Hummingbird House

by Patricia Henley

An American midwife travels to Central America to care for the women and children suffering through war.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, International, Romance

325 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[J.I.]

Hummingbird House is a book I didn't particularly love for most of the way through. It is the story of Kate, an nurse in Nicaragua for the last 8 years who had stayed on after a visit from the states, who is finally going home. She gets waylaid in Guatamala, however, and the civil strife going on there. It was a little too self-concerned, a little too self-righteous and not extremely compelling. It comes together though quite well. The writing is solid if not great and occasionally stretching itself too far and the plot points for much of the book feel mildly contrived.

What emerges from this, however, is a narrative that feels like the truth. It comes to a place of some sort of peace, but it is peace with itself, not peace as in absence of war or of strife (something that I began to fear it would attain) but a peace of separating while remaining a part of. It is difficult to describe, but I feel that this book does a good job of capturing this feeling. Give it a looksee if you get the opportunity, it may be your cup of tea.

[Chana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to rate this book a 2 star to be nice, but who am I kidding? I really did not like this book. I thought I was going to be reading a book about Guatemala, like When I Was Elena by Ellen Urbani Hiltebrand who was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Guatemala; or about being a midwife in a poor country like Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years With A Midwife In Mali by Kris Holloway, another Peace Corp Volunteer.
The Hummingbird House is not, in the main, about Guatemala. Guatemala is the setting of the main part of the story, although it starts in Nicaragua. This story is actually about a woman named Kate and her love life. First there was Paul and then there was Deaver and last there was Dix. You don't get much of Guatemala; some people get "disappeared" (kidnapped and murdered), some people get beaten and tortured, it is a scary place to be even if you try to keep your head down. Some people try to be activists, they are in danger obviously. And there are so many orphans, many sniffing glue to ease hunger pangs. But this is all you get of Guatemala, the rest is Kate and her relationships. The one nice thing in this book is that Kate takes in an orphan girl and raises her. You also don't get much midwifery. Kate delivers one baby during the story and the mother dies. There is no explanation for the death.
I wanted to know more about Guatemala; who was fighting whom and for what reasons, the history behind the devolution into purposeless violence. I guess what I wanted was non-fiction, a serious look at Guatemala.
I didn't care about Kate and her sex life, or even her redemption at the end. And I certainly didn't care for the twist the author throws in near the end of the story. When all is said and done and years have passed Kate no longer feels sexual desire and she is content. This is what I mean by this book is about Kate and sex. She has her first love Paul whom she evidently dumps for Deaver and a life as a midwife and political activist in Nicaragua with Paul's sister Maggie. Deaver is her addiction to a sex life that is ultimately loveless and perverted. Dix is her platonic love and they have plans to marry when his resignation from the priesthood is complete. Kate and sex, Guatemala is just the background.
Also, in regard to the writing, the beginning is very confusing as she does not introduce characters, she just kind of dumps you into the story and you flounder around until you can get a handle on who is who. She also uses a lot of Spanish, some of which she follows with the English meaning and some of which she doesn't. At first I tried to keep looking up what the Spanish meant but quickly decided that the book was not worth the effort.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What were you doing while the poor were suffering...?"

I would have been a twenty-something college student while the horrors spoke of in this book took place. I would have been wandering the aisles in Cost Plus World Market wondering about the beautiful colors and textures of weavings from Guatemala, feeling as though I was a part of the solution, somehow.

How little I knew then, how little I do to help still. Beautiful small actions are ones that can not solve, but at least help, even if only a little bit.

A dark book, difficult to follow at times, but full of passion and important unanswerable questions on the dark side of humanity.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What were you doing while the poor were suffering, their humanity and their lives consumed by flame?"
Otto Rene Castillo, Guatemalan poet

Patricia Henley writes movingly about Kate Banner, an American midwife who has spent eight years serving in Central America. She succumbs to burn-out in Nicaragua and goes to Guatemala to arrange a move back to the United States. Instead, amid the tragedy and uncertainty of Guatemala's secret wars, Kate finds a renewed sense of purpose and the blossoming of a most unlikely love.

