Border Songs – Jim Lynch

Thanks so much for your insight on the book Border Songs, by Jim Lynch.  It was fun to read a novel that takes place in a small town many of us are familiar with.  Blaine, Washington is a small northwest border town that hosts the Peace Arch, a park that straddles the U.S.A. and British Columbia, Canada.  Most of the border between the two counties is a nondescript ditch that crosses dairy farms and berry fields.  Most of the people on either side of the border know each other.  Like all cities and towns, Blaine has its share of quirky characters, although some of us thought there was maybe too many for such a small town.  The book’s main character is Brandon Vanderkool, a very tall man, towering over most of the other people in his town.  Brandon is a social misfit, dyslexic and maybe even mildly autistic.  He’s happiest when he’s counting birds and communing with nature.  His job is that of a Border Patrol agent and while he doesn’t particularly like it, his attention to detail with bird habitats and everything about nature means he notices things others don’t.  This ability to see what’s out of sync with the world he knows makes him extremely effective finding illegal border crossers, people smugglers and drug mules.

Brandon’s just one character.  Brandon’s father Norm is a dairy farmer who’s been building a sailboat, even though he doesn’t know how to sail.  Their neighbor just behind their farm on the other side of the border is Wayne, a retired professor who smokes pot and thinks the drug wars in the U.S. are ridiculous.  Wayne’s daughter Madeline is a drug smuggler and Brandon is in love with her.  Dionne is Brandon’s mentor and trainer for the Border Patrol and she has her own issues.  Another neighbor, Sophie, seems to be the local gossip, although she spends most of her time capturing on film what everyone’s doing.  Seems like we’re never quite sure what her motives are, although the end of the story sheds a few clues.

This novel was published in 2009 but all of us recognized the correlations to the current activities along the southern border, and even the northern border.  For some of us, the current political ramifications made the book hard to read and we all agreed that our perspectives of the book would be different if we were reading it even just a few years ago.  We try not to talk politics at our meetings but sometimes the current events seem to overlap the book discussions we’re having and invite reflection.

If you haven’t read the book, pick it up and read it.  It’s worth the time and what a great way to support local Washington state authors!

Next month’s book is  The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseini.  I’ve read this book previously, although I’ll have to pick it up and read it again as it’s been long while.  This can be a difficult book to read due to some of the subject matter but I encourage all of you to read it.  You’ll be glad you did.  There was also a movie made of the book and while the movie can’t possibly cover everything the book did, it hit the right points and becomes a story of redemption.  Our next meeting will be held on January 23 at 4 pm.

I also wanted to thank all of you for the Christmas card.  What a nice surprise for Mike and me!  You guys are so thoughtful.  This book club has been going strong for two years, can you believe it?  It seems just yesterday that we were talking about starting a book group and now two years have went by.  When you’re having fun, time flies!!  Thank you all for continuing to support the book club and each other.  Without all of you, we wouldn’t have anyone to share all these great books!  Kudos to the library staff as well for providing treats and most especially Mary Cote for her hard work getting all of our votes for future reads compiled and sorted.  Thank you everyone!!!