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The Snow Geese
Snow geese spend their summers in the Canadian Arctic, on the tundra. Each autumn they migrate south, to Delaware, California and the Gulf of Mexico. In the spring they fly north again. William Fiennes decided to go with them and to write about his travels. What he produced turned out to be about very much more than geese. A blend of autobiography and reportage, its subject was also the birds on their long journeys home, the grace of homecomings, the strange gravity that home exerts. The arc of Fiennes` extraordinary physical adventure formed the backbone for meditations on philosophy, natural science and personal memoir. The book thrums with ideas, with stories and anecdotes, with humankind as well as wild fowl, with the funny and observant insights of an assured and highly entertaining writer. `With this beautiful, haunting debut Fiennes joins that small, very special band of writer-explorers - Emerson and Thoreau, Annie Dilard and Bruce Chatwin - who give us another pair of he has renewed the variety and wonder of the world` Marina Warner` Fiennes is a very fine writer and this book is pure delight` Peter Carey, winner of the Booker Prize 2001
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
41 people are currently reading
706 people want to read
About the author
William Fiennes
12 books17 followersWilliam Fiennes’s first book, The Snow Geese, was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, the Hawthornden Prize, and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. He lives in England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
July 9, 2012
The concept is wonderful: Fiennes, inspired by Gallico's "The Snow Goose" and a life changing illness, sets out to follow the migration of the Snow Goose (chen caerulescens) from wintering grounds in south central Texas to its breeding home on Baffin Island. It's a planes, trains, and automobiles story as he moves northward, always ahead of the geese. Unfortunately, it disappoints on two counts. Most importantly, the geese hardly show up. Fiennes is ultimately more attracted to his encounters with people along the way, some quite eccentric, most of whom have no interest whatsoever in Snow geese nor his quest. And, the end of the road, Foxe Land in the tundra, there's no climax, no drama, no epiphanal moment. It's jolly ho, the trip is done, back to the UK for me! This is probably not the book for the die-hard birder but will suit for those fascinating by travel adventures in improbable places.
March 3, 2018
(2.5) Having recovered from an illness that hit him at age 25 while he was studying for a doctorate, Fiennes set off to track the migration route of the snow goose, which starts down in the Gulf of Mexico and goes north to the Arctic territories of Canada. He was inspired by his father’s love of birdwatching and Paul Gallico’s The Snow Goose (which I have not read). I thought this book couldn’t fail to be great, what with themes of travel, birds, illness and identity. However, Fiennes gets bogged down in details. When he stays with friendly Americans in Texas he gives you every detail of their home décor, meals and way of speaking; when he takes a Greyhound bus ride he recounts every conversation he had with his random seatmates. This is too much about the grind of travel and not enough about the natural spectacles he was searching for. And then when he gets up to the far north he eats snow goose. So anyway, I ended up just skimming this one for the birdwatching bits. I did like Fiennes’s writing, just not what he chose to focus on, so I’ll read his other memoir, The Music Room.
[We purchased a remainder copy on one of our first trips to Hay-on-Wye.]
Did you know…? “The black tips to the wings weren’t decorative: the concentration of melanin pigments – the pigments responsible for dark colouring – strengthens the primary flight feathers, making them more resilient, an adaptation often seen in birds that undertake long migrations.
[We purchased a remainder copy on one of our first trips to Hay-on-Wye.]
Did you know…? “The black tips to the wings weren’t decorative: the concentration of melanin pigments – the pigments responsible for dark colouring – strengthens the primary flight feathers, making them more resilient, an adaptation often seen in birds that undertake long migrations.
April 16, 2016
This book was inspired by Fiennes read in of The Snow Goose when younger, and after a period in hospital, when he had a burning longing to return home to familiar and comforting surroundings. He wondered what drove the Snow goose to travel all across America, from Texas to Alaska.
Part travel book and part natural history, Fiennes follows the route that the geese take by coach, meeting a series of characters along the way. At each point that the geese move is determined by the conditions, so occasionally he gets ahead of them, and sees them arrive. In one location he is asked to house sit at one point by someone he has just met and goes out to the place where thy feed and watches them arrive.
It is a beautifully written book, and effortless to read. He successfully manages to link his longing to retuning home with the journey of the snow gooze and them instinctive drive to travel huge distances. Well worth reading.
Part travel book and part natural history, Fiennes follows the route that the geese take by coach, meeting a series of characters along the way. At each point that the geese move is determined by the conditions, so occasionally he gets ahead of them, and sees them arrive. In one location he is asked to house sit at one point by someone he has just met and goes out to the place where thy feed and watches them arrive.
