Dream Birds

Once in a while a book comes along that makes magical a seemingly odd subject. Part memoir of his youth in South Africa's Karoo desert, part social history of the men and women who have chased ostrich dreams in South Africa and America, and part hopeful and yet melancholy tale of a son's mature understanding of his father, this book defies easy categorization as it casts its spell. With stylistic ease and elegance, Nixon (who teaches English at Columbia) tells a story that is greater than its parts. At its core lies the ostrich, that ""goofy gargantuan"" that throughout history has ""feathered our dreams more luxuriantly than any other bird."" While readers will learn more than they ever imagined knowing about the strange bird, Nixon deftly turns their interest to the assorted dreamers who sought their fortunes in its gorgeous feathers, meat or skin--the South African ostrich ranchers of his childhood, the wave of pogrom-fleeing Lithuanian Jews, as well as Afrikaners and Scots, who settled in the Karoo to raise ostriches, and, finally, the newest wave of ostrich enthusiasts in the American Southwest in the 1980s. Nixon narrates these tales in all their fascinating glory and tragedy, presenting a rich socioeconomic tale of the ostrich's rise and decline during the 20th century. Tugging at this alternatingly humorous and bizarre background is the author's honest and fresh attempt to revisit two ghosts from his past--his father, a self-taught botanist and gardening columnist for a local newspaper, and South African apartheid. Nixon has succeeded in tying it all together into a tantalizing read. Who would have suspected that ostriches could provide the ballast for such a moving memoir? Agent, Bill Hamilton. (Mar.)