Border Songs

The 2009 novel, Border Songs by Jim Lynch, made this reviewer laugh out loud at the author's right-on-point depictions of the various characters living and working near Abbotsford, BC, Canada, and Lynden, Blaine, and Bellingham, Washington.

There are Border Patrol Agents drawn to humorous effect; there's two neighbors - a dairy farmer and a retired, pot smoking professor - who harass each other by throwing various quips across the ditch that serves as the northern border's line of demarcation; and there's the main character, Brandon Vanderkool, perhaps an undiagnosed Aspergers savant, who can't really decode the expressions on people's faces nor sort through the raucous vocal discussions that surround him both at work and at the local show more watering hole. Vanderkool is definitely a variant living in a restrictive small town who puzzles locals as he goes his own creative way.

The major drawback to Lynch's effort here is that the novel suffers from a split personality. On the one hand, the reader is drawn into all the local escapades that are harmless and hilarious at the same time. On the other hand, the description of how easily one specific local is drawn into the big bucks of an active cross-border drug trade and ultimately feels as though she has no means of escape doesn't deserve the flippant and breezy off-handedness nor easy ending that Lynch frames for her in the novel.

While essentially worth the time it takes to read it, Border Songs suffers from an author who seems unsure of what his story is actually about. show less

Brandon Vanderkool grew up on a dairy farm that skirts the Canadian border. All his life, he has regarded the people across the road--in another country--as his neighbours. Socially awkward, due in part to being 6'8" and extremely dyslexic, Brandon excels at art, is an avid birdwatcher, and notices things that other people don't. Somehow he has fallen into a job as a border patrol agent, and surprises everyone by excelling at this too. With seemingly little effort, Brandon becomes a star employee by sweeping up human traffickers, possible terrorists, and a lot of drug smugglers.

Brandon is an endearing quirky character in a novel full of quirky endearing characters. There is his kind dad Norm, who is struggling to keep the family farm show more from collapsing; his wise mom who is showing signs of early-onset Alzheimers; his boyhood crush, Madeline, over on Zero Avenue, and her grumpy retired professor father, who likes to stand on his deck smoking pot and taunting his US neighbours. These are some of the characters that are seeing their lives change in a post-911 world where the US government jumps at every shadow that darkens the border.

This book is interesting, funny, smart--the whole package. Lynch obviously did his research well in exploring the subculture of life on the border. This is an area that I know fairly well (my dad's family dairy farm--which, like many of the dairy farms in the book, is now a raspberry farm--sits atop the Canadian side of the border), and the author gets the little details right. That always scores extra points from me. He also does an admirable job of weaving in facts and philosophy surrounding the multi-billion dollar marijuana industry (his journalism background shows here).

Recommended for: readers who like intelligent, interesting books with quirky characters. show less

In Border Songs, Jim Lynch deftly paints a portion of the Canadian-U.S. border that separates Washington from British Colombia. Tension caused by politics and the U.S. effort to secure the border has driven a rift between communities and friends that for years were used to hopping the ditch that constitutes a section of the border to visit between countries. Now a nub of a joint thrown across the ditch in derision, or a late-night incursion to shoot out a new border camera are what passes for interaction, except for the constant flow south of smuggled bodies and loads of B.C. Bud, which the U.S. Border Patrol does its best to stop. Brandon Vanderkool is a new Border Patrol agent who just happened to grow up in Blaine within spitting show more distance of the border, and still lives there with his parents on the failing family dairy farm.

Brandon is a 6’ 8”, 23 year old, severely dyslexic, sensitive innocent who watches birds obsessively. He paints birds, and everyone he has arrested, and creates temporary sculptures from natural materials, sometimes on duty, which results in an embarrassing incident. He also happens to be extraordinarily skilled at catching smugglers. Brandon’s mother is losing her memory. His father is struggling with the farm and the temptation of easy money to be made by looking the other way. Brandon is unused to the attention he is getting by making high-profile arrests, and is trying to reconnect with Madeline Rousseau, a Canadian childhood friend turned bud smuggler. show less

Brandon Vanderkool’s colleagues on the US Border Patrol rightly call him a “s--- magnet.” A newbie agent on a 30-mile sector between Washington and British Columbia (where the international border is sometimes a mere ditch between neighbors’ yards), Brandon is freakishly tall, dyslexic and probably autistic, an avid birder and artist -- with eyes that are “really, really wide open […] it’s like he expects something to happen at every moment, no matter where he is or what he’s doing.”

