#the rain heron

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE RAIN HERON by Robbie Arnott.*

The People have Spoken, so I'm reading THE RAIN HERON next! This one's been on my radar for a while, although I'm glad I waited (because I like this cover variant much more than the first variant that I saw).

*Featuring Dye Mad Yarns' Great Lakes Collection moonlighting as a background.

[rhetoricandlogic]

The Rain Heron: A Novel

By Robbie Arnott

FSG Originals

288 pp.

Reviewed by Paul D. Pearlstein

March 12, 2021

Despite many strong parts, this fragmented, genre-defying tale makes for an unsatisfying whole.

The Rain Heron: A Novel

Reviewed by Paul D. Pearlstein

March 12, 2021

Robbie Arnott is a prize-winning Tasmanian writer who has created in The Rain Heron a phantasmagoric tale in five parts. The chapters are very loosely tied to a mythical bird whose appearance reverses a devastating drought in an unidentified rural land.

The heron is incorporeal, made of water, though it can be netted and caged. Its apparent magic becomes the subject of a deadly hunt by soldiers involved in a local uprising. It’s unclear what the military hopes to do with the bird, but perhaps the heron’s preternatural powers might give them an edge in their struggle. That “struggle” is left to the imagination of the reader, as is much of the storyline, throughout which obfuscation, minimalism, and a creative timeline are mixed with some beautifully honed prose.

Sharing this tale with the bird are three curiously engaging women. Only briefly do we meet the first, a farmer whose land and livelihood are ruined by drought. She is saved when the ethereal bird appears to end the dry spell and become her protector. This woman alone enjoys great prosperity until a jealous neighbor’s boy tries to kill the heron. The boy is found with his eyes plucked out, the drought returns, and the farmer’s prosperity reverts to penury.

We next meet Ren, whose life was ruined and whose son was conscripted by the marauding military resistance. To survive, she flees to a mountain cave, where she stays alive by hunting, trapping, and trading pelts. Ren’s character may remind readers of Ayla in Jean Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear, another savvy survivalist.

The third woman, Zoe, lives by the sea, where she and her aunt earn a living milking squid and selling the valuable ink. A stranger intrudes and tries to learn the secret of how to obtain the ink. He ends up unintentionally killing the aunt. Zoe then kills him with the help of a blood-sucking squid, promptly leaves town, and joins the military resistance.

She excels in her new life and is quickly promoted to Lieutenant Harker. While commanding an all-male unit, she is ordered to capture the water heron and bring it to her superiors. Intelligence reports indicate that if Ren can be found, she can lead the soldiers to the mystical bird.

We first meet the soldiers as they’re scouring a mountainous region for Ren, who uses her knowledge of the terrain to avoid detection. Eventually, however, she is found. When she bravely refuses to reveal the bird’s location, she is tortured by the lieutenant until she relents. The bird is caught and caged, but not without a fight. During its capture, one of Harker’s eyes is plucked out.      

The bird is taken to the soldiers’ encampment at Ren’s cave, where Ren makes one last attempt to free it. The now partially blinded Lieutenant Harker (Zoe) instinctively shoots Ren in the throat despite never before having aimed a gun at another human.

After the passing of time, the remorseful lieutenant decides to free the bird. She returns to the cave and to Ren, who is still alive but unable to speak because of her injury. Together, the women go to a spot in the mountains and release the water heron. The lieutenant then leaves. She drives to a military doctor’s office to have him examine her gouged eye, and an abrupt fairytale ending ensues.

The author scatters several acts of gratuitous violence amid the pages: the plucking out of eyeballs; the murder of Zoe’s aunt and subsequent killing of her killer; the shooting of Ren; and more. It seems unnecessary for the book as a whole; perhaps each individual bloodstained episode would fit more comfortably into standalone stories.