It is a beautifully written book, and effortless to read. He successfully manages to link his longing to retuning home with the journey of the snow gooze and them instinctive drive to travel huge distances. Well worth reading.
September 15, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2020
I'd never heard of this before one of my favourite booksellers raved about it to me and it's immediately become one of my absolute favourites.
It tells the story of the author's attempt to follow along with the snow goose migration, from the Gulf of Mexico up to the frozen north of Canada. The nature writing is stunning, glorious - the awe-inspiring sight of tens of thousands of migrating geese is vividly drawn. The landscapes too are incredible, especially as the journey moves further and further north.
But even more stunning are Fiennes' portraits of the odd people he meets on the journey - hunters, train obsessives, birders and more. There are broad themes too about the desire for home, about balancing the excitement of the new against the comforts of the familiar. It's a really wonderful work (and the photo on the front is 👌)
It tells the story of the author's attempt to follow along with the snow goose migration, from the Gulf of Mexico up to the frozen north of Canada. The nature writing is stunning, glorious - the awe-inspiring sight of tens of thousands of migrating geese is vividly drawn. The landscapes too are incredible, especially as the journey moves further and further north.
But even more stunning are Fiennes' portraits of the odd people he meets on the journey - hunters, train obsessives, birders and more. There are broad themes too about the desire for home, about balancing the excitement of the new against the comforts of the familiar. It's a really wonderful work (and the photo on the front is 👌)
June 23, 2012
I got bored.
February 4, 2022
A series of disjointed events
I am the type of reader who finishes almost every book I begin, irrespective of whether I’m enjoying it. There’s always the chance that a story that feels disconnected and convoluted will come together in the final pages, as the author masterfully ties all of the divergent twists and turns. This was unfortunately not the case with The Snow Geese. This entire book was essentially an on-the-surface, chronological recount of a young man’s trek to follow snow geese on their annual spring migratory route from Southern Texas to Baffin Island in the Hudson Bay. There was very little story. The characters that the author met in his travels didn’t really mean anything to him, to the story, or to each other. Other than a few really interesting passages about the migration of birds, there was very little that happened with the Snow geese either. Seemingly to make up for lack of story, the author wrote long, verbose passages describing mundane, meaningless scenes (such as a 4-paragraph description of someone making him a cup of tea). I’m sorry to say that I don’t recommend this book.
I am the type of reader who finishes almost every book I begin, irrespective of whether I’m enjoying it. There’s always the chance that a story that feels disconnected and convoluted will come together in the final pages, as the author masterfully ties all of the divergent twists and turns. This was unfortunately not the case with The Snow Geese. This entire book was essentially an on-the-surface, chronological recount of a young man’s trek to follow snow geese on their annual spring migratory route from Southern Texas to Baffin Island in the Hudson Bay. There was very little story. The characters that the author met in his travels didn’t really mean anything to him, to the story, or to each other. Other than a few really interesting passages about the migration of birds, there was very little that happened with the Snow geese either. Seemingly to make up for lack of story, the author wrote long, verbose passages describing mundane, meaningless scenes (such as a 4-paragraph description of someone making him a cup of tea). I’m sorry to say that I don’t recommend this book.
August 5, 2021
***(*)
September 7, 2016
The Snow Geese is an odd little book. The author William Fiennes, becomes fascinated with snow geese while he is recuperating from a long illness at his family home, and decides to follow the geese as they migrate across America.
I thought when I bought the book that The Snow Geese would be part memoir/part travel diary (a bit like Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson) but instead it was a book filled almost completely with tangents. Fiennes is a good writer and some of his descriptions are evocative and lovely but there doesn't seem to be a real central theme to the book. For me the most cohesive part of the book is at the very beginning where Fiennes is describing his illness, some of his school-days and his family home. For the rest of the time he doesn't talk about himself at all. He describes in detail the clothing of every person he meets and the conversations he has with them and the various places he stops in along the way but there were no real personal insights or the sense that he really learns anything meaningful on this epic journey through America.
Some of the chapters were devoted to facts and figures about birds which makes sense, but other pages were filled with statistics about railways and trains, volcanoes, and studies on homesickness which didn't seem to serve a purpose other than to meet a word-count.
I kept waiting for the 'great revelation' where Fiennes would pull together all these different stories, tangents, facts and figures to come up with some epiphany or overall message but it never came. He got to Baffin Island, saw the geese, ate a few of them and then couldn't wait to come home again.
All this isn't to say I didn't like the book; I did. It was a peaceful and relaxing read, and a nice reasonably informative story. I liked it enough to want to keep the book rather than put it back into a charity shop. I'm not sure if I will read it again but I'll keep it on the shelf just in case.
