Where the Bird Sings Best
3.5/5
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About this ebook
The magnum opus from Alejandro Jodorowsky—director of The Holy Mountain, star of Jodorowsky’s Dune, spiritual guru behind Psychomagic and The Way of Tarot, innovator behind classic comics The Incal and Metabarons, and legend of Latin American literature.
There has never been an artist like the polymathic Chilean director, author, and mystic Alejandro Jodorowsky. For eight decades, he has blazed new trails across a dazzling variety of creative fields. While his psychedelic, visionary films have been celebrated by the likes of John Lennon, Marina Abramovic, and Kanye West, his novels—praised throughout Latin America in the same breath as those of Gabriel García Márquez—have remained largely unknown in the English-speaking world. Until now.
Where the Bird Sings Best tells the fantastic story of the Jodorowskys’ emigration from Ukraine to Chile amidst the political and cultural upheavals of the 19th and 20th centuries. Like One Hundred Years of Solitude, Jodorowsky’s book transforms family history into heroic legend: incestuous beekeepers hide their crime with a living cloak of bees, a czar fakes his own death to live as a hermit amongst the animals, a devout grandfather confides only in the ghost of a wise rabbi, a transgender ballerina with a voracious sexual appetite holds a would-be saint in thrall. Kaleidoscopic, exhilarating, and erotic, Where the Bird Sings Best expands the classic immigration story to mythic proportions.
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a playwright, filmmaker, composer, mime, psychotherapist, and author of many books on spirituality and tarot, and over thirty comic books and graphic novels. He has directed several films, including The Rainbow Thief and the cult classics El Topo and The Holy Mountain. He lives in France. In 2019, Alejandro Jodorowsky was cited as one of the "100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People in the World" according to Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine.
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Reviews for Where the Bird Sings Best
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- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alejandro Jodorowsky begins Where the Bird Sings Best with a quote from Jean Cocteau, "A bird sings best in its family tree." He uses this as the basis of a highly allegorical novel exploring themes of Jewish emigration and diaspora, the immigrant experience in late-19th century/early-20th century South America, the communist movement in the same, spirituality, and the meaning of life. Though he focuses on his ancestors, he uses them more to capture a spirit or convey a message than to accurate portray their lives' experiences. Late in the book, Jodorowsky writes, "I don't know if my memories of the time before my birth correspond to reality or if they are mere dreams. That doesn't matter. In any case, reality is the gradual transformation of dreams; there is no world but the world of dreams" (p. 243). This reflects the philosophy of his art.As a work of fiction, Jodorowsky's writing and themes resemble those of Jamaica Kincaid and Salman Rushdie, but with his own, unique spin on things. The publishers, Restless Books, label the novel "autobiography" because Jodorowsky uses his ancestors as characters and those expecting to learn more about the artist, author, filmmaker, and comic book creator will be disappointed since the book ends with his conception. On the other hand, those looking to enjoy his unique worldview and learn about how he perceives his own heritage will enjoy this work.
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Where the Bird Sings Best - Alejandro Jodorowsky
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