Books |
Go to the archives |
By
Published: 2004
Category: Fiction
In the spring of 1940, nothing could stop Hitler's march across Europe --- by late May, Paris was on the verge of falling to the Nazis. And the English troops who had fought alongside the French were trapped at the harbour town of Dunkirk. For nine days, they waited on a seven-mile stretch of beach. And then began an astounding evacuation --- privately-owned English pleasure boats, manned mostly by amateur crews, rushed across the Channel to bring the boys home.
Five days later, these boats had rescued 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops. Casualties: a handful. Effect on English morale: incalculable.
A few months later, Paul Gallico published "The Snow Goose" as a short story in The Saturday Evening Post; in 1941, Alfred Knopf published it as one of the shortest books ever. It became an instant classic. Butler's mother gave it to him when he was a toddler; Butler expects to do the same for his daughter.
"The Snow Goose" is about surface reality --- and what lies beneath. Philip Rhayader is a hunchback. His left arm is crippled. And he is an artist, with all the sensitivity that implies. So he moves to an abandoned English lighthouse that overlooks a marshland. Lonely? You bet. But there are consolations --- the rugged beauty of the landscape and the yearly migration of the birds.
A story needs people. And here comes Frith, a 12-year-old girl. She carries a goose, wounded by a hunter. Rhayader explains that it's a Canadian snow goose that has been pushed to Europe by strong winds. He's gifted with animals --- he helps the bird heal.
When the goose flies off in the spring, Frith's visits end. But the goose returns that fall. So does Frith. Thus begins an annual cycle, with alternating seasons of friendship and loneliness. But as surely as change is the law of life, so does this cycle change. For Rhayader, affection for Frith has turned into love. For the goose, the long flights away from the marsh end. The unspoken question: Will Rhayader declare his love? Will Frith, like the goose, stay?
Then the war comes. Across the channel are men in need. And here, on the English shore, is Rhayader. "For once --- for once I can be a man and play my part," he says, and sails off to rescue his countrymen.
And then? But let's stop here, before the hyper-dramatic conclusion. Get the book, all 5,000 words and 64 pages of it. Oh, and get a box of Kleenex.
Note to parents: "The Snow Goose" is a great book for kids, either for you to read to them or --- I have heard this still happens --- for them to read to themselves.
To buy "The Snow Goose" from Amazon.com, click here.