Overall rating: 3/5 stars
I thought when I bought the book that The Snow Geese would be part memoir/part travel diary (a bit like Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson) but instead it was a book filled almost completely with tangents. Fiennes is a good writer and some of his descriptions are evocative and lovely but there doesn't seem to be a real central theme to the book. For me the most cohesive part of the book is at the very beginning where Fiennes is describing his illness, some of his school-days and his family home. For the rest of the time he doesn't talk about himself at all. He describes in detail the clothing of every person he meets and the conversations he has with them and the various places he stops in along the way but there were no real personal insights or the sense that he really learns anything meaningful on this epic journey through America.
Some of the chapters were devoted to facts and figures about birds which makes sense, but other pages were filled with statistics about railways and trains, volcanoes, and studies on homesickness which didn't seem to serve a purpose other than to meet a word-count.
I kept waiting for the 'great revelation' where Fiennes would pull together all these different stories, tangents, facts and figures to come up with some epiphany or overall message but it never came. He got to Baffin Island, saw the geese, ate a few of them and then couldn't wait to come home again.
All this isn't to say I didn't like the book; I did. It was a peaceful and relaxing read, and a nice reasonably informative story. I liked it enough to want to keep the book rather than put it back into a charity shop. I'm not sure if I will read it again but I'll keep it on the shelf just in case.
Overall rating: 3/5 stars
March 29, 2013
Overall, I really didn't like this book. I had to force myself to read it, only because I usually feel obligated to finish books I start.
I found it to be really repetitive, disconnected and too descriptive. It seems like 70% of the book was just imagery. Imagery is great, I love me some imagery, but there was just too much and what was being described in such strenuous detail was usually uninteresting or unimportant. Finnes added a lot of antidotes that were mildly interesting. These varied from the stories he heard on his journey to the history of nostalgia. It was apparent that most of these blurbs revolved around the central theme of home. Though it was easy to see, I wish the author had connected the ideas and the theme (even just subtly), rather than leave it fragmented. I realize it's part of the format of the memoir, but I think it was necessary; it would have been possible to achieve without compromising that format. The author mentioned some of the same things multiple times, sometimes it seemed word for word. These aspects resulted in the book not being exciting enough to hold my attention.
To be fair, it wasn't just Finnes' writing that caused my disliking of this book; it was also the subject. A big part of why I didn't like it was that I simply do not care about the migratory patterns of birds. At all, really. Why did I choose to read this book? Who knows.
When I don't like a book (which isn't often), I usually feel like I'm missing something that would make the book worth while. But with The Snow Geese, I'm quite confident that I caught all there was to catch, and it wasn't enough for me. However, I will say it was usually quite well-written and the sentences flowed pretty nicely.
But yeah.. all of my friends couldn't understand why I chose to read this book and looking back, neither do I.
I found it to be really repetitive, disconnected and too descriptive. It seems like 70% of the book was just imagery. Imagery is great, I love me some imagery, but there was just too much and what was being described in such strenuous detail was usually uninteresting or unimportant. Finnes added a lot of antidotes that were mildly interesting. These varied from the stories he heard on his journey to the history of nostalgia. It was apparent that most of these blurbs revolved around the central theme of home. Though it was easy to see, I wish the author had connected the ideas and the theme (even just subtly), rather than leave it fragmented. I realize it's part of the format of the memoir, but I think it was necessary; it would have been possible to achieve without compromising that format. The author mentioned some of the same things multiple times, sometimes it seemed word for word. These aspects resulted in the book not being exciting enough to hold my attention.
To be fair, it wasn't just Finnes' writing that caused my disliking of this book; it was also the subject. A big part of why I didn't like it was that I simply do not care about the migratory patterns of birds. At all, really. Why did I choose to read this book? Who knows.
When I don't like a book (which isn't often), I usually feel like I'm missing something that would make the book worth while. But with The Snow Geese, I'm quite confident that I caught all there was to catch, and it wasn't enough for me. However, I will say it was usually quite well-written and the sentences flowed pretty nicely.
But yeah.. all of my friends couldn't understand why I chose to read this book and looking back, neither do I.
August 5, 2011
Traveling from Texas to Baffin Island following the snow geese while they migrate to their nesting grounds, guided by the sun, the stars, the earth magnetism. A very interesting journey but told in a detached way, as if the author is afraid to be enthralled by nature’s call and lose his defined, though weakened by an illness, identity. The purpose of his journey is to regain faith in life and he undertakes it as if he were swallowing a medicine. No excitement, no awe, no flowing love. The narration, though elegant at times, lacks brilliance. The author feels lonely and homesick from the start, compares his longing for home to the geese migration to their birth land, overlooking the fact that the geese might enjoy the sun, the wind, the changing lights along their journey. He accomplishes his project–arrives at the geese nesting home (…just one of their homes) – but all along the way he looks at the new environments of land, animals and people from a distance, feels a stranger and seems to need it, as if by asserting himself as different from his surroundings he strengthens his own identity and nourishes his life recently threatened. The feeling at the end of this engaging story is that he didn’t live this unusual experience as intensely as he could have, that he missed emotions and discoveries, and so did the reader. A potentially fascinating journey that turned out to be simply interesting.
