When my friend Debra suggested that I read The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard, I took her suggestion to heart and immediately requested the book from the library. Debra had liked several books I had recommended to her; I thought turnabout would be fair play. I am delighted that I took her recommendation seriously. From the beginning of the story, I had strong feelings about Irene, the main character, and her plight. As I continued to read, Emily Dickinson’s lines kept coming to me: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” While The Bird Hotel is prose, I kept getting the same visceral feelings that Dickinson describes as I read.
The Bird Hotel takes readers on a lifelong journey with Irene from her difficult and sad childhood into a traumatic experience as an adult. We follow her as she makes life-changing decisions based on wandering, at first. On her travels, Irene takes a bus to a destination “whose name was lit up on the front of the bus, Lago La Paz. Peace Lake.” A fellow traveler carrying a box of chicken tells Irene to get off the bus at La Esperanza, a word meaning hope. Irene needs both peace and hope to help her in healing from her grief.
Once in La Esperanza, Guatemala, Irene meets Walter, a child guide, who takes her quite directly to a lakefront hotel, La Llorona. It is shabby and rundown, but the grounds are beautiful. La Llorona sits at the base of a volcano which will play its own part in the story in a variety of ways.
At the hotel, which might also be called The Bird Hotel because of the variety of beautiful birds found there, Irene meets Leila, the owner of La Llorona. Although Irene has no reservation, it seems almost as if Leila has been waiting for her. Irene has encountered such help throughout her journey to La Esperanza. Readers do not question this journey because it all seems right for Irene.
Irene finds solace in the beauty and peace at La Llorona. She finds friends in Leila along with Maria, Luis, Elmer, and Mirabel who work for Leila, but who are also her friends. Irene finds herself extending her stay and helping Leila in the gardens surrounding the hotel.
The Bird Hotel is a story of heartbreak and redemption in its highest form. Irene finds contentment and purpose at La Llorona. That doesn’t mean that other heartbreaks and disappointments don’t plague her, but she overcomes each one with grace and fortitude. Book club members will have a great deal to discuss after reading The Bird Hotel. Clearly, love and loss will be foremost in the discussion, but other topics will also keep the conversation going. The Bird Hotel is a book to be read, savored, treasured, and appreciated.
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