Henley has a gentle touch as she tells of compassion and struggle and gratitude in a land where safety is always a relative term. Her descriptions of the simple details of people and place create that "you are there" feeling we passionate readers crave.

This book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 3.5

on front cover: "A heartbreaking book."

on back cover: This "is the story of Kate Banner, an American midwife who travels to Central America for a brief visit with her dearest friend."

I picked up this book because of that one sentence on the back cover. I didn't notice the quote on the front until I'd read quite a few chapters and was having second thoughts. But I stuck with it because I knew that I'd come away with a better understanding of the terrible effects of the on-going wars in Central America.

The first several 'chapters' left me baffled. Events seemed to be out of order, and the characters were jumbled (in my mind, anyway). If that first 'chapter' had been labeled as a Prologue, a lot of my confusions would have been dissipated. As it is, that second 'chapter' was a disconnect. (There are no numbered chapters, but there are breaks in the text which are the equivalent of chapters.)

The three main characters are introduced in the 'prologue.' (But there is no epilogue.)

p 1: Father Dixie Ryan got off the bus on a wide boulevard in Zone 2, Guatemala City, carrying a soft-sided suitcase patched with duct tape. Sunlight slashed here and there into the shady street where traffic stood nearly still in black waves of exhaust.

p 2: "Go on now. I can't keep you anymore." The man on the motor scooter lifted Marta by her wrist and Eduardo caught his little sister. They stood in sunshine at the edge of a park scruffy with trash and tree limbs blown down by wind.

p 6: The Nicaraguan National Cathedral in Managua was not a sacred place. Kate Banner ventured inside despite that; she wanted to see the damage for herself. Weeds had taken over the sanctuary; statues had fallen out of their niches, ...

The first chapter is about Kate and several other characters are introduced. Dixie and Marta appear in later chapters. Some chapters are written in the first person, usually from Kate's point-of-view. It wasn't obvious to me why it was necessary to make the switches.

I am keeping the book, for a while anyway, but I don't know that I'll ever pick it up again.

[David Lentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's not to love about Kate Banner? She is noble, altruistic, intelligent, desirable and driven by service to mankind. She is willing to risk her own safety to help innocent people caught in the cross-fire of revolutions in Guatemala and Nicaragua. She offers medical comfort and guidance and shelter to those who would perish without it. She is the voice of reason and conscience in a part of the world where both appear in short supply. I applaud Patricia Henley for the time she spent in Central America researching this book -- she seems to understand from experience the essence of the cultures there. And it shows in the characters and story line and in the dialogue, which is especially vivid and real. Henley conveys a grasp of her setting amid its turmoil without overtly espousing political positions. I learned nothing much new about Nicaragua, which I have also visited: Henley didn't penetrate deeply into the substance of the conflict between the Contras and Sandinistas or the glorious landscape or the human paradox of Managua, which somewhat disappointed me. But she was able to shed significant new light on the Guatemala situation for me. Despite the intrusive, overwhelming absurdity of man and nature that Kate encounters in Central America, she remains resolute in her service to mankind, which often seems unworthy of such devotion. I deeply respect such noble optimism and integrity. Henley's portrayal of Father Dixie Ryan was excellent: what a wonderful character and so roundly drawn! I was pleased to learn of Henley's inclusion on the short lists for the National Book Award and the New Yorker's Top Book of the Year. The publisher took a well-calculated risk on this work, which is far removed from formulaic New York publishing fare. I look forward to more of such substantive fiction over the most promising literary career of Patricia Henley. Hummingbird House is milagro, a miracle.

[pdxmaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to get into initially -- couldn't keep track of who anyone was. But as I kept going, the characters took more form and overall it became more compelling. Makes very real the terror of life in Guatemala and Nicaragua during their revolutions. Juxtaposed by the ordinariness of life. I was very taken by Kate's adoption of the orphan Marta. The murder in Nicaragua that occurs is, I think, very much like what happened to Ben Linder, also while working on providing water or power in a remote village in Nicaragua. While in Nicaragua, she goes into the National Cathedral in Managua. When I was there, we stopped by there to see it but were told it was too dangerous to go in and in fact guards/police chased us away from even hanging about in front for a few minutes. A few quotes: Kate is noting, in retrospect, her discomfort at coming upon her childhood best friend, Maggie, in the arms of her lover Flory and her wish for the ability to be less reactive, what a long ago clinical supervisor called “the observing ego”: “…then, I could only react. I wish that I had learned earlier in my life to watch myself without reacting, to watch the daily ebb and flow of ugliness and beauty.” page 48 And before eating, Dixie the priest who is no longer a priest, does this: “When he finished grilling the quesadillas, he dimmed the light, then bowed his head for just a silent few seconds, and she did too. “What did you say? For grace?” He said, “It’s short and sweet. ‘Feed my spirit. Make me whole.’ “ page 233.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story is of a midwife driven to help the people in Central America after she goes there to visit a friend. The story picks up eight years later when she is struggling to emotionally deal with the constant violence and poverty around her. The main character has broken and/or troubled personal relationships all around her, and, mostly, I think, is at the point in her life that she is a little lost at where to go and what to do. Toward the end of the book something happens that results in her focusing her attention. I was pleasantly surprised by a couple different events at the end. (Not pleasant in WHAT happened, but pleasant in that I was surprised!)
I thought this book was going to largely be about the life of a midwife, even if gringo, in Central America, but the character could have had almost any (or no) profession. So I was disappointed (and partially relieved) that there wasn't more about midwifery. Once I understood that wasn't the main story and recognized another one, I couldn't help but to compare it to Imagining Argentina, and, for me the writing and the impact on this one doesn't even come close. The character in some way is detached from being impacted, even though, the premise is that she is overwhelmed by all of it. The only two real attachments I felt with this character was with the two orphan girls. All the rest of her attachments felt faked and forced to me, not by the author, but by the character. If nothing else, I didn't trust that the character was being honest with herself. Bottom line: I'd recommend that you to read Imagining Argentina five times over before I'd suggest this one.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only description I can think of for this book is dated. It just seems old, but not in a good, classic way. As if the style and heavy subject matter were a fad. And I don't mean to minimize the atrocities that this book describes. The civil war and disappearances in Guatemala in the 80s were indeed horrific. Yet, I felt stuck in an era that was full of self-examination by Americans. In this case, an American mid-wife is "stuck" in the country by her own doing. She has a passport and the ability to get a money wired to her for a one-way plane ticket, but in reality, she doesn't want to leave. It's as if she wants the pain, the drama, the self-pity, the enabling mother earth complex. The main character, Kate is in love with a man who doesn't love her back, her best friend (who Kate won't leave without) is now in love and delays their departure, Kate then falls in love with a priest, she then informally adopts a mute orphan, she then is a "witness" and supporter to a hunger striker, she then starts a goat farm, etc etc. Her demons are somehow at home in the States and not revealed. When things finally seem to turn around for the better, tragedy strikes again.