April 13, 2009
I wasn't sure about this book to start with, but I was gradually drawn in. Recovering from a long and debilitating illness, Fiennes comes across a copy of Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose, which he read as a child, and is prompted to follow migrating snow geese from Texas to the Arctic tundra. His journey away from the confines of home gradually reawakens for him the joy of being alive, but like the birds he eventually also longs to return to the familiar himself.
This is a slow, comtemplative book. You get the impression of a silent, solitary figure, who says little about himself but carefully observes the world around him and the people he meets, then painstakingly sets telling details down on paper, meticulously choosing each word. This reticence means that you aren't even sure whether he likes or dislikes the people he meets on his journey. But his descriptions of the emptiness and silence of the tundra at the end of the book are amazing.
This is a slow, comtemplative book. You get the impression of a silent, solitary figure, who says little about himself but carefully observes the world around him and the people he meets, then painstakingly sets telling details down on paper, meticulously choosing each word. This reticence means that you aren't even sure whether he likes or dislikes the people he meets on his journey. But his descriptions of the emptiness and silence of the tundra at the end of the book are amazing.
October 16, 2016
He's good with descriptions, but goes a bit overboard comparing one thing to another and using similes. There's no denying his creativity but all the same you can scale it back a bit, Bro. Otherwise it feels like he's trying to hit a word count. Part of me wonders if this would have been better as a novella- it seems a little light at times, like he planned a grand adventure but then nothing terribly exciting happened so he got a bit stuck. It is poignant and lonely at times, friendly and warm at others. Like traveling in reality. Doesn't quite meet expectations. But Fiennes has a deft hand so I can happily recommend.
January 12, 2015
Given that it is about travel, wild geese and a personal quest, I expected to really enjoy this book and was disappointed not to.
It would be crass to knock something written with important personal issues at heart; it is indeed a brave thing to write such a book. Perhaps it is a matter of not sharing the author's attention to what I consider minutiae.
For all that, I have to say there is some wonderfully descriptive writing in it, a wealth of amazingly precise vocabulary and original phraseology, and a lot of information about the science of bird migration.
It would be crass to knock something written with important personal issues at heart; it is indeed a brave thing to write such a book. Perhaps it is a matter of not sharing the author's attention to what I consider minutiae.
For all that, I have to say there is some wonderfully descriptive writing in it, a wealth of amazingly precise vocabulary and original phraseology, and a lot of information about the science of bird migration.
October 15, 2013
A book sort of about travel, we are told he had an illness but none of it is mentioned in the book. He has interesting things to say about home and dwelling place. Talking about gOd being our dwelling place. I liked that a lot. I like geese but he follows the geese , doesnt like them being eaten for food. Drove me a bit potty lol
September 16, 2018
Juste ennuyeux...
Je n’ai pas aimé ce livre et me suis forcée à le terminer.
Je n’ai pas aimé ce livre et me suis forcée à le terminer.
February 15, 2021
'The longing was a fantasy of escape. It was nostalgia.'
This is one of those books that really takes you by surprise. It is profoundly moving, exploring feelings of home, belonging and loss. Fiennes is a force to be reckoned with.
'The house was on the edge of Hudson Bay, with caribou and polar bears wandering in the garden, the windows filled with dazzling white: pure floe.'
This is one of those books that really takes you by surprise. It is profoundly moving, exploring feelings of home, belonging and loss. Fiennes is a force to be reckoned with.
'The house was on the edge of Hudson Bay, with caribou and polar bears wandering in the garden, the windows filled with dazzling white: pure floe.'
October 29, 2022
Meditative and highly descriptive with bright splashes of joy in places. I really wanted to love this book but it was too repetitive in its phrasing for me to be swept along with the journey entirely.
June 2, 2025
An easy read about a young man’s trip to follow migrating birds. The interwoven facts about migration was neatly done, but it did feel like something was missing from it.
January 19, 2013
Vielleicht hätte man im Vorfeld schon misstrauisch werden können: „...ein kleines literarisches Meisterwerk, dessen Anziehungskraft auf der Magie des Wortes beruht.“
Vielleicht noch nicht bei diesem Zitat auf dem Klappentext, aber vielleicht dann spätestens beim Zitatgeber, denn dies sagt ... die Weltwoche? Wieso ausgerechnet ein Zitat aus der Weltwoche, wenn es doch ein Meisterwerk ist? Hat der Spiegel oder die Zeit nichts dazu gesagt? Hmm...
