to return. But there's a rebuild of Copperfield, also on Tasmania, which is a theme park, all under a giant glass dome, like one of the snow domes that Virginia O'Day collected. And the recreation of the town is build upon the site of another town, where Virginia grew up, which must have been levelled to the ground to create this theme park. And inside there are wax figurines of the townspeople, such as Bedrock and her missing daughter Lovelygod, as if they're historical figures for entertainment rather than actual people still living (possibly).

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember liking it but the details are fuzzy.