Much of Arnott’s best writing describes the natural beauty of the unnamed region, the climate, and concern for the environment, though it’s unclear if that qualifies this book as a work of eco-fiction. It could just as easily be categorized as a fantasy, a feminist myth, a murder mystery, or even some sort of Dickensian coincidence tale. Regardless, The Rain Heron tries to span several genres but never quite succeeds in any. While its distinct narratives are interesting, the novel’s puzzling organization left this reader scratching his head.

[flourmelon]

“I remembered bloody waves. I remembered the freshening scent of pine trees, the dark height of a mountain, how a gun felt as it erupted in my fingers. Then I looked again at the boy, and approached him the way one should approach a broken child—with concern, a net of safety, and something like love.”

The Rain Heron

—Robbie Arnott

12.26.2022

🌧️🔫🦢🚲🌾

[juniper-clan]

Moon 14: Birth of Venus

(AKA the twins!)

PREVIOUS l NEXT

[elliepassmore]

The Rain Heron review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, multiple POVs, stories within stories, weird fiction This is a fun, short read that I picked up as a spur-of-the-moment thing. I really enjoyed the book and getting the different POVs and stories throughout it. It's written in a slightly unusual style in that each 'part' tells someone else's story, but they all fit together to create the overarching 'plot'...in as much as there is a 'plot' vs. character arcs that drive the story. We start off with a brief story about a farmer whose luck changes after the rain heron begins stopping by their farm, and how their luck reverses almost as quickly. It seems unconnected from the rest of the book, aside from the rain heron, but it provides some good context into the bird's nature as well as to the theme of the book. Part 1 follows a woman who lives in the woods outside of a town and only ever interacts with a man who she trades with and sometimes the man's son. As the description says, Ren's life is majorly disrupted when the army comes looking for a mystical bird. Ren really gets dealt a bad hand and there's definitely some brutality to what happens in this part. Ren is a good character to follow. She's content in her quiet life and then full of righteous, defensive anger over what the army has done and does. The second part follows a character that seems wholly disconnected from the first part of the story. The inclusion of this part was a clever move on Arnott's part since it generated both a backstory and some empathy for Zoe. I also really liked getting to see some of the other magic in the book's world, and the juxtaposition of the frozen north against the woods of the rest of the book was interesting. Parts 3 and 4 bring us back to the woods where we left Ren, the army, + others, only in the aftermath of everything in part 1. Despite the interruption, things pickup immediately where they left off but follow the army's healer, Daniel, instead. As someone who was meant to be a doctor, he struggles with everything that happened in part 1 and the devolution of the situation at the very end. At the same time, he's loyal to his commander because she's the reason he survived the war. The last part focuses on the army commander, Harker, as she deals with everything that has happened. This is really the strongest character arc of the four parts, and it feels more like an arc vs. a character study, though Ren does get somewhat of an arc in part 1. Harker really considers what she's done and whether it was truly necessary to do it and what she wants to do next. I actually came to like Harker in a complicated sort of way, and I felt sorry about some of the stuff she goes through. Arnott writes in a really interesting manner. I like the prose of the book and how things are worded. It reminds me a bit of the style in Annihilation and Empress of Salt and Fortune. This is a good book if you're looking for a short read set in a magical/dystopian world.

[pnwander]

12 november. low tide. 🌧 ↪ the breakfasting heron: 2/?

[ardienothesieno]

reference image for the angst gang, with heights!!! from left to right we have:

thirteen fireflies among falling leaves ghosts of everlasting glory fractals upon fractals, infinitely repeating two miracles for every tragedy a final sunbeam, fading with dusk five cicadas, two herons

they've all got a shit ton of lore im just too lazy to type it all up right now

their artfight page is here!!