Der Ich-Erzähler verfällt im Zuge eines langen Genesungsprozesses der Faszination der Vogelwelt, insbesondere den Schneegänsen. Und dann waren da noch Mauersegler, Rotschwanzbussarde, Sumpfhordenvögel, Nordamerikanische Schneefinken, Purpurgimpel, diverse Entenarten, Reiher, Kraniche und wasweißichnoch für Geflügel. Da beschließt er dann den Schneegänsen, welche ja Zugvögel sind, quer über den nordamerikanischen Kontinent (Texas – Baffin Bay, Kanada) zu folgen, mit ihnen zu reisen.
Hey, die Idee klingt spannend. Er trifft auch viele interessante Menschen auf dem Weg, deren Geschichten seltsamerweise alle spannender sind als seine eigene. (Oder warum erzählt er sie?)
Dazwischen kann er sich offensichtlich nicht ganz entscheiden, ob er statt Erlebnisbericht nicht vielleicht doch lieber ein Vogelsachbuch geschrieben hätte. Was ich jetzt alles über Forschungen zum Zugverhalten und die verantwortlich zu machende Erdkrümmung weiß! (Entsprechend gibt es am Ende des Buchs auch ein langes Literaturverzeichnis...)
Interessant vielleicht auch noch, dass Nostalgia (oder auch Heimweh) tatsächlich eine Krankheit ist, die früher gern bei delokalisierten Alpenbewohnern oder Soldaten an der Front diagnostiziert wurde. Wusste ich vorher auch nicht. Vielleicht mal zum Nachdenken für alle, die Retro (=nostalgisch?) so schick finden...
Nach der ersten Reiseaufregung (seine „Zugunruhe“) ist dann plötzlich natürlich doch wieder das Heimweh zum Elternhaus da („Rückkehr ins Brutgebiet“), aber gebogen und gebrochen, schafft er am Ende den waghalsigen Schluss, dass seine Nostalgia doch zukunftsgerichtet ist, ein Sehnen zum Neuen...
Magisch fand ich das nicht, sondern eher etwas herbeigezwungen. Hübsch vielleicht noch der kleine selbstproduzierte Seitenhieb, dass er ins Brutgebiet der Schneegänse nur mit einem Pärchen jagender Inuit gelangen kann – zum Abendbrot gibt es dann Schneegans...
Alles in allem ist es für Ornithologen vielleicht ein ganz niedliches Buch, mich haben die pseudowissenschaftlichen Vogelpassagen eher gestört, wenngleich ich einige der Charaktere, denen er auf dem Weg begegnet, faszinierend fand.
Die Weltwoche hat allerdings um einige Ecken zu hoch gegriffen, meiner Meinung nach.
Wie gesagt, man hätte misstrauisch werden können...
William Fiennes: Der Zug der Schneegänse. Eine Reise zwischen Himmel und Erde. München 2002.
Vielleicht noch nicht bei diesem Zitat auf dem Klappentext, aber vielleicht dann spätestens beim Zitatgeber, denn dies sagt ... die Weltwoche? Wieso ausgerechnet ein Zitat aus der Weltwoche, wenn es doch ein Meisterwerk ist? Hat der Spiegel oder die Zeit nichts dazu gesagt? Hmm...
Der Ich-Erzähler verfällt im Zuge eines langen Genesungsprozesses der Faszination der Vogelwelt, insbesondere den Schneegänsen. Und dann waren da noch Mauersegler, Rotschwanzbussarde, Sumpfhordenvögel, Nordamerikanische Schneefinken, Purpurgimpel, diverse Entenarten, Reiher, Kraniche und wasweißichnoch für Geflügel. Da beschließt er dann den Schneegänsen, welche ja Zugvögel sind, quer über den nordamerikanischen Kontinent (Texas – Baffin Bay, Kanada) zu folgen, mit ihnen zu reisen.
Hey, die Idee klingt spannend. Er trifft auch viele interessante Menschen auf dem Weg, deren Geschichten seltsamerweise alle spannender sind als seine eigene. (Oder warum erzählt er sie?)
Dazwischen kann er sich offensichtlich nicht ganz entscheiden, ob er statt Erlebnisbericht nicht vielleicht doch lieber ein Vogelsachbuch geschrieben hätte. Was ich jetzt alles über Forschungen zum Zugverhalten und die verantwortlich zu machende Erdkrümmung weiß! (Entsprechend gibt es am Ende des Buchs auch ein langes Literaturverzeichnis...)