As for style, it's very staccato at times with quick sentences that basically say the same thing as the previous sentence. The book goes from third person to shorter chapters of first person (Kate) and this, I found, didn't work that well.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just finished this well written novel, set in both Nicaragua and Guatemala, but mainly the latter. It takes place during the politically unstable years of the 1980's. The author does not delve too deeply into the politics, but gives us an over all feel for the tension going on, during that time, and particularly through her characters,who each feel the impact of what is going on. These characters to me feel sometimes, simple, or powerful but always vividly real. Even though the people we read about, are all flawed in their own way, they all have a sense of wanting to better the situation and thus come together through mutual acquaintances. I loved the writing style, and the way she has the main character, Kate Banner, an American midwife, effortlessly going back and forth from present to past and sometimes the future, in her thought process. I actually felt as if I were in the story, not just reading it. Maybe that is because I grew up in Guatemala and a lot of the story takes place in my town of Antigua. There is mention of restaurants I know, places around town that I have been, people that could definitely have been there. Even going to see the kite flying on the day of the dead in Santiago Sacatepequez, where I also had been in that time period. It is in a lot of ways, a story of unrequited love, unanswered dreams, hopes and morals. In a nut shell a book that still has me anxious as I write this, I guess that is a sign of a good story, for me.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have liked this book more if I had read it straight through, and not a few pages at a time...That said, I still found it hard to get into.

The dust jacket says that the author teaches in an MFA Creative Writing Program, and it shows. Although it gets better, (or I got used to it), her style and quirks were a barrier between me and the characters, and me and the story.

The protagonist, Kate, is - I think - supposed to be viewed as altruistic, yet her good deeds seem to come not only from her heart, but from some need to keep busy and feel better about herself by helping those worse off than she is. Every time she dithers about returning to the United States I was ready to wire her the money for her ticket and let her get some needed perspective on life.

My favorite part was the subplot of the inane Ginger and the American couple she takes up with. This skewering of two classic types of expats rings truer than much of the rest of the book.

This book is a good enough read for learning a bit about a traumatic and recent era in Latin America, or the dangers of hanging around too long with an undefined role in an impoverished, oppressive, and dangerous country, but readers might want to seek out more reliable or more informed narrators, and also not a tale where all but one of the major activists (and "saviors") are the North Americans.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. Where to start. This book ended up underneath a decorative item on a high shelf - unread and forgotten until 2 days ago. I started decorating for the holidays - found it and remembered that my friend had loaned it to me with a many starred review.

Home is still not decorated. Could NOT stop reading it.

Okay. Patricia Henley’s writing is poetry. So much description, emotion and yes, story line also - in so few words/passages. A difficult storyline beautiful written.

The time line moves forward and backward from Kates’s childhood/adolescence in Indiana to Mexico and Nicaragua in her young adulthood to Guatemala.
Typically, this shuttling back and forth across geography, years and emotion can be jolting/troublesome in novels. We are on a journey with Kate. Her story is relayed the way we all experience out stories - present moments, smells, sounds evoke memories. This is masterfully written.

This is so much sadness, weariness and frustration in this story and yet as heavy as the plot is; the story is filled with characterS trying ro help and to make the situation better in small ways. There is a lot of kindness in this story in the face of evil.

I also like the Spanish interspersed with English.

Don’t let this one sit on the shelf!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the last couple of books I have read-this one and Ann Patchett's State of Wonder make me think I have a bit of wanderlust in me these days.
Both books take the main characters to far flung places-in this case Nicaragua and Guatemala-but while State of Wonder was engaging, Hummingbird House is riveting.
From the start, I felt like I just began in the middle of a story and was drawn into the world of Kate and Maggie, the friend Kate traveled to Central America with.
But it is really Kate's story. She is a midwife, a nurse who delivers babies and helps where she can. There is so much underlying poverty, violence and fear among the people it is heartbreaking yet there is beauty and joy in their lives as well.
The people in Kate's life are interesting but it is her relationship with Dixie, a Catholic priest from Louisiana that fascinates. It is difficult to capture the essence of Hummingbird House in just a few words. Suffice it to say that I couldn't put it down.
I really loved this book and would highly recommend it.

[Chris - Quarter Press Editor · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's the language that carried me through this novel. Henley's prose is often nothing short of breathtaking and worth the read on its own. For some reason though, I just couldn't attach myself to this one. I often felt my emotions tugged, but never fully engaged. I'm guessing this is mostly me, a 26-year-old male, probably not being the target demographic of this novel. Gorgeous prose though, gorgeous.

