Rare Birds

by Edward Riche

Now a Major Motion Picture from Lions Gate Films, Starring William Hurt, Molly Parker and Andy Jones

Dave Purcell is ready to call it quits on his marriage and his restaurant, The Auk. His wife has left for a posting at a Washington D.C. think tank and the restaurant, built on a remote cliff on Push Cove, Newfoundland, never really took off. Dave spends his days consuming the rare delights of his well-stocked wine cellar and larder. All seems lost until Dave’s neighbour, Alphonse Murphy, comes up with an ingenious scheme to save The Auk.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Novels, Humor, Contemporary

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Edward Riche is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and playwright. His previous novels include Rare Birds, which was adapted into a major motion picture starring William Hurt and Molly Parker, and a second novel, The Nine Planets, which won the Thomas Raddall Head Award. His writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and the Telegram. He is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio's "Talking Books." Edward Riche lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't seen the movie that was made from this book, but I can understand why so many reviewers liked the movie better. The third-person narration in the book stays so close to the main character, Dave Purcell, that all the other characters, even the most important ones like Phonse and Alice, are seen only through Dave's eyes, and other people tend to baffle him to a great extent. So the only fully formed character in the book is Dave himself. With actors like Molly Parker and Andy Jones playing Alice and Phonse, you are bound to get very well developed, fully three-dimensional people presented to you. And that would have made the book a wholly different reading experience.

Why? Because Dave's mind is fairly foggy, and much of his life is in a muddle. Probably prone to depression anyway, and as I know all too well depression over time can bring on real-life situations that depress you even more. That's where we meet Dave, as the blurb (reprinted above) tells us--his fine dining restaurant is a failure and so is his marriage. His wife Claire, mentioned very often, lives and works in another country, and there's scant communication between them.

For me, then, sadness prevails in a novel that's clearly written to be light and gently humorous, poking good-natured fun at everyone and sending up life in Newfoundland in general. It doesn't help that Dave's addicted to tobacco, alcohol, and cocaine, and to me that's just not funny. Still, looking past that, there were quite a few enjoyable scenes with Phonse and Alice.

Phonse (for Alphonse Murphy) is Dave's neighbor up there along the Newfoundland coast north of St. John's. He's a paranoid inventor and enthusiastically offers to help bring customers to the restaurant if Dave will help him with his weird invention (and avoid the unknown enemies who are out to get him); his scheme works, but there's a price, and the price is ever-increasing danger for poor Dave.

At the same time, Dave falls deeply in lust (and then love) with Phonse's sister-in-law Alice, up from Montreal, who's staying with them for a while. Alice signs on to help with the restaurant while she's there, and she really does the lion's share of making it a success. The reader must know that Alice has feelings for Dave, but he doesn't have any idea of other people's feelings beyond what they say outright. I guess you might call this plot device "pre-romantic tension."

So I really missed the direct view of Phonse and Alice that the actors in the movie probably gave us.

[Candice Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightfully bizarre

[Emma Willoughby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird book. Took me 2 months to read so maybe that’s why I never really knew what was going on but I’m not convinced that was the only reason.

[Emma]

Rare Birds is a humorous novel that takes place in Newfoundland, Canada and is about a guy named Dave Purcell and his wife that own a restaurant called the auk. He wants to call off both, his marriage and the auk. His wife left to go to Washington D.C. think tank for her new job, he is depressed about that. But throughout it he making the most of the rare delights he has of his wine cellar. His neighbor doesn't want the auk to close down because of all the memories there, so she tries to do everything in her power to save it, and its soon crawling with celebrities everywhere. While Dave is distracted with everything around him and all his opportunities, Phonse Murphy is getting involved into other things by the attention of sinsiter forces and with all of Daves involvement to the auk, the restaurant may go down.

This novel takes place in Newfoundland where interested me because I travel there all the time and while being there you can travel all around seeing where the author describes where he is and seeing all the places can make you feel like you're in the world with the characters. It even got more interesting, not only being in the same places you're book was written but meeting the authors father was a whole other experience. He gave reason why his son wrote the book and how it was all related to his son life. This book makes you laugh and cry and gives you an eye opening experience about lifestyles about Canadians. This novel is enjoyable and a great reader to teens and adults.

[Karan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 3.5. Laugh out loud funny, but unravelled somewhat at the end.

[Sarah Lasko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paperbook

Recommended to me at The Running Goat independent bookstore in Tors Cove NL as a non-soul crushing Newfoundland book.

A floundering restaurant owner fakes a sighting of a rare bird to bring in customers. It was funny … not gut splitting. Written in the late 1990s, it is prophetic about the economic benefit NL would experience of tourism was promoted to travellers looking for a naturalist experience.

I read it while in NL on family vacation. I enjoyed the references to culture, and geography that I was learning about while there. The author could have layed the NL turns of phrase on more.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hilarious story about a bad idea that keeps getting worse for all the reasons you might expect in outport Newfoundland - and some delightful reasons you'd never see coming. It nails so many of the quirks of these communities, and the characteristics of the people you'll find in them.

It's a good story, and well-told.

[Ericm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wickedly funny and off the wall. Only Ed Riche could come up with something this crazy. The movie (with William Hurt) was good but does not do justice to the book. I am after giving this book out as gifts to several people and they loved it.

