Dolly And The Bird Of Paradise (1984) - Plot & Excerpts
Having read all of Dorothy Dunnett's six-volume Lymond Chronicles, eight-volume House of Niccolo series and her standalone novel, King Hereafter, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I picked up one of her Johnson Johnson mystery novels. I wasn't entirely sure that I was starting with the right book, as Tropical Issue (originally titled Dolly and the Bird of Paradise – Dolly being the name of Johnson's yacht and the 'bird' being the female narrator of the story) was actually the sixth to be published. I had discovered, though, that it is also the first chronologically, so it seemed like a good place to start.Our narrator is Rita Geddes, a Scottish make-up artist with a punk hairstyle (the book was published in 1983 and I should point out here that unlike the rest of Dunnett's books, these were contemporary novels rather than historical ones). Rita's latest client is the journalist and celebrity Natalie Sheridan and at the beginning of the novel Rita is in London preparing Natalie for a photo shoot with the photographer, Ferdy Braithwaite. Ferdy has borrowed his friend Johnson Johnson's studio flat to use for the session and in this way, Rita meets Johnson for the first time. Not that she learns much about Johnson during this first meeting, other than that he is recuperating after being seriously injured in a plane crash – and that he is a portrait painter, has black hair and wears bifocal glasses.Joining Natalie for another job on the island of Madeira, Rita learns that the life of her friend and fellow make-up artist Kim-Jim Curtis could be in danger. And when Johnson and his yacht, Dolly, also arrive in Madeira, a mystery unfolds which is complex, surprising and takes the reader through a range of exotic locations from the banana plantations of Barbados to the volcanic craters of St Lucia. As with all good mystery novels, you'll need to pay attention as things which may seem irrelevant at first turn out to be important later in the book.I liked the character of Rita from the beginning. She has a very distinctive narrative voice, with her strong personality coming across in every sentence – how can you not love a character who thinks, when disturbed by an intruder in the night, "I rather wished I was wearing something handier than a quilt, but if all else failed, I could smother the guy if I caught him"? As for Johnson, it was difficult not to want to make comparisons with Dunnett's other heroes, Lymond, Nicholas and Thorfinn, but really, while they do all share some characteristics, there are also some big differences between them. However, I do think there were a lot of similarities in the way Dunnett introduces his character to us – viewing him only through the eyes of other people (in this case Rita), with his true thoughts and motives often being obscured and misinterpreted.While I love all of Dorothy Dunnett's other books, I can't really say that I loved this one – but I did enjoy it. It took me a while to really get into the story, but after a few chapters I was won over by a wild and wonderful sledge race to rival the ostrich ride in Niccolo Rising. It made a nice change, in a way, to be able to read a Dunnett novel without becoming too emotionally involved in the lives of the characters! I don't feel the same compulsion to immediately read the rest of the series as I did with Lymond and Niccolo, but it's good to know that there are still another six books to look forward to.
Dunnett's strength in this series is the interesting and unusual protagonists. This one is a makeup artist, with punk-styled hair, and dyslexia (along with an auditory processing disorder and also an odd tendency to use incorrect words in speech such as castle instead of campaign, etc).Rita is determined, highly independent and very good at her job. She has career ambitions, and won't be pushed around. Nor will she just let it lie when a good friend is murdered.Over-all a well told story, although some of Dunnett's (or the era's) problematic points are in strong display. Some of the language is mildly racist. There is an instance of black face (and terrible islander patois). And there are all the attempted assaults and rapes.This book has the most by far of the Johnson series, never taken to the point of actual rape (even in a situation where it strains belief that it didn't happen). Most problematic is that most of the assaults are "social". Men who are constantly feeling up or trying to coerce female acquaintances to have sex with them. In particular, good friends of the protagonist do this, constantly, as in:As ever, we had a fair struggle, and then as ever he took No for an answer...And, as ever, I wonder "why the hell do you consider this person a friend"?
What do You think about Dolly And The Bird Of Paradise (1984)?
Loved it to bits, despite a) struggling to keep up with a wildly shifting plot, and b) Rita's dyslexia which meant she used wrong words for things and I didn't always pick up on it.Great character, definitely of the 80s - it confused me the first few times she mentioned striping her face, but apparently that was a thing. She's small and tough and deals with casual sexism in an odd but fair-enough kind of way. Did not guess the murderer and still am not entirely sure why they dunnit, but it was a fun ride all the same.
—Basil D
Well, hm.Page turner, good writing and exciting set pieces, great though somewhat unreliable narrator's voice, suitably quirky and well-drawn cast of characters, but it seemed to fall apart for me at the end due to a pile-up of a few too many twists and revelations and palmed cards. Ideally, such surprises should be greeted by the reader with an "Oh, wow!" not a "Say what...?"I would have to read it again to see if it really all made as little sense as it seemed, which I am not quite on for just now. We'll see.I have read about three others in this series so far, which has an interesting structure. In each case we follow a different heroine, who has an encounter with our painter-yachtman hero in the course of his undercover work and who gets drawn in to the assorted chicanery. We never see his viewpoint, though he proves the mastermind behind much of the action. I vaguely recall all the others were first-person narratives as well. Of all the heroines so far, I liked Rita, here, quite the best.Recommended with reservations. I may end up reading the rest to round out whatever I can piece together of the hero's backstory, and see if it adds up to a story-arc in its own right. This is another series with reading-order challenges -- the biter bit, perhaps, in my case -- but that's what Wikipedia is for, I suppose.This book has been reissued with a new title, Tropical Issue, which is found on the Kindle edition. (I had an old 1983 hardcover out of my local library.)Ta, L.
—Lois Bujold
This book completely floored me. I knew that Dunnett was a masterful writer, adept at characterization, description, pacing, and plot. But I had no idea how versatile her tone was. In both the Lymond and the Niccolo books, she had a very erudite tone that aptly reflected the periods she wrote about. Apparently, she was a far more flexible writer than I had thought.Dolly and the Bird of Paradise begins, "To most of my clients, bifocal glasses are asthma. All those words are spelled correctly. I looked them up." Thus, Dunnett introduces Rita Geddes, the protagonist of the book who possesses a wildly different voice, viewpoint, and set of skills than anyone in either of the Lymond or Niccolo worlds. This book is fast-paced, well-planned, and steeped in the sort of detail that only becomes significant hundreds of pages later. The mystery is so well-played that I didn't figure out anything until she revealed it to me. The characters are extremely well-drawn and sympathetic. All in all, this was an astonishing book. It's like getting an early Christmas present: There are six more of these!
—Brittany
