The Parrot Trainer: A Novel

By Swain Wolfe

Book Overview

An archaeologist from the East, a former art dealer and pot thief, the spirit of the Parrot Trainer trapped in an ancient bowl, a renegade Indian and a French social theorist and the team filming him all clash with each other and provoke the locals during an unexpectedly dangerous trip in New Mexico. Tweaking knee-jerk political correctness and academia, Wolfe sets his novel against a rich archaeological and anthropological background, and deals with some of the fields' most controversial issues. Witty, sexy and rife with local colour, this novel of ideas has magic realism and a tender love story at its core.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312310919
• ISBN13: 9780312310912
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Combination of Humor, Scholarship and Story

Jack Miller meets people in the strangest ways. Take the dead man at the beginning of this finely crafted Southwestern novel. The car he's driving flies off the cliff above Miller as the former pot hunter is digging in a place called Lacuna Canyon. Inside the wrecked Ford Taurus is a German anthropologist dead from a probable heart attack. Among his possessions are drawings of a compelling young woman on a Mimbres Indian...

A GEM !

Usually I write reviews of non-fiction books. But this exceptional novel has caused me to change my review area.Swain Wolfe gets to a thousand year rain (Have I said too much?) by a lovely and interesting story that is part ghost story, adventure story and love story; peopled by slightly loopy characters, who add a gentle level of fun.I have often joked about prefering my knowledge sugar-coated (within the context of a story)...

Marvelous!

if your are a tony hillerman fan you have to read this book.its fun, educational, & exciting.i was very impressed with mr swain's bibliograpyused for this work...i cant wait for his next book