The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk by Paul Gallico 11 out of 10

 The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk by Paul Gallico

11 out of 10

Notwithstanding the heartbreaking, soul searching, perhaps even serious pain inflicted by this mesmerizing book, it is one Magnum opus that one must not miss – indeed, you can find it on the internet as read by one of the Titans of the Arts, glorious Sir Laurence Olivier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N47Neoo8P3o – or you can rent it from one of the best libraries in the world, seeing as you do not even have to travel anywhere but to your very own living room, balcony or wherever you want to read it, because it is online - https://archive.org/ - and this extraordinary, very short tale that one can finish in about one hour is included among the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction as compiled by The Guardian…I cried at the end.

The setting is the Essex coast, near an oyster fishing hamlet, where a man with a disability – though when we say that we tend to think of a person that has trouble in moving, thinking or otherwise and/or is challenged in various ways, whereas this and perhaps most of those we see with pity is in fact a hero, a man of incredible strength – physical too, but that is not the main thing – a role model, courageous, self – sacrificing, generous to the point where he is willing to risk his own life to help others and most of the time he is so gentle and kind that he is there for the wildfowl, for the needy who have no voice, the animals that face the storms, the humans who try and do kill them in such huge numbers that many are or have been for decades extinct and so many species face the end, just as humanity may well do, if it continues to disregard the Warming of the Planet, the pollution, massive abuse of the resources we have…take the example of the Amazon, where fires are burning at a record pace, because they have a monster as president there and for a multitude of reasons, most important among them, human viciousness.

Philip Rhayader is the main character of the narrative and indeed, together with Frith aka Fritha we could say the only personages in the novel, which is only about sixty two pages long in the format that I have finished in 70 minutes yesterday, for the soldiers and other participants in the massive effort to save troops from Dunkirk only have a fleeting presence, as witnesses to the miracle of the Snow Goose, which some saw flying over the beach and the sea, interpreting this as a sign that the Angel of Death is announcing their imminent departure, while the optimistic ones saw this as good sign, the omen for their release, the eventual support that would come from the multitude of vessels that have answered the call made by Churchill and sailed en masse to try and get back home the remaining troops, cornered by the Nazis, bombed and machine gunned by the enemy, a landmark in the World War II, without which it is doubtful that the British Lion would have found the military resources to stand alone, as it sis for quite some time, against the fascists…

Philip Rhayader is twenty seven when he moves on the Sussex coast, in 1930, buying a lighthouse not in use anymore – though the Germans might mistake it for a legitimate target later on – and acres of marsh land, living ‘desolate and lonely, among the ‘grays, blues and soft greens’ that he paints, for he is an artist fascinated by nature and wild life…’sometimes, with sunrise and sunset, sky and land are aflame with red and gold…his heart is filled with love for wild, hunted things…he was ugly, but created beauty…’

He may remind one of the Hunchback of Notre Dame – present for some reason in quite a few recent films, with various figures performing the famous scene with ‘the bells, the bells, I can’t stand it anymore’ – but there is something from The Beauty and the Beast also here http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/la-belle-et-la-bete-aka-beauty-and.html - though the man has a hunchback and a twisted arm, like a hook, he is so kind and beautiful otherwise as to make his appearance not just irrelevant, but eventually, he is ‘transformed or maybe better said transfigured, will have transcended’ by his purity, virtue, character strengths, nobility into Prince Charming – whether this has any effect whatsoever for the happiness of the extraordinary Super Hero, one that is not the product of special effects or fancy make up, but originates from real, true beauty, the extreme kindness, magnanimity and munificence that are his main trait.

Philip Rhayader is isolated from mankind not because he is a misanthrope, on the contrary, as his tale will prove, he is ready to give his life for fellow humans, but he has chosen to live in the middle of the animal kingdom, in nature first because he passionately loves them, but also given that his ‘deformity’ is creating reactions he no longer feels comfortable with, perhaps he cannot stand anymore the pity or the contempt that some have when looking at the man with the twisted back and the badly affected hand…he is way ahead in so many ways, before environmentalists, greens, eco warriors and present day activists have established Greenpeace and other noteworthy outfits, this is a Lover of animals that establishes a sanctuary where he offers refuge to sick, tired, hunted birds, feeding and painting them and the surrounding marvelous nature…

One day, three years after the hero had settled on the coast, a child of ‘no more than twelve’, dirty, timid, beautiful under the dirt as a ‘faery’, with ‘pure Saxon fair hair, violet eyes’ comes to the lighthouse with a large bird in her arms and the painter sees that there are stains on her body, he takes her in and upon searching the animal he can see that she has a broken leg and has been shot…he can and will bandage and use a splint for the leg and the big bird will probably grow feathers and be able to make it to spring and recover very nicely, he tells the anxious girl that we learn is named Frith, as she says and the bird savior understands it must come from Fritha, which is the name of the other leading personage in this divine, if such a sad story.

The Snow Goose does indeed find a new life on the Sussex coast, though it has been taken by vicissitude, probably a severe, intense storm as the painter explains to the little girl, away from her regular path, which would take her down south from Canada – she is a Canada goose – all the way to the British isles, where she would spend some time in the Sanctuary manned by this saintly figure, flying away only to return and finally settle down for good…as it looks like until the calamity that is about to take place at Dunkirk would take away Philip Rhayader, just as Fritha is finding out that now that she has grown to be nearly a woman, she loves the artist and has to see him sail away, trying to rescue humans that are trapped on the beach, explaining this to the still inarticulate girl in simple terms, comparing the humans to the poor helpless birds he has near his house…miraculously, the Snow Goose decides to fly along the boat of the man that had saved her years back and will stay with him through the bombardment and machine gun that is raining upon them…I cried at the end of a fabulous, phenomenal, but oh so sad novel…