Interessant vielleicht auch noch, dass Nostalgia (oder auch Heimweh) tatsächlich eine Krankheit ist, die früher gern bei delokalisierten Alpenbewohnern oder Soldaten an der Front diagnostiziert wurde. Wusste ich vorher auch nicht. Vielleicht mal zum Nachdenken für alle, die Retro (=nostalgisch?) so schick finden...
Nach der ersten Reiseaufregung (seine „Zugunruhe“) ist dann plötzlich natürlich doch wieder das Heimweh zum Elternhaus da („Rückkehr ins Brutgebiet“), aber gebogen und gebrochen, schafft er am Ende den waghalsigen Schluss, dass seine Nostalgia doch zukunftsgerichtet ist, ein Sehnen zum Neuen...
Magisch fand ich das nicht, sondern eher etwas herbeigezwungen. Hübsch vielleicht noch der kleine selbstproduzierte Seitenhieb, dass er ins Brutgebiet der Schneegänse nur mit einem Pärchen jagender Inuit gelangen kann – zum Abendbrot gibt es dann Schneegans...
Alles in allem ist es für Ornithologen vielleicht ein ganz niedliches Buch, mich haben die pseudowissenschaftlichen Vogelpassagen eher gestört, wenngleich ich einige der Charaktere, denen er auf dem Weg begegnet, faszinierend fand.
Die Weltwoche hat allerdings um einige Ecken zu hoch gegriffen, meiner Meinung nach.
Wie gesagt, man hätte misstrauisch werden können...
William Fiennes: Der Zug der Schneegänse. Eine Reise zwischen Himmel und Erde. München 2002.
February 9, 2019
Viaje, añoranza y aves. Recomiendo esta novela a cualquier amante de las aves, o la naturaleza en general. Si buscas una lectura tranquila, y te apetece darte una vuelta recorriendo el Norte de América de Texas a la isla de Baffin, ¡esta podría ser una buena opción como siguiente lectura!
Al ser una novela autobiográfica se hace difícil ponerle una puntuación. Sin embargo, estilos de la narración y algunos aspectos más concretos en cuanto al formato me han ayudado a ponerle una bastante acertada a lo que me ha parecido el libro. Para empezar, en cuanto a los aspectos negativos, la gran cantidad de comparaciones usadas permite al lector ponerle color a los eventos, pero también provoca cierta lentitud y puede resultar algo pesada de leer. Además, teniendo en cuenta que está escrito en primera persona, la descripción se centra más en lo que ocurre alrededor y no tanto en lo que el narrador siente o cómo le afecta aquello que está viviendo o haciendo. Esto último provoca en el lector cierta distancia respecto al narrador (o al menos, desde mi lectura, yo no he podido llegar a connectar tanto con Fiennes). Siguiendo con los aspectos negativos de la novela, me han resultado un tanto pobres los diálogos y con falta de edición.
He de confesar que a pesar de la pobreza (o exceso) que he encontrado en el formato, también han habido aspectos positivos a lo largo de la novela que me gustaría resaltar. Aunque es cierto que la abundancia de comparaciones ralentiza la lectura, también es cierto que me han fascinado la mayoría de ellas (sobretodo cuando comparaba acciones físicas con lenguaje musical). Algo que también he de confesar que me ha encantado es el conjunto de referencias etimológicas, sobre terminología ornitóloga o sobre la nostalgia; y también las pequeñas curiosidades sobre ciertas aves migratorias que Fiennes ha ido recopilando y conociendo a lo largo de su trayecto por Norteamérica.
William Fiennes ha hecho una rica recopilación de esa palpitante experiencia por las zonas nivales que hizo, tras una larga enfermedad, y que le permitió avistar las aves como nunca hubiese imaginado. Un largo, pero GRAN viaje migratorio al GRAN NORTE.
P. D.: Si decidís leer este libro, recomiendo muy encarecidamente que leáis de antemano o paralelamente la novela (cuya referencia sale constantemente en este libro) de Paul Gallico, La gansa blanca.
Al ser una novela autobiográfica se hace difícil ponerle una puntuación. Sin embargo, estilos de la narración y algunos aspectos más concretos en cuanto al formato me han ayudado a ponerle una bastante acertada a lo que me ha parecido el libro. Para empezar, en cuanto a los aspectos negativos, la gran cantidad de comparaciones usadas permite al lector ponerle color a los eventos, pero también provoca cierta lentitud y puede resultar algo pesada de leer. Además, teniendo en cuenta que está escrito en primera persona, la descripción se centra más en lo que ocurre alrededor y no tanto en lo que el narrador siente o cómo le afecta aquello que está viviendo o haciendo. Esto último provoca en el lector cierta distancia respecto al narrador (o al menos, desde mi lectura, yo no he podido llegar a connectar tanto con Fiennes). Siguiendo con los aspectos negativos de la novela, me han resultado un tanto pobres los diálogos y con falta de edición.