And happen it does -- from stumbling upon trucks full of illegal immigrants while searching for solitude, to finding contraband where he’s birding -- all to the reader’s amazement and amusement, but to Brandon’s utter dismay since his show more disabilities make the paperwork and notoriety a nightmare. But when he happens upon a stolen car with a Middle-Eastern driver, a trunkful of explosives, and a map to Seattle’s Space Needle, everything changes. The Feds descend, the Patrol gathers reinforcements, and local social and political stresses heat to a boil.

Still, it’s a comic boil, deepened by subplots involving a terrific set of secondary characters and eclectic townspeople. A thoughtful, engaging, and thoroughly entertaining read. show less

I loved Jim Lynch’s first novel, a coming of age story about a boy, a girl, and the creatures of the sea, called The Highest Tide. There is a passage in The Highest Tide in which a reporter asks the young protagonist Miles why it is that he’s always finding things no one else does: “Because I’m always looking … and there are so many things to see.” The reporter continues: “So, maybe… when you found that squid, maybe the earth is trying to tell us something. And if so, what do you think it’s saying?” Miles hesitated and replied, “It’s probably saying, ‘Pay attention.’”

In Border Songs, Lynch again tackles similar themes with a boy who pays attention, a girl he loves, and the incredible diversity of Mother show more Nature's progeny. Although the main character, Brandon Vanderkool, is twenty-three, I would also consider this another coming of age book: Brandon is dyslexic and it is likely he has Asperger’s Syndrome; his development has been slower than other people's. In fact, he has much in common with the boy in Francisco Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World, who has Asperger's.

Brandon is 6’8” tall, socially and physically awkward, and he rocks back and forth and gets his words backwards when he is nervous (which is basically most of the time when he is not alone). He is incapable of “posing.” His dad runs a failing dairy farm, his mom has early Alzheimer’s, and they live on the ill-defined border between the U.S. and Canada in Blaine, at the top left corner of Washington State. The U.S./Canadian border is 4200 miles long, and much of it is “less delineated than the average cul-de-sac.” Brandon recently signed up with the Border Patrol to help out with expenses at home. It’s really his first time out “in the real world.” He was home schooled because of all the teasing, and doesn’t really know how to interact socially very well. But since he was young, he has been in love with his childhood friend right across the border, Madeline Rousseau.

Brandon turns out to be a huge success as a Border Patroller, because he pays attention to things others do not. He knows that if an owl screeches, or a heron takes flight, or birdsong changes, someone is moving through the area. He also goes to places other do not - looking for different birds, or constructing artwork out of nature. But it seems like he’s always interrupted; incursions across the border are constant. Would-be terrorists and vans full of human cargo make regular runs across his territory. And since the cultivation and use of marijuana is widespread on the Canadian side, there is also an especially large traffic in “buds” and money.

The narrative point of view moves back and forth across the border as well: sometimes we hear from Brandon or his father Norm, and sometimes from Madeline or her father Wayne. Madeline grows marijuana and is kept high and in the thrall of a shady dealer. Wayne uses marijuana for medicinal reasons; he has Multiple Sclerosis. He spends what he believes are his last days seeking to experience "greatness" by replicating the experimental processes followed by geniuses throughout history.

Dionne, Brandon’s earthy supervisor, and Sophie, Brandon’s nosy but charming neighbor, also take an occasional narrative lead. Dionne is funny, chunky, sexy, droll, sardonic, focused, and absolutely someone you want to go drinking with, even if you don’t drink. Sophie is everything to everyone, depending on what they want, but with the added humorous touch that both parties are aware of the dynamic.

