Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey: A Novel
By: Kathleen Rooney / Narrated By: Juliana Canfield, Noah Michael Levine
Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
Kinda depressing, esPECially as narrated, esPECially by Canfield—
—but maybe Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey is AWEsome in print.
Seriously, this baaaarely came out, like, two weeks ago. But I saw it, saw what it was about, KNEW I had to get it.
Credit-worthy? Well, I think so at any rate.
A story of hope stemming from unfathomable tragedy? Not so muuuuuch.
The story, told in alternating chapters between Cher Ami and Whittlesey, opens with Juliana Canfield as Cher Ami.
>Thunk<
Cuz after enduring the horrors of WWI, the messenger pigeon Cher Ami finds herself (Yes, she was dubbed a male, but she was actually female) in a new state of consciousness… as a taxidermied specimen on display for forEVER, stuck in the Smithsonian, next to Sgt. Stubby, and far away from everything and everyone she loved. She suffers from all she saw in the war, her many losses, from despair and going day by day with no hope for anything better. So she tells us her story.
Starts off depressing, and that narrator Juliana Canfield drones in a dramatic monotone so much so I jacked up my usual x1.2 listening speed to x1.8? I had to, I tell you; I had to! Give me SOME life, some sense of pacing whereby I don’t want to blow my head off. And it doesn’t get better, from love and soaring delight experienced as a young bird, to scenes of war, carnage, and chaos that she endures as a messenger pigeon, witnessing what WWI’s Lost Battalion lives (And dies) through. Nope, same plodding oh so serious tones.
Onto Major Charles Whittlesey’s opening chapter, where Noah Michael Levine does much better. But, see, Whit came back from the war suffering from survivor’s guilt, impostor syndrome (He believes he’s no hero, should NOT be alive, not when so many he commanded gave their lives in horrific ways). And the uptick in his mood this opening chapter is cuz he’s decided to end it all, and he’s planning on a suicide at sea. So he tells us his story.
>Thunk<
When the liveliness of a story comes from a main character as he jauntily embarks on what will be his last few days? Oh good golly gosh…! Gimme this POV at x1.7 speed, thank you very much…
But seriously, this is probably a brilliant book in print. The anthropomorphism of Cher Ami is neither cutesy nor does it ever hang on the whimsical: This gal has experienced it all, and she gives us an animal’s eye view of what it’s like to be at the beck and call of humans as they seek to destroy each other, even while actually being true equals and partners. That she experiences love and affection in her time: Awesome. And author Kathleen Rooney has obviously done plenty of research, has viewed the stuffed pigeon still on display at the Smithsonian, has dug into Whittlesey’s history for an appropriate bio of him (Only taking the liberty of explaining his bachelorhood as probable homosexuality and an unrequited One True Love lost during the battle). She has their bios down pat, the hell their lives were after the war equally so. We get lessons in history, a contemplation of animals as sentient creatures; we get to see what hope for risk and adventure vs. the reality of war in funk holes, constant shelling, living in one’s own excrement, eating rats looks like through some truly well well WELL-written stories that craft this book.
And NATurally, the danged thing was sooo intriguing, so fascinating that I punctuated listening with hitting google and Wikipedia for the actual history. On target (And I should note that I did NOT pause the narration but let it go as, really: I kept it at x1.2 for several chapters, and I didn’t miss a dad gum thing…). And when a story is so engaging as to make ya wanna learn more? TOTAL dealmaker.
It’s just that this IS a story of war and despair, of surviving only to realize that there’s no going home again, forever to be just a touch away from a life that will never be yours again. Rooney did a fabulous job with the realism, with putting faces to heroes (Tho’ they’d desperately prefer to just be their old selves again), actions to mere wisps of a barely remembered hell. She makes them live and breathe again. And Noah Michael Levine makes Whit such a memorable character.
It’s just that our heroine, Cher Ami, while she lives, while she breathes, while she does indeed love? At x1.2 speed, with Juliana Canfield narrating?
Oh good gosh… lemme jack up the listening speed lest I shoot my poor head off!
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