[Galen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story about an ex-pat. midwife trying to find her life path set against the backdrop of 1980's Venezuela and Guatemala. It was a gripping read and i just wish I'd saved it for a long airplane flight!

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! What a ride!
This book will turn you every which way but loose and keep you up way past bedtime.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I plucked this novel out of my Books to Read Bookcase. It is a book about the horrors of civil war and repressive governments, and about love and caring in the face of unimaginable loss. And while this was a hard book to read, I am glad I read it.

Kate Banner is forty-two years old, in 1989; having grown up in Indiana in the 1960’s, back in 1981 she had gone on a three-week vacation from her job as an Ob/Gyn nurse to visit her best friend Maggie (whom she had grown up with, in Indiana), who is working at a clinic for poor people In Chiapas, Mexico. She fell in love with an American soldier of fortune with abusive tendencies, and is now in Managua, Nicaragua, still doing clinic work with Maggie. But she has had enough, and has seen enough horrors, that she is ready to go home to Indiana. Her lover does not want to go with her, so she ends her relationship with him; Maggie is not ready to leave yet, as she has a new lover, but will join her at their good friends Ben and Sunny’s house in Antigua, Guatemala, in a couple of weeks, and then they will go home. Kate boards the bus, which leads her to Antigua and much pain and self-discovery. In Antigua she finds that Ben has gone back to the States, and no one will talk about what Sunny is doing or where she is, except that it is dangerous. In Antigua Kate meets Father Dixie Ryan, once of New Orleans, whom she had met in a bar in San Cristóbal, Chiapas in the early 1980, meets Sister Jude Ryan, Father Ryan’s sister, meets Ginger, an American girl in her twenties who is supposed to be studying the Mayan Ixil language, but is just hanging around Antigua, and meets Eduardo and Marta, a twelve-year old boy and an eight-year-old girl who have become street children in Antigua after the soldiers came and destroyed their Mayan highlands village and killed their parents. She also meets Vidalúz, a Mayan woman whose husband was taken by the government; when she had gone to try to talk to her husband, she was tortured and thrown out into the street.

This is not an easy book to read, with much loss and death; but there is also great love and caring, and people trying to do what they can to make the patch of ground that they are on a little better for others. And I am glad to have read this book.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dreary novel set at first in Nicaragua, then mostly in Honduras in the violent late 1980s. It’s told from the perspective of Kate, a 40-year-old woman from Indiana, sometimes in first person, sometimes in third (it’s not clear why the voice shifts from chapter to chapter). She has been in the region for years doing . . . it’s not clear what but serving at least part of the time as a midwife, though now she is at loose ends as she considers returning to the States after an 8-year love affair has ended. The Nicaraguans and Hondurans who are being killed and disappeared all around her are mere props as she and her North American friends privately grieve those lives and their own. I have a feeling that this would have been more palatable if it had been told from the perspective of–and perhaps in the voice of–Dixie, the lapsed priest, a character both more grounded and more conflicted than Kate–and more empathetic, less self-involved.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I just finished this book set in Nicaragua and Guatemala in the late 80's in the midst of the terrible genocide and corruption of those countries. A young American woman is living in Nicaragua and working as a midwife. She loses a patient, and a close relationship, and decides to travel home. When she gets to Guatemala to check in with friends she gets involved in helping innocent victims there who are suffering the trauma of the war. This is a powerful but gently written book. I couldn't put it down. Having traveled throughout Guatemala and Nicaragua in the late 70's alone as a woman, I could relate to so much although the war hadn't started yet. I am so grateful to have experienced Guate in particular when the villages and it's people were whole and living their best lives.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but gave up half way through. The background of the characters and how they related to and were related to each other was revealed too slowly over time so it took me too long to get engaged with who they were… even with the main character, Kate.. I wanted to know more about how she felt about being a midwife in a disrupted country. There are too many other really engaging books for me to spend time wanting to like this book.