[generaljenobi]

[dandeyrain]

i've been rotating the "this doesn't make any sense!" response to boy and the heron in my head and i wonder how much of it comes down to like...the kind of audience that engages with ghibli movies vs the kind of audience that mostly only engages with weird art movies vs the kind of audience that only really engages with blockbusters and marvel movies, and the overlap of those groups in the theater.

because, like, the boy and the heron is far and away more straightforward, from a plot perspective, than a lot of other Weird Extremely Personal Art Movies i've seen and love, but it IS a Weird Extremely Personal Art Movie even so. usually the only people seeing Weird Extremely Personal Art Movies, especially in theaters, are people who like that and expect that and have seen those types of films before and are therefore capable of engaging with them even when things aren't as clear as they'd be in an average blockbuster flick. like, nobody who only cares about Cinema to the extent of marvel movies and MAYBE john wick is going to see beau is afraid, and if they did they wouldn't have the tools to engage with such a dream-logicy movie. it would just be a weird thing that doesnt make sense to them, at least until they worked their media engagement muscles with other weird films. there's a lot of self-selection to the kind of person who usually sees these kind of movies.

while boy and the heron is weirder and more complex than a lot of other ghibli movies, as far as weird art films go it is incredibly, INCREDIBLY straightfoward. every weird plot point is explained very clearly to the audience, very little is up for interpretation from a strictly "what was the plot" point of view. boy loses mother. father remarries and moves the family. boy struggles to contend with grief. boy is pulled into a magical world by an old man who wants to use him. time is weird and fucked up in the magical world, but the movie is going to go out of it's way to highlight who's who and make it clear how the time travel works and the characters' relations to one another. the boy refuses to take over the magical world because he wants to live in the real world with the real people he loves. boy leaves the magical world having learned an important lesson about moving on. but the boy and the heron trusts its audience, doesn't handhold, and expects the audience to engage seriously and with focus to its plot and characters and stories.

a lot of people never watch movies like that! a lot of people are used to uncomplicated superhero movies and romcoms and that's it. the difference is that those people were never going to see beau is afraid, so the discussion about that movie instead comes from people who have the tools to engage with it. but because of the aesthetic-ification of ghibli, a lot of people who don't Do art films but are really into the aesthetics of cute little guys and girls in pretty dresses went to this art film and were confused that it was weird and dream-like and dark and strange and requires more of its audience than just passively watching.

anyway there's nothing wrong with not having the muscles to engage with weird art films, though i do think everyone should challenge themselves with the kind of stuff they watch. there's nothing wrong with preferring simple straightforward uncomplicated plotlines. but it is really interesting seeing people talk about the movie like it's insanely weird and doesnt make any sense meanwhile me and the friends i've chatted with about who DO have experience with this kind of film all feel insane because the movie is SO clear and SO straightforward by the standards we're used to. its just a neat crossover re: the kinds of movie fans that exist

[chiropteracupola]

yes that's right it's a

TINY KEITH AND EWEN ACTUAL REAL SCOTLAND ADVENTURE!

Keith at what remains of Fort William

2. Keith in Fort Augustus (with a thematically appropriate rose branch)

3. Ewen in the woods somewhere outside Fort Augustus

4. Ewen at Holyrood Palace

5. Keith in the woods somewhere outside Fort Augustus

6. Ewen in the woods somewhere outside Fort Augustus

7-9. Keith at Edinburgh Castle

10. Ewen at Edinburgh Castle

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

hello fellow denizens of our beloved hellsite, please help me select my next book to read based on ZERO propaganda, only titles and cover vibes. here are The Options:

and here they are, all lined up and waiting:

help me, button-pressing site, you're my only hope!!

[2024skin]

I did not realize the boy and the heron was the new ghibli film, I thought that short story where that boy leaves his disabled younger brother to die in a thunderstorm just went viral for no reason at all

[sundial-girl]

Have a frog

[graveyardrabbit]

[vincefromvincewow]

holy moly. a freaking birdie in my creek (yellow capped night heron)

July 18, 2024

[dk-thrive]

Don’t be fooled, these lines were not written by me but, one day by a heron or a shower of rain, another by an aspen. A hint of love was enough to set them alight.

— Phillippe Jaccottet, from “Windblown Fragments,” trans. C. K. Snead, Sport 38 (Winter 2010) (via Vale of Soul Making)