5/5 Stars
The Plover by Brian Doyle is a unique kind of book. If you liked Mink River, this book is even better. Reading The Plover is kind of like having someone quietly whisper to your soul. Doyle writes with a stream-of-thought style, which makes you feel that you’re floating along with a vibrant and tangible dream, the best kind of dream, where you know if you try hard enough you can make yourself fly. This is one of those books that perfectly encapsulates why I love to read. It is a friendly voice who invites himself into your brain. You offer him a seat in a comfy armchair and bring him a warm cup of coffee in exchange for his story. And when the story is done, he will have to leave, and tears will fall down your face, but he will say it is the way it has to be, the way it has always been, and he will kiss you on the forehead and remind you, that really, he is not so far away, and goodbye is never forever. After he is gone, you will see his coffee cup resting on the side table, with the faint, tan stain of his lips, and you will know that his gentle voice is still a quiet whisper in your brain, if you really listen.
This book will make you miss not only the characters, who feel so real, and flawed, and beautiful, but you will miss hearing the author’s drifty, tumultuous voice, so much like the sea under a boat.
My only complaints would be his fatuitous love affair with the word infinitesimal and a few other repetitive words that seemed redundant rather than emphatic in nature.
I also wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t particularly want to think while they read. This book will require all of the beautiful and remote corners of your brain. If you let your mind wander, even for just a moment, you more than likely will have to reread a few sentences, because you will have completely lost your way.
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