The Lord God Bird

By Russell Hill

Fiction. THE LORD GOD BIRD is a startling novella filled with dark images of America in the South in 1949. Jake Hamrick, a 19-year-old who has been obsessed since childhood with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird that is on the verge of extinction, leaves Illinois for Louisiana to find the creature, accompanied by Robin, his tiny girlfriend. They search in the bayous where the bird was last reported, and Robin, as obsessed as Jake, dresses like the bird, smearing her naked body with white clay, wearing a cloak of black crow feathers, her hair in a red crest. She is discovered by local hunters and Robin and Jake are pursued deep into the bayous, where they are harbored by Robert, an ancient black man. It is a cinematic novella of obsession, passion, violence, love and loss that you won't forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: PBS Publications
• Release date: Mar 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781545722121

Book preview

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Reviews for The Lord God Bird

[mikedraper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jake Hamrick is age 19 and has a fascination with the Irory-billed woodpecker. He meets a girl named Robin and after showing her his copy of Audubon's "Birds in America," he tells her that he wants to travel to Lousiana to The Big Woods, the place where the woodpecker was last seen. Robin catches his enthusiasm and tells him that she wants to accompany him.The couple find a bard home to rent and enter the bayou to begin their search for the bird. After no initial success, Robin decides to make herself look like the bird so it will be tempted to come to them. She covers herself with white mud, puts crow feathers on a cloak and wears that, then dyes her hair bright red. Jake is impressed and calls her "The Lord God Bird," the nickname for the woodpecker.They are discovered by hunters and an incicent occurs. Not long after, the hunters return and prusue the couple. Jake and Robin travel deep into the bayou where they meet an elderly black man named Robert, who hides them and helps them.The story is told with a picturesque style. It is obvious thatthe author is a conservationalist and has written poetry as the words flow beautifully, i.e. "The scent of the lilac bush permeated the air and it was a perfume that women wore and drew hummingbirds."The author seems to be telling his readers that some people tend to destroy the beauty of nature but there are others, a rare group, who search out and attempt to preserve that beauty.A timely book with the Gulf oil leak and the devestation that it is causing to the Louisiana shores.