“The Gravity of Birds” by Tracy Guzeman – Resurrecting Times Past

The Gravity of Birds is the first effort and debut novel of writer Tracy Guzeman, and nevertheless she chose to tackle a few complex subjects in it, but more on that a bit later. 

To give you an idea of what the book is about, it starts off by presenting to us two drastically different sisters, and a struggling young painter whose charms have an effect on the younger of the two sisters.

Fast forward one summer, and their lives are ruined forevermore. A few decades later, the painter, now a renowned worldly celebrity, unveils the captivating portrait he made of the two sisters and himself a long time ago. 

Before selling it through an art history professor, Bayber (the painter) wants the two sisters to be found, something that won’t prove to be easy as they have vanished without a trace a very long time ago.

Though the premise may surely be conductive to the thought of this book being a murder mystery, it really isn’t that. Rather, it is an exploration of the relationship between sisters, young and passionate love, betrayal, and kind of past that just won’t stay buried, no matter how deep it is. 

The story’s multiple protagonists serve it quite well, helping to maintain a smooth and steady pace, not to mention that each one of them is quite well-developed and multi-dimensional. There are no clear-cut good and bad guys, right-doers and wrongdoers. Rather, everything in this book is gray (as is the case in real life), with everyone having his or her own talents and flaws.

As for the story itself, throughout the whole thing the mystery behind the painter and the two sisters slowly but surely unravels itself, and what at first seemed like a bizarre and mystical plot steadily finds a way to ground itself in reality. 

Also, it ought to be mentioned that much of the plot is not about whether or not the painting will be sold, what it means, or where the two sisters are. Rather, it can be argued that it is more about the development of the characters and the revelation of just how deeply they affect each other on a psychological level.

The only thing that somewhat disappointed me in this book was the conclusion. Though open-ended finishes can certainly work and are a true delight for open-minded readers, what we have here is a conclusion to the main story and various unresolved loose ends. 

You can surely make up your own endings to them, but it just felt as if Guzeman didn’t know how to end them or simply forgot about them. Nevertheless, this should not serve as a reason to pass on this book, for it is solid in virtually every other category.

All in all, if you like slower dramatic stories that are more character studies than anything else, I believe you will appreciate The Gravity of Birds for all its worth.

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Tracy Guzeman Personal site Tracy Guzeman is a newcomer to the vast world of literature, only having published her first book not too long ago, titled The Gravity of Birds. However, it is a debut effort that has been widely-acclaimed, not to mention that some of her work has appeared in Vestal Review, Glimmer Train Stories and Gulf Coast.