Besides being with Madeline, Brandon is happiest when he experiences the rich variety of bird life by the Semiahmoo Bay [a habitat which supports more than 333 species and is called Canada’s most important birding area]. After one social occasion to which he was obliged to go, he thought:

"Talking was a letdown after the day he’d had. That morning he’d counted thirty-two species, including skinny oystercatchers, black-bellied plovers, western sandpipers and Pacific loons fresh from the north. The valley felt alive again. The night before he’d driven out to the old Sumas Customs House before sunset and waited thirty-five minutes before a lone Vaux’s swift swooped into view. After that slender bird disappeared into one of the two bulky chimneys, there was a pause before another dozen dove into the hole, followed by hundreds more, foraging the twilight for insects on their downward spiral, several hundred swifts forming a tall funnel that swirled into the same chimney like a genie returning to its bottle.”

Discussion: Lynch clearly loves the habitat of the bays of Washington State, and shares his passion for its beauty and abundance in his two books, The Highest Tide, and now Border Songs. His work also shows a wry and tender sympathy for young boys in love, and his other colorful characters are rendered with such care and affection that you can’t help but come to share Lynch’s obvious fondness for them.

The border issues, which weave all the people together in this book, are interesting and very timely. With so much focus in the news on the southern border, this book should serve as a corrective to the imbalance in our awareness of the geopolitical landscape.

Evaluation: If you have not picked up a book by Jim Lynch, you are missing out on a very talented author. His simple stories, with their quiet wit and absorbing and evocative descriptions of the inhabitants (both human and non) of the Northwest, are full of compassion for the human race, interesting facts about nature, and a subtle optimism that overtakes you by the end. I highly recommend both of the books discussed here! show less

Border Songs by Jim Lynch is set in and around Blaine, Washington, a town right on the U.S./Canada border. Running eastwards from Blaine, the border between the two countries is very open, no fences no wires, simply a few markers and a shallow ditch. On the Canadian side runs Zero Avenue and on the American, Boundary Road. This border is a symbol of the trust and friendship that exists between the United States and Canada.

The author peoples his book with characters that are as unique as this open border. First and foremost, on the American side, we meet newly appointed border guard, 6’8” dyslexic Brandon Vanderkool who relates to animals and birds but has great difficulty with people. Brandon is in love with Canadian pothead show more Madeline Rousseau who has been running wild since her mother’s death, has started growing marijuana indoors. Between the Border Patrol and the smugglers/growers lie the regular inhabitants, the dairy farmers, retirees and property owners, many who make money on the side by turning a blind eye to strangers crossing their land during the night.

While there is plenty of action in this story what with arresting marijuana smugglers, suspected terrorists and vanloads of foreign prostitutes, it is really a wry, humorous story about our differences and similarities. And although the plot sort of fizzles out, the author’s charming and quirky characters engage the reader and make Border Songs an enjoyable portrait of life on the “border”. show less

3.5 stars

Dyslexic Brandon Vanderkool has just joined the Border Patrol, but he would rather be working on his father’s dairy farm, exploring the woods, watching birds, and painting. Madeline Rousseau lives next door, just across the ditch that marks the US-Canadian border. Her father, Wayne, is a retired professor with multiple sclerosis who uses cannabis medicinally. Brandon’s father, Norm, has a bum knee, a dairy farm in trouble, and a wife with early Alzheimer’s. Into this mix add a masseuse who collects all the local gossip, and a drug lord who is recruiting growers and smugglers.

There is a certain magical realism to this book, though I hesitate to categorize it as such. Brandon has unusual gifts – he’s either incredibly show more lucky or is getting tipped off, because he catches more drug smugglers, potential terrorists and illegal aliens in his first weeks on the job than any two other officers. This serves as a basic plot outline for the book, but it is much more than that. The reader begins to explore Brandon’s odd way of looking at the world, of interacting with it, of representing it in his art. Some people claim to have seen him “fly.” Brandon certainly seems more attuned to the animal kingdom, especially the birds that so fascinate him, than to the people he works with or even his own family.

Lynch is writing about more than just the border between the US and Canada. He is also writing about the borders between neighbors, between members of the same family, between men and women, between man and nature, between feeling secure and feeling threatened. His viewpoint keeps the reader off balance, not sure what to make of happenings in and around the poorly marked border between Washington and British Columbia. No one in this book is a skilled communicator, and much is left unsaid. Brandon, in particular, keeps most of his thoughts to himself, yet is the one person who functions with little thought to these many borders.

I liked the book but it’s difficult to categorize, and I’m not sure to whom I would recommend it. show less