Nobody's Girl

by Antonya Nelson

Book Overview

It's been nineteen months since thirty-year-old Birdy Stone came to Pinetop. Birdy spends her days trying to teach her students to appreciate the beauty of literature and her nights getting high with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684852071
• ISBN13: 9780684852072
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Perceptive Author

Ever since reading Antonya Nelson's short story 'Control Group', which was once a finalist in the O'Henry Awards, I've realized she's so perceptive when it comes to developing the personalities of her characters that it's scary. I've read many of her short stories and had to read one of her novels. I wasn't bored, for not once did she lose touch with that human pulse that brings the people in her stories so close to the surface they seem breathe back at you from the pages! Chrissy K. McVay author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

Lighten Up

I am baffled that anyone could find Birdy unsympathetic--must be the same people who don't like Becky Sharp (See Vanity Fair). Birdy would be a lousy assistant principal, but I certainly enjoyed sharing her journey.

Uncertainty, loss and vital energy

Pinetop, New Mexico, slopes toward the future, and Birdy Stone, high school English teacher, slips on its desperate incline. At the novel's beginning, Birdy engages to tutor the mother of a student, Mark. The mother is inventing an account of how Mark's father and sister died. Birdy sets about to uncover the truth about those deaths. Meanwhile, she seduces Mark, who eagerly falls into lust, and tries sometimes to get a footing in her life. A existential current flows under the twine of stories. Humor gusts through the prose. Luziana, a pregnant student who knows what she wants, and Mr. John, a retarded janitor who appears to have the keys to every puzzle, and Jesus Morales, fellow teacher who travels to Albuquerque for his gay freedom, crowd into Birdy's mobile home or she into their lives. At the end, a reader is not sure where he or she has gone but, like a passenger on a amusement park ride, has enjoyed the sensation of arriving there.

great read, good characters

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, Ido find that the central character, Birdy Stone, is not always sympathetic, or even likable. This makes the book interesting, but it also makes some of Birdy's thought processes unappealing. However, despite her rampant insecurities, Birdy is not altogether unlovable. She is funny and irreverent. Jesus, too, is amusing, witty. Luziana, perhaps my favorite character, seems wise beyond her years, yet youthful as well. All around, the book is a worthwhile read. Its humor and its unique views of life in a small southwestern town make it enjoyable. Nelson's attention to detail, such as Mr. John's ever present khaki coveralls offer an authenticity that more than make up for Birdy's small shortcomings.

a wonderful, witty novel

Nelson is a great writer: her insights are always wry and surprising, her characters always people who are both flawed and appealing. Really rewarding--completely worth reading.