[Janice Workman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanted to read about a midwife working in Central America for a time. There was very little of that and a whole lot of moving from relationship to relationship for variable reasons. Not what I signed on for. The story plodded along for the most part with me skimming bits of it. I have no doubt this is perfect for some folks - not this one.

[Naomi]

This is a story of some young idealistic Americans living and working in Guatemala and getting tangled up in the ugly drug wars in Nicaragua. The language is gorgeous, simple and immediate. It brings you right into the scene and casts its spell.

[Talitha Cunio · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Karen Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heartbreaking.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a sometimes-expat, I found this book engrossing. The writing is wonderful; Henley is a masterful wordsmith. In the story, American midwife Kate Bonner ends up extending a brief visit to a friend in Nicaragua into years. She's exhausted from her years of service and disillusioned by an unsatisfactory relationship. During a flood, she loses a young mother shortly after helping deliver her baby; this is the catalyst that leads to her decision to return home to the U.S. On her way home, she makes a stop in Guatemala to stay with some married friends, who she finds are now separated, and to wait for her childhood friend Maggie to catch up with her. Here, the Guatemalan Civil War is brewing and she meets a priest who is considering leaving the priesthood. She also meets a Guatemalan woman whose husband has been "disappeared" and she ends up being a witness to the woman's hunger strike and vigil. I would have given this five stars except for certain points in the book where the point of view changes from third person to first person, which I found confusing. In the last chapter, I wasn't sure whose point of view was presented. Overall, though, this was an excellent read.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I can't say I'm avidly going to seek out this author again, but I got a lot out of reading the book. Structurally, it's postmodern and there was a lot of waiting, which kind of made me irritated with the narrator/main character. I wanted her to get out and do something! Eventually, though, I realized this book was not about the main character Kate but about the place she was in at this time and what it was going through. The way to achieve focus on that was to reduce plot. This was not a story driven book, more like a series of descriptive events. Perspectives shifted, as did point of view. Oddly enough, that wasn't confusing.

This book gave a lot to talk about, but it took me a long time to care about the characters, mainly because I didn't know about them much. But it was packed with ponderables and had some really beautiful language, so it would probably make a good book club book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for something with a feel-good ending that answers all the questions and completes all the blanks, this is not the book for you. For everyone else... before you read, if you don't know what "traje" is, check out this website Guatemalan Indigenous Costumes in Photos to see actual pictures by region. I found this book to be both depressingly realistic and hearteningly inspirational. I liked the idea that there would always be someone else to take on the good fight when others grow too weary to bear the burden anymore. Not an easy book to follow if you can't read it fairly quickly due to the minimalist treatment of the characters and the back and forth chronology. Read this one quickly.

[Antoinette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never before been so painfully aware that the book I was reading was written in third person. I am not sure why, but I kept thinking something was wrong. Was I reading it wrong? Was I confused about the setting? Did I have the characters mixed up? Nope, this just isn't the book for me. I appreciate all of the painstaking research the author went through, but it reads like a dull sociological log book. The intense birth scenes were poignant, but not enough to save this sinking ship. Also, love story huh?

[John Brugge · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story of a woman as she is deciding to leave Nicaragua, where she has been working as a midwife during and after the revolution, and returns to the states. She stops over in Guatemala, only to be kept there by various circumstances (friends, love, the resistance).

Knowing the area around Antigua and Guatemala City, the descriptions of the surroundings are entirely familiar, but the setting in time (late 80s) is entirely different.

The writing style is a bit over-eager at times, but tries to describe very intense feelings, not an easy job.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me years ago and I never got to read it until now. I loved how it was set in Nicaragua as well as Guatamala - two places I have travelled to. There is an element of love in this story - but what I enjoyed reading was about the setting, the daily lives of people and the struggle they go through in order to be heard by their people and their government. It got a little slow at the end of the book and the ending was lacking something - but it was still a good read.