He de confesar que a pesar de la pobreza (o exceso) que he encontrado en el formato, también han habido aspectos positivos a lo largo de la novela que me gustaría resaltar. Aunque es cierto que la abundancia de comparaciones ralentiza la lectura, también es cierto que me han fascinado la mayoría de ellas (sobretodo cuando comparaba acciones físicas con lenguaje musical). Algo que también he de confesar que me ha encantado es el conjunto de referencias etimológicas, sobre terminología ornitóloga o sobre la nostalgia; y también las pequeñas curiosidades sobre ciertas aves migratorias que Fiennes ha ido recopilando y conociendo a lo largo de su trayecto por Norteamérica.
William Fiennes ha hecho una rica recopilación de esa palpitante experiencia por las zonas nivales que hizo, tras una larga enfermedad, y que le permitió avistar las aves como nunca hubiese imaginado. Un largo, pero GRAN viaje migratorio al GRAN NORTE.
P. D.: Si decidís leer este libro, recomiendo muy encarecidamente que leáis de antemano o paralelamente la novela (cuya referencia sale constantemente en este libro) de Paul Gallico, La gansa blanca.
September 23, 2017
I think Goodreads needs a new category: Books I Will Never Finish.
Every Single Object in Every Single Room Described in Excruciating Detail.
I'm on page 50 and am determined to finish this book at some point, but I doubt I ever will. The minutiae is incredibly frustrating, particularly because revealing, unique details get buried/lost in passages I am tempted to skip: like the hunters who wear a chain of the killed waterfowls' tags around their necks. I almost missed that important fact because I was tempted to skip the whole description of the Texas cafe. Likewise, the friend's mother--just the brooches she wears would tell us enough, but my God he describes every stick of furniture in the whole rather unexceptional house. I'm all for details, but a few telling details is vastly different from me picturing a writer recording everything he sees and then putting every item in the book. And what's up with all the golfers that begin the book, all of which seems entirely irrelevant? Yet necessary, pertinent info is left out: What was the illness? Was he really close to death? How does he afford to fly to the U.S. and take this trip? Why did he not take his lovely expert birder Dad on this trip with him? (Now that might have made this more interesting.) Seriously wanted to throw this book across the room one night. I still hate to not finish it, though.
Every Single Object in Every Single Room Described in Excruciating Detail.
I'm on page 50 and am determined to finish this book at some point, but I doubt I ever will. The minutiae is incredibly frustrating, particularly because revealing, unique details get buried/lost in passages I am tempted to skip: like the hunters who wear a chain of the killed waterfowls' tags around their necks. I almost missed that important fact because I was tempted to skip the whole description of the Texas cafe. Likewise, the friend's mother--just the brooches she wears would tell us enough, but my God he describes every stick of furniture in the whole rather unexceptional house. I'm all for details, but a few telling details is vastly different from me picturing a writer recording everything he sees and then putting every item in the book. And what's up with all the golfers that begin the book, all of which seems entirely irrelevant? Yet necessary, pertinent info is left out: What was the illness? Was he really close to death? How does he afford to fly to the U.S. and take this trip? Why did he not take his lovely expert birder Dad on this trip with him? (Now that might have made this more interesting.) Seriously wanted to throw this book across the room one night. I still hate to not finish it, though.
May 15, 2020
I did like this book but I didn't love it. It is beautifully written but somehow detached, even though there's real affection in the detailed descriptions of the people he meets on his journey. Maybe that's it - affection rather than passionate love which is reserved perhaps for the emotions around concepts of 'home' and 'nostalgia'
The geese are ultimately reduced to "white-phase and blue-phase"... and dinner. For a vegetarian, I kind of liked his description of the stew made by the indigenous hunters at the most northerly point of his (but not quite the geese's) journey. It made sense as an ending (before he saw his life being sucked back in rapid rewind... I was there with that feeling before him) But he said he hadn't wanted to eat one... but set up a trip with hunters [who it seems spoke no English] and doesn't seem to have had the same qualms about seeing them die. Nor about all the research involving caging large numbers of wild birds to study migration.
If you forget there is any putative point to the trip, his experiences and the people are fascinating.
The geese are ultimately reduced to "white-phase and blue-phase"... and dinner. For a vegetarian, I kind of liked his description of the stew made by the indigenous hunters at the most northerly point of his (but not quite the geese's) journey. It made sense as an ending (before he saw his life being sucked back in rapid rewind... I was there with that feeling before him) But he said he hadn't wanted to eat one... but set up a trip with hunters [who it seems spoke no English] and doesn't seem to have had the same qualms about seeing them die. Nor about all the research involving caging large numbers of wild birds to study migration.
