Other Birds

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapter 6–Interlude 3

Chapters 10-15

Chapter 16–Interlude 7

Chapter 20–Interlude 9

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Dual Identities

Many of the characters in Other Birds struggle with having bifurcated selves. In some cases this duality is very literal, and in others it is an imbalance of clashing aspects of personality.

The clearest example of this is Charlotte, who consciously constructs an identity unrelated to her real self (she is actually Pepper Quint). She does this for two reasons: to honor her dead friend, whom she was unable to save, and to distance herself from her past. For several years, it works. Charlotte fulfills a running list of things “teenaged Charlotte” wanted to accomplish: living in new places, becoming a henna artist, and owning a vespa. Ironically, while henna becomes Charlotte’s trademark, she has never been interested in this craft. Her skill with henna application is a physical manifestation of the falseness of her life. Meanwhile, the real Pepper Quint often bleeds through Charlotte’s surface. The two are in conflict: Charlotte wants novelty and variety, while Pepper craves a secure and stable home surrounded by people who love her. These opposing needs cause Charlotte to be psychologically off-balance until she can embrace her true self.

Frasier’s dual identity is highlighted by his use of two different names: in a former life, he was Roscoe Avanger, renowned local writer; now, he is just the building manager of the Dellawisp Condos. Additionally, the two versions of Frasier are so different that they even live in separate geographical locations: the Dellawisp and his house on Julep Row. Frasier uses his false identity to hide from his literary failure and his interpersonal mistakes. Quotes from Sweet Mallow reveal that not only was this duality already present in Frasier from the beginning, but it is a sentiment that many others recognize within themselves: “How odd that pretending to be someone else has made me happier than I was when I was just being myself […] my old life dropped away and became make-believe, and my present life became my second birth” (99). Zoey discovers this passage highlighted by Oliver’s father, suggesting this image of two conflicting selves may have resonated with many readers.

Frasier’s fiction also reflects an identity split that foreshadows the truth behind Charlotte’s past: Frasier’s main character takes on his dead friend’s identity to protect himself, but ends up embodying it and being accepted by others in this new guise—exactly like Charlotte does in the novel. This story-within-a-story structure compounds the theme and parallels the internal crises many of the characters are experiencing in Other Birds.

Blood Family versus Found Family

Family dynamics form an integral part of the novel. Many of the characters are at odds with their families of origin; they ultimately come together as a found family, celebrating meaningful connections not developed through genetic bonds.

Zoey leaves a challenging household in which her father, stepmother, and stepsiblings treat her as an outsider. Zoey believes she has no other family besides this dysfunctional one; little does she know that her dead mother Paloma is still her ever present guardian, the invisible Pigeon. The blank slate of Paloma’s condominium disheartens Zoey, but the discovery forces her to reach out for connection elsewhere; on an unconscious level, her generous and inclusive actions toward the residents of the Dellawisp are born out of this need.

Camille and Mac’s character arcs also illustrate the dichotomy of blood family and found family. Unable to have children with her husband, Camille ended up being a maternal figure to an entire neighborhood’s worth of orphans. Despite not being his birth mother, Camille built a special connection with Mac because—unlike the other children she cared for—he treated her as family in return. As an adult who was abandoned as a child, but was taken in by a loving and nurturing non-relative, Mac understands the value of found family better than anyone. He seeks to pass Camille’s way of being onto others: In his restaurant, he creates strong staff relationships, built on family memories and stories.

Charlotte has been let down by both her blood family—namely, her mother—and her childhood found family, the cultist camp she and her mother joined. This dual betrayal led her to self-isolate and have difficulty trusting others. Her mother failed in her duty of care toward her child (a feature true of all of the parents depicted in the novel, to varying degrees). One key difference between Camille’s found family and Charlotte’s initial found family is agency. Camille, a competent adult, chose to surround herself with vulnerable children and become a force for good in their lives, while Charlotte—a helpless and resourceless child—was forced into a volatile and dangerous living situation. When Charlotte makes peace with her past and her grief, she can embrace her chosen found family at the Dellawisp.

Grief and Renewal

Many of the characters in the novel are learning how to manage grief over people they have lost, and how to move forward from the experience of losing them.

Mac and Charlotte are both held back by their grief, which keeps them apart from each other and prevents them from experiencing the fullness of life. Mac is unable to become intimate with anyone because falling asleep beside another person would mean exposing them to the supernatural cornmeal that is the physical manifestation of his grief over losing Camille. Charlotte’s grief cages her in a different way: Because she seeks to embody the friend whom she failed, she cannot share her real self with anyone.

The novel’s ghosts also struggle with letting go of the past. Each is held in place by unfulfilled need—their own, as in the case of Lizbeth, or that of others, as in the case with Camille. Because Mac’s grief is holding Camille in place, she is caught between two states of being; she can only offer the ghosts around her the same wisdom that she would like to offer Mac. Lizbeth, in contrast, still demands earthly validation for the sacrifices she made in life on behalf of her adopted son Oliver and her sister Lucy. Her animosity comes from an internalized need to be acknowledged with gratitude; having been denied that in life, she hopes to have her story publicized so that others will understand her better.

Once Mac, Charlotte, and Lizbeth reach acceptance, they let go of their grief. The ghosts ascend to the next stage of their journeys. Charlotte and Mac begin new lives less encumbered by grief, guilt, and loss. Camille summarizes this core idea when she says, “don’t hold on to old love so hard you forget how to live” (179). This illustrates that while memories of loved ones can endure, those memories shouldn’t become an obstacle to embracing the possibilities of living.