PET INSPIRES A FLIGHT OF FANCY
Brett goes on a flight of fancy, inspired by a longtime pet
Once again Brian Brett challenges the boundaries of genre and wins. Tuco: The Parrot, the Others, and a Scattershot World: A Life with Birds is an intimate look at Brett’s life, focusing on his parrot Tuco, an African grey parrot he has lived with for more than 20 years. Frankly, Tuco sounds completely irritating to me, but Brett loves him, and the bird is an inspiration for absolutely splendid writing.
Brett has published two books of memoir: Uproar’s Your Only Music and Trauma Farm. The first describes his struggle with Kallmann syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing, among other things, problems with puberty, loss of sense of smell and osteoporosis. Now in his 60s, Brett lives in constant pain. Trauma Farm is about Brett’s life on Salt Spring Island.
He says Tuco is a loose third instalment of his memoir, and likely his last. And he notes some incidents are mentioned in earlier books but are seen from different angles.
The genius of Brett’s work is twofold: luminous prose and an ability to marry tragedy and comedy. Memoir for Brett means delving into his own life and the world at large. In Tuco he recounts events of his past while informing us about birds, books, history, travel, mythology, environmental concerns and, above all, recognition of the “Other.”
As he says, “When you are born strange, you learn to see the strangeness in the world ... I learned how to behave like an Other. I dwelt in the cave behind my eyes, watching the miracle of the world unfold — a cold-eyed hawk.” Imagining himself as a hawk is fitting, given the hawk’s intelligence and keen eyesight.
Brett knows about birds, and readers of this book will learn a great deal. He has read widely and thoughtfully, and he includes a bibliography of books on birds. He explains his decision not to have footnotes as a desire not to clutter up the text. It was a wise decision for, as he says, most of the information can now be found online — although, he also points out, “Being a book lover, I found this a little depressing.”
Tuco, the smart, chatty, jokeplaying housemate, provides much of the humour. The bird loves companionship, has a large vocabulary and demands to be recognized as a key resident in the Brett household. He scares Sharon, Brett’s wife, by doing nutty things such as making the sound of burping. He adopts her voice to answer a question asked by Brett. He is a true personality and over the years learns about Brett’s friends and plays tricks on them as well. He even teases the other animals in the Brett household.
One of the things I liked best about this book is Brett’s selfexamination. He admits his mistakes, and he hopes to do better. The broader mistakes are those of human beings. He is worried about the mess the world is in today, but he is also hopeful that we can make changes. He says, “What has clearly become essential to the survival of our species is the need to evolve beyond cruelty into imaginative identification with the Other.”
After last week’s election (I was supposed to write this review in the afternoon, but couldn’t concentrate until after the results were in), I hope Brett’s words about survival have a chance to be implemented. All species are in it together, as Tuco makes evident so eloquently. Candace Fertile teaches English at Camosun College in Victoria.
What has clearly become essential to the survival of our species is the need to evolve beyond cruelty into imaginative identification with the Other. BRIAN BRETT