The Spectator Bird

 I read another of Wallace Stegner's novels. The Spectator Bird won the national book award for fiction in 1976. The story is about Joe and his wife Ruth who are around 70 and have retired to a home in northern California. Joe has arthritis and is a bit cranky and it seems that he and Ruth are a happy couple. On the surface Joe seems curmudgeonly but inside he is a deep thinker and a kind man. Joe gets the idea that he acts like a spectator in his own life instead of the major character. One day he gets a postcard from Astrid, a countess that he and Ruth met 20 years earlier when they traveled to Denmark. Joe and Ruth rented some rooms from Astrid and their lives became intertwined during the months they spent with her. Joe eventually brings out three books of a diary that he kept while they were in Denmark and he reads them to his wife before they go to sleep at night. As I read I got caught up in the story and sometimes the words made me laugh out loud. I very much enjoyed reading The Spectator Bird.