Highly recommended for a glimpse of Newfoundland.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very interesting in some aspects but kind of lost some steam towards the end and the central character Dave wasn't a very sympathetic character so in the end it was hard to want him to continue with his present course.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this ten years ago and gave my copy away right after. Yesterday I took it from the library and re-read it.

It was even better than I remembered.

Funny and romantic with a flawless plot in which two friends conspire to revive a floundering restaurant business with an underhanded scheme, this book made me laugh out loud in many places. Here is one place: "Nova Scotia was predictable, the visitors got what they paid for. In Newfoundland they got a seven-hundred-pound moose appearing out of the fog and coming through the windshield at one hundred clicks an hour. Surprise!"

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute, dark humor, enjoyable.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting. Ending weak.

[Lauren Christoffersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story of a depressed, cowardly, cocaine addicted restauranteer and his waaay more interesting, kooky neighbor who forces the protagonist back to life.

[Daniel]

Having spent some time in Newfoundland, enjoyed good food and knowing DC politics, this book was delightful. Highly recommended for enjoyment.

[Lib Boggs]

Love this book!

[Francine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this hidden gem of a book.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good chuckles but nothing too special.

[Shug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rare Birds is one of those rare books that also made a great movie.

[MaryEllen Ruddell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Characters were well developed and enjoyable.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun! Always have a plan B!

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character is a sad drug addict who drinks and smokes too much. It shouldn't take over 200 pages for this book to become entertaining.

[Stéphanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an odd one. I had never heard of this Canadian author before stumbling upon this book on Goodreads. Like I said, it's an odd one, and it's funny.

The characters are original and quirky. The setting is Newfoundland, Canada. A little town outside St. John's isn't exactly the perfect place for a fine dining restaurant. When Dave Purcell find's his restaurant dying in the middle of winter, he turn to his eccentric neighbour, Phonse Murphy. Plan A is to fool bird watcher by attracting them to the area by creating a fake sighting of an extinct bird. Plan A, with a little help of plan B works wonderfully and the restaurant is fully booked, night after night.

But things take a turn for the worse when odd characters are popping up in the restaurant and found sneaking around outside in the middle of the night. Have they caught on to the plan or are they after something else?

A good humorous novel and I plan to watch the movie soon. I've never visited Newfoundland but it sure feels like it after reading this book. The ending was surprising, and maybe a little disappointing because it leaves so many options open. But maybe that's how the author wanted to leave things.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do like Canadian humour and this book succeeds in providing some laughs.

The character named Phonse is entertaining. I like it when a book can create a real image of a unique person. The newfie dialog is spot on.

My favourite part of the whole book was a description of Larry's wife, Moira: "Dave, now studying alcoholism to perfect his ruination, noted the depth of Moira's drink. A full day at work, the twins and preparation of dinner had taken their toll. Moira wore the deep fatigue of motherhood and marriage to an asshole that rest could not relieve..."

The storyline probably could've done without the drugs and the book certainly starts out odd. Well, actually the whole book is a bit of an odd duck!

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick, enjoyable read. Dave is a deliciously flawed character, and Phonse's schemes and paranoias are brilliant and hilarious. Gourmet food may not fill a dream restaurant in Newfoundland, but a rare bird sighting certainly will. May you and your projects never attract the attention of the Winnebago corporation.

Will stories of quirky entrepreneurs carving a living for themselves along Newfoundland's fishless shores become a new local trope? It would sit nicely next to the shelves of stories of adventure, exploration, and survival against all odds.

[Pamela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Evidence that humor is local. I understand that for homies in Newfoundland this story about a coke-fired chef and his mentally ill DIY/inventor friend is a belly laugh. For me this satire that takes scatter shots at cheap, ho-hum targets (foodies, wine snobs, bird-watchers, intellectuals, TV poseurs, Canadian Intelligence Services, Newfie low-lifes, St. John's produce retailers) lacks wit. Ditto for interesting and/or likeable characters and story. Hmm, this is a bit mean, but it is my opinion. And humor is a poor traveler.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious, but a little outlandish for my tastes. My main issue was having the characters (from the movie) pictured on the book. I couldn't get past thinking of them as the characters, and I like to create the characters in my mind as I read. I wouldn't have picked the same actors necessarily and I believe it spoiled some of my enjoyment. No fault of the author though. The humanity behind the whole story is hilarious!

[Kathy Hiester · Rating 4 out of 5]

A luminescent, simple read Rare Birds is an amusing story about a restaurant owner and his off the wall neighbor. Jointly they develop a plan to increase the restaurant's popularity and reputation. This is a great story of one man’s fall and his rise back up through deception. The book definitely has a laugh out loud quality and the crazy neighbor was by far the best part of the book.

4 Stars

[Michelle Winters · Rating 3 out of 5]

oddly interesting. Supposed to be a movie as well. Set in Nfld where a native Newfoundlander tries to keep afloat her upscale resturant in a small ouport town, capitalizing on rare bird sightings bringing in customers.

[Roy]

Every bite of salad sprayed crisp cool juices , tasting of green and sun and earth . The wines were rubies and topaz in the candlelight . Tables were talking to one another . Elbows hung over the backs of chairs . The air was jagged with laughter . It was the party to end all parties .

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the movie first, and liked it, so I had to read the book. This is one of the few instances where I liked the movie better! It had a different ending, and the convincingly hapless William Hurt as Dave. It's a good story. I guess what I'm saying is Always Read The Book First!