Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsBeautifully written... if only it didn't have such a poor ending!
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2009
This has to be one of the most beautifully written novels I have read of late. "White Bird..." is a wistful and elegiac coming-of-age story, set in small-town Ohio and following Katrina Connors as she blossoms into a beautiful teenager, has her first sexual experiences, and -most importantly- tries to make sense of her mother's unexplained disappearance.
Told from the main character's perspective, the story develops richly and believably, as Kat reflects on her parents' failed marriage, her mother's bitterness and cruelty, and her kindly, dull father's attempts to continue living after she vanishes. The prose is incredibly lush and beautiful, whether the descriptions are of Ohio in the dead of winter or of Katrina's own states of mind.
The only reason why I didn't give it more stars was its implausible, contrived ending. It's as if, 75% into the novel, Ms. Kasischke had suddenly decided that what she wanted to write was a mystery novel instead of a character-based one --- or as if she had wanted to finish it quickly and had just wrapped everything up in this silly conclusion. And this is where the book, in my opinion, fails. The ending is not only unlikely (i.e., what happens could hardly have happened without anyone finding out soon enough) but also anticlimactic and disappointing. I'd have enjoyed the novel much more if Ms. Kasischke hadn't changed courses, and had continued with the wonderful story that had me hooked from the start!