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Reviewed: The Final Solution By Michael Chabon (Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 2004, 131 pp, ISBN: 0-06-076340-X, U.S. $16.95 h/c) I
thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I spotted this book at a local store
during a late autumn-early winter shopping trip. It not only revolves around an
African grey parrot, but it is about the “world’s first consulting
detective” - none other than Sherlock Holmes (I love stories about Holmes
almost as much as I love my greys - and the books almost never It takes
place during the latter years of World War II, when Holmes, now a retired
beekeeper in the English countryside (never mentioned by name in the book),
meets a young boy wandering about the countryside with an African grey parrot.
No one knows where they come from, and communication is difficult as the boy
only speaks German. The bird
disappears, and the great detective comes out of retirement to find it. There
are hints that this bird perhaps holds the key to a German code, and Holmes
finds himself matching wits with British army intelligence, which apparently
wants the bird, also. Chabon uses
an interesting technique in the next-to-last chapter of the book: he tells that
chapter from the perspective of the parrot. One thing I’m not certain about is
the accuracy in describing the parrot’s sense of smell. There seems to be some
debate as to whether parrots have a well-developed sense of smell, and the bird
in this story does seem to have a keen olfactory sense. I felt a
little irritated by the spelling of African grey as “gray” in the book.
Technically, the use of an “a” is correct American spelling for
“gray,” but using “e” when referring to P. erithacus is standard
practice in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, a detail obviously
overlooked by the author. I won’t tell you how it ends of course, but if you like mysteries – especially Holmes mysteries – you’ll probably enjoy this novelette, despite some of its flaws in the details regarding grey parrots. -
Reviewed by John Geary |
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bite me!)