Like Circling Birds

 

This beautiful novel is at once earthy and poetic. The story focuses on the fragility and potential joy of human relationships. Its main character, Faye, is the middle child of a young, post-war family, living life against an apparently idyllic backdrop of rural Scottish society. The father, Ralph, newly demobbed, comes home to be reunited with his family. His daughter Faye instinctively fears and rejects this ‘man of war’ she only knows from photographs. Wracked with survivor guilt and out of touch with his own emotions, he backs away from the child. In that second a gulf opens between them. The remaining narrative is fraught with the unresolved, unspoken conflict between father and daughter and how it ripples out to those around them.

Gibson skilfully draws the reader into their world and, as the story begins, the reader sympathises in turn with each character. Faye’s much-loved mother, Lorna, is outwardly content; inwardly she rails against the fatalist philosophy of those around her. In Faye’s eyes her father’s rigidity and lack of warmth contrast badly with lodger Eddie’s optimism and congeniality, but Gibson helps us understand the father through flashbacks to the Normandy landings; some of the strongest scenes revolve around his vividly portrayed experiences of war. Despite his faults, the reader cannot help but feel sympathy for a man afraid to find his own soul.

The plot is simple, Ralph assimilating into family life and the strains it causes, while the story is richly interwoven with human emotions. The story develops on a psychological level as the girl, bewildered by seeming rejection, comes to understand the masks imposed by society. Gibson’s keen observation of mores and morals within the small community allow us to discover them; forbidden pre-marital sex, a baby born out of wedlock, a neighbour’s impotent fury at her weakened body, a friend’s illiteracy, implied adultery. Conscientious objector Uncle Francis, a compelling, gypsy-like character, draws Faye to him almost magnetically. Then there is the revelation of some kind of illicit relationship - has Faye been right all along in her instinctive rejection of Ralph as her father? How can he know if Faye is his?

The storyline merges with legends; reality is beautifully interwoven with imagination, rich in the folklore of the author’s native Scotland; wondrous images of mermaids and mirror men, wild tinkers and familiar bible stories, strange trees and symbolic landscapes. Against this remarkable blend of sin and virtue, the girl questions the power of God and struggles to grasp the ineffable. Driven by a desire to understand her situation and a need to escape it, an accident happens with disastrous results. What follows could mean the bridging of the long silence between father and daughter, but is it too late?

 

The music of Gibson’s language is mesmerizing throughout. It creates a powerful atmosphere which highlights the questions underlying the narrative. Is it possible to be happy and conform to others’ expectations of us? How do we find the courage within ourselves to improve our circumstances? What should the relationships in our lives mean?

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Editor, ANNE BUHRMANN, writes ...