![]() ![]() Jim tries to convince himself he is happy in Maine, in spite of defining “happiness” as being able to be drunk all day, and in spite of his dependency on a wheelchair or crutch, a circumstance which chafes greatly at this formerly active man. In his spare time, when he was not observing Japanese ship movements, Jim killed or captured birds and taught Tosca the art of skinning and mounting them. There he met a man-Friday like character named Tosca. His life was greatly and adversely affected by his experiences in the Pacific War as a coast watcher or forward observer of naval movements from an (almost) uninhabited atoll in the Solomon Islands. In the past he was an eminent scholar Assistant Curator of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology a noted taxidermist of birds and a somewhat heroic veteran of World War II. Jim Carroway, the title character, is a curmudgeonly seventy-year-old man who is determined to spend what is left of his life drinking, smoking, and cursing the recent loss of one leg. The action jumps back and forth between Penobscot Bay in Maine in 1973 and the Solomon Islands during World War II, with an occasional interlude in 1917. The author obviously has literary prowess, with somewhat stylized writing. ![]() ![]() This book is good in an artsy sort of way. Note: This is a joint review by both Jill and Jim. ![]()
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