Snapper (Vintage Contemporaries)

Brian Kimberling's Snapper is a witty, emotional, fun group of interwoven stories about a young man's attempts at love. Often backtracking to an earlier time in the protagonist's life, it takes the reader through the high points (and low) that lead him to finding what is important in his life. Nathan, the protagonist, is employed to watch birds in the forests of Indiana; though bird-watching on the surface would not seem to pertain to politics, love or family, Kimberling ties all of these into the stages of Nathan's life (giving me a new interest in birds, and erasing any interest I ever had in seeing Indiana.) I thought the finest chapter was about Santa Claus, Indiana-- if only that small town could exist as he described it! This was one of those books that I found almost impossible to put down, and made me sad that it had to end. I'll definitely read this again. Also, I think this would be a great made-for-TV serial, if done by PBS, so that it would be done right.

Having raced through the interlocked stories of Snapper once, I'm already trying to re-read and savor them, but now more slowly. Kimberling's book is so very enjoyable, so frequently laugh-out-loud funny, that its artistry is not immediately apparent, but in truth he pulls off something very difficult here: in Nathan Lochmueller, professional bird tracker and slacker university student, he pens a narrator who is genuinely sympathetic despite his carefully enumerated failures. Partly, it's easy to sympathize with Nathan, given his great love and appreciation for the flora and fauna [and extreme weather and diners and colorful inhabitants] of his homestate, Indiana, but on the other hand Nathan seems intent on challenging our sympathy by parading his own blindnesses and failures of understanding or sympathy. While most of these chronologically ordered and psychologically interwoven stories [Winesburg, Ohio might be the best analogy, if you think of George's centralizing, pivotal role] feature Nathan as the spectator of some usually funny, though often quite moving or painful vignette, a role he inhabits with aplomb as a sort of amused and astute tour guide, overall the reader is enjoined to spectate on Nathan, and chronicle and calibrate his moral failings as carefully as he does his wood thrushes and ovenbirds. As a result, the book overall leaves you with the experience of feeling you've been well entertained and you've met some fantastic and unforgettably rich, distinct characters and seen Indiana up close in a way that makes you too fall in love the state, but it also makes you think more deeply about the painful process that coming of age in one's twenties can be. As Nathan both recalls the charm of boyhood and his once tight-knit but now changing and inevitably fraying friendships, and now tries to work through his complicated romantic attachment to the elusive Lola while developing a more mature view of love and responsibility, he begins to see himself more clearly, and he's not always sure he likes what he sees. I don't think I've ever read a book that better captured the bittersweet attractions of a young man's unobtainable first love, nor one that had such a colorful greek chorus as Nathan's wide ranging cast of hoosiers to point out the potential tragedies that lurk beneath the quirky, eccentric surfaces. All in all, it's a great read (it's difficult imagining someone who would not find these stories enjoyable) but all together it has surprising depth and acuity and so stays with you and tugs at you more insistently than you might think.

I am a senior who loves studying birds, so I selected this book based on that fact. The first part of Snapper was all about the birds in the forest area of a bird scientist, which was very interesting to me. However, the rest of the book dragged in my opinion. This was more a story of a group of high-school boys who became young men and how they parted with maturity. It dwelled a lot with these guys finding themselves and living together with a few living unproductive lives and a lot of pot smoking and drinking.Possibly this would be more interesting to a younger adult, but I struggled to finish this book.

I don't know what but after I got about a third of the way in, I had started to lose interest. I almost had the feeling the author was some hipster trying to write about his hipness...I did finish it, but I had to almost force myself to keep plowing through. I bought this on a recommendation of a fellow reader friend...he's in the same boat as I am on his opinion of the story as well.

The story was a long narrative of a man who finds a way to stall his life by monitoring birds in the woods. Ironically, he also finds his life while stalling. Good sense of humor, good descriptions of some of nature's most rewarding moments.

This is a terrific read - sort of brilliant and rambling, which suits the material perfectly. So many gorgeous lines in this book made me laugh out loud. Such a compelling sense of place, inhabited by equally compelling (if not savory) characters. Loved it.

I like the book it's about Indiana my home state I found it very interesting author has a ever wide variety of experiences to share

I knew very little about bird watching prior to beginning this book. Kimberling does a good job of explaining the ins and outs of his job keeping track of songbirds of Indiana. He has a natural and easy writing style which I greatly enjoyed. I agree with one critic who said the second half isn't as good as the first half, but both halves are quite good. I recommend this book without hesitation.

I liked the style, the subject and the feeling of loneliness. Quizzical. Often sarcastic and always a good story. Woodlands in Indiana.

Snapper makes much of its link with birds. "Birdwatching's no line of work for a man" says the cover, slotted in between lots of line drawings of birds. So the reader expects thrills and spills aplenty featuring an ornothologist.In fact, Snapper is a novel without a terribly clear focus. Sure, for parts of the novel, it's star, Nathan Lochmuellee, is a field worker for an ornithology professor. But this is really just a short while during Nathan's life which is dished up in chapter sized slabs in apparently random order. At other times, Nathan is at school, in prison, in a diner writing letters for Santa Claus, and driving around in a derelict truck that his friend Lola called the Gypsy Moth. The chapters are all episodic, each one telling its own self-contained story. There is a general timeline but it seems unimportant.If there is a theme, it is that the novel is a love-letter to Indiana. America's Crossroads. An unloved state populated by native Americans, rednecks and trailer trash; a city that everyone has heard of, yet nobody knows; and a nickname (the Hoosier State) that nobody can explain. Nathan loves reflecting on his life in Indiana, though he no longer lives there. He likes the people, though he is no longer one of them. He loves Lola, even though he lost her along the way. There's quite a lot of rose tinted spectacling going on.There's nothing inherently wrong with Snapper; it isn't a bad read. But the lack of any drive or direction means there's also not that much to recommend it. It's a bit folksy, but without being cute. It's neither fish nor fowl.

I really wanted to like this book - the description of the state as the "bastard son of the Midwest" on the blurb made me smile and I thought it would be engaging and fast-paced as well as humorous.I really did try, but I just found it dull. There's no compelling story, I found I really didn't care much about the characters and what happened to them, and the humour was a lot more forced and contrived than I expected it to be.I read as far as I could, but I just kept getting bored and I couldn't finish it, which is rare for me.

This is a debut novel from newcomer Brian Kimberling who was born and bred in rural Indiana. This book is about Nathan Lochmueller and revolves around his love/ hate relationship with his native state and his forlorn love for flibbertigibbet red head of his dreams - Lola. He spends a great time of the book detailing his feelings for her and how both the feelings and the people involved actually mature.He is also a professional bird watcher for part of the novel until he becomes an operative at a raptor hospital. Along the way we get to meet his friends and foes as he travels life's long highway. There are characters aplenty who are all treated with care and consideration even when they are giving Nathan a hard time. Whilst this is a gentle tale there are also moments of pure humour and wry observations all wrapped up in a lilting writing style that just seems to stroll along in a most agreeable way.This is one of those reads that just seem effortless, and at one time I was thinking, that not a lot was happening, but it is that it just is told in such an accessible style. Brian Kimberling has written what appears to be an autobiographical story in a very surprising debut that I really enjoyed and I think he will find he definitely has a hit on his hands.

Not worth your time or money. Reads like the diary of an average person, who leads a very uneventful life, which you will not find any meaning in.