Providence of a Sparrow: Lessons from a Life Gone to the Birds by Chris Chester - Beauty comes from unexpected places

"There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow." --William Shakespeare, Hamlet

B fell twenty-five feet from his nest into the life of Chris Chester. The encounter was providential for both of them.
B and Chester spent hours together playing games like bottle-cap fetch or hide-and-seek. They learned "words" in each other's vocabularies. B developed a fetish for nostrils and a dislike of the color yellow. He grew anxious if Chester came home late from work. At bedtime he would rub his sleepy eyes on Chester's thumb and settle to sleep in his palm. Chester ended up turning part of his house into an aviary and adjusting his social life to meet B's demands. This was a small price to pay, though, for the trust and comfort of a twenty-five-gram friend who brought joy and wonder back into his life.

Beauty comes from unexpected places
Such a beautiful, lyrical, funny, and sad book.

I had never heard of this book before stumbling upon it during a trip to Portland (ironically, since that's where it is set). That Chris' relationship with B (and the other birds that came after, but mostly B) enabled him to write the book he always felt that he had within him is a testament to the uncommon bond between them. As others have mentioned, this isn't a book that will teach you everything you might want to know about birds, or even just House Sparrows (those much-maligned creatures), but it is a book that can teach you a lot about life, and how to find beauty in the simplest of things.

From my initial flipping through the book, I knew that the ending was sad. That couldn't really prepare me for the news (partly gleaned from the reviews here) that Chris had died an untimely, lonely death in 2007. Nor could it prepare me for the devastating story of Chris' last few years, as he struggled (and, it seems, failed) to somehow get over the loss of B.

So, I'm happy that B gave Chris a pathway into his inner writer, but I do wish, so very much, that Chris had been able to get over (or past) B's death; that he'd been able to find more beauty in the world and written more books about it; that he'd been able to keep his life with Rebecca, odd as it was, together; that someone had been able to get him to see a doctor before it was too late.

Even given all that, though, I recommend "Providence of a Sparrow" wholeheartedly. You will come out of it with, perhaps, a greater fondness for the humble House Sparrow; even, perhaps, a desire to raise one of your own. Chris Chester wrote an amazing first book - I just wish he'd been able to write a second.

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