If you forget there is any putative point to the trip, his experiences and the people are fascinating.
August 6, 2017
I picked up this book when I ran out of other things to read while on holiday. Fiennes' observations are neat and cute, and his breadth of vocabulary and phrasing are incredibly impressive. This young writer has clearly worked very hard to develop these abilities. On the surface this was one of the nicest books I've ever read, in an uncontroversial, not-very-interesting, nice-guys-finish-last sort of way. But simultaneously I found the theme running through the book, about returning home, so privileged that it almost made me sick. Fiennes never even once stops to question his fortune at having a big, expensive, heritage home in one of the most expensive parts of the country to return to. Maybe it's because at the time of reading, I had just returned from a year long trip to find my family in shambles and my home destroyed. That possibility never crossed Fiennes' mind once.
January 21, 2021
Nice book. I liked the idea that the author's journey, following the snow geese, was inspired by reading Paul Gallico's "The Snow Goose" and that a book helped him to give his life a new direction after a very difficult time. It's great how he describes his discovery of the book and its consequences in the beginning. What follows is a report of his trip. It's rather interesting, and all his travel acquaintances as well as the places he stays at and, of course, the geese, are described in much detail but without being boring. Still, it is a kind of docmentary and not too much of a story, but it's a nice read if you want to relax and it's beautiful how leaving and coming home are described in it.
The difference to a less documentary and more literary style become immediately clear when you read Gallico's "The Snow Goose" as you shold.
The difference to a less documentary and more literary style become immediately clear when you read Gallico's "The Snow Goose" as you shold.
August 4, 2012
This is one of those books where you feel you ought to rave about it as others do but in truth I don't think William Fiennes' writing is very good. This interferes with my enjoyment of his stories. Here I felt the subject matter, as interesting as it might have been, was let down by the indistinct voice of Fiennes as a writer. I felt as if it was lacking in descriptive power, interesting things to say and number of things to say. Sorry but I have to be honest, I wanted to really be bowled over by this but I was not. I will say that his strength seems, to me, to show up best when he is describing anything to do with his family and home. His autobiographical The Music Room made for a much better read.
October 29, 2019
Might have given this a higher score if I hadn't found the writer a bit whiny. He seems to be bored and homesick for most of the journey (as he's constantly waiting for the migrating geese to catch up with him). His journey cannot have been cheap, staying in the US and Canada for 3 months, including flights to some very remote areas. Flights to Nunavut are expensive. I just became annoyed that he was kind of moaning about it when most people couldn't hope to undertake a similar trip.
BTW, out of curiosity, I just looked up to see if I could fly from Churchill to Iqaluit and it would cost me over £3000 return. Although I could go for £925 from Ottawa should I ever want to visit Iqaluit. I'll bear that in mind!
BTW, out of curiosity, I just looked up to see if I could fly from Churchill to Iqaluit and it would cost me over £3000 return. Although I could go for £925 from Ottawa should I ever want to visit Iqaluit. I'll bear that in mind!
January 17, 2015
A beautifully written meditation on what home means and one man's journey to define it following a serious illness, told through the lens of a natural history book on the migration of snow geese. Somehow it manages at the same time to be one of the more compelling American road trip memoirs I've read. I love the detours the book takes into the etymology of nostalgia and homesickness. The prose is of a particular variety of precision and care that requires equal care in reading. In lesser hands such care could have been tedious, but Fiennes manages to make it a tool of transcendence.
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September 10, 2017Not going to rate this as I abandoned it sadly half way through. I loved Fiennes other book 'The Music Room' and this travel adventure of following Snow Geese across Northern America is widely acclaimed but for me, at this time, it was just too sad. I found that William's loneliness - instead of consoling me - mirrored and enhanced my own and was making me sadder still. So - with regret - I laid this book aside. Sometimes perhaps it's just not the right moment for a book. A bit like meeting someone at the wrong moment in your life. I know that William made it - without my support.
June 2, 2020
"William Fiennes nos relata en Los gansos de las nieves la historia de un joven y brillante estudiante inglés, que empujado por una enfermedad que le ha dejado en un estado de depresión, decide, inspirado en un cuento de su infancia, viajar de Tejas al Polo Norte siguiendo la ruta migratoria de las aves. Relato de un viaje que se convierte en crónica ornitológica, descripción minuciosa de costumbres y pueblos, inmersión detallada en la naturaleza más indómita y meditaciones del narrador sobre sus incapacidades y sus ganas de vivir." Marta Ramoneda
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