Birds Help Novelist Connect

Bill Thompson    The Post and Courier Jul 6, 2003

Prometheus, one of the Titans of Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods for the benefit of humanity. Zeus bound him to a rock for this affront and sent an eagle to devour his liver.

Like that fabled demigod, Isle of Palms novelist Mary Alice Monroe believes she has a similar responsibility. "The challenge of the artist is to take the fire back," she says, to bring readers the experience of the world.

It is doubtful, given the author's passionate commitment to saving birds of prey, that any raptor would heed Zeus' blandishments today. Her liver is safe.

But her heart is stolen.

Monroe's eighth and latest novel, "Skyward" (Mira Books), furthers the writer's use of the natural world as backdrop and plot element to inform her fiction. This time, the story's chief set piece bears more than a passing resemblance to the S.C. Center for Birds of Prey, where Monroe had been a volunteer for a year. Even the birds who perch in the novel -- characters in themselves -- are based on animals she observed firsthand.

"It's serendipity, in a way, that the book is coming out at the same time the center is expanding," says Monroe. "But my inclination always has been to write novels with strong settings in nature. I find that my inspiration comes from the parallels, the strong parallels, between nature's struggles and our struggles. I always draw my themes this way."

She tends to get deeply immersed in the subjects of her novels, but not just in terms of research. Monroe plumbs her personal life as well. "My writing is intuitive; I have to observe and become actively involved in what I'm studying. But I do read voraciously on any topic."

"Skyward" introduces us to biologist and single parent Harris Henderson, who operates the Coastal Carolina Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw. There he invests his days saving hawks, owls, eagles and others of their kin from the depredations of the modern world. A man singularly withdrawn, he is better able to deal with avian injuries than the problems of his own daughter, Marion, who recently has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.

Seeking help, Henderson turns to a relatively new arrival in Charleston, Ella Majors, an emergency room nurse with a serious case of burnout. A woman who has dedicated herself to the healing of others, placing her dreams in abeyance, she soon becomes more than a caregiver to the girl.

Majors is drawn to Henderson and joins him in the difficult work of rehabilitating the birds. As the birds heal, so do the protagonists, but not before Henderson's troubled wife, who earlier had abandoned her family, reappears and claims she's a changed woman.

"Majors and Henderson are both lonely, but committed and caring individuals. Both are isolated, physically and emotionally. In the arcs of these characters, you see the way they dance around each other, taking time to look beneath the colorful plumage to the underlying person. Finally, they let their guard down. Then at very end, the symbolic release of the birds is symbolic of the final release of their own burdens. There's a very strong love story in this book, though it was not necessarily my goal to write one."

The author didn't volunteer to work at the real raptor center with the notion that the experience would manifest as a novel.

"When I became a volunteer, however, I knew instantly there was a story there," says Monroe, whose ninth book and first hardcover, "Sweet Grass," is scheduled for release in August 2004. "I worked at the center for a year, doing as many jobs as possible. I learned all I could about the raptors, all the different personalities and species and their needs, as well as the kind of people who worked with them, before I started to write."

Monroe says she is no scientist, nor does she pretend to be. She's a storyteller who hopes readers appreciate the bonus of a book that offers something of value: knowledge.

"I do feel my deep feelings for the environment will shine through in my characters and in my description. I really write about it in the context of a story, but I believe readers like to be taken to a unique location, a place they might not be able to go to on their own. I feel like I can add to this aura of storytelling by presenting to the public the plight of these endangered species. Maybe I can reach them emotionally, so the reader may be as fascinated as I am and go to nonfiction about the issues. Maybe, also volunteer or write letters."

As a committed naturalist, Monroe, who also serves on the board of the nursing school at the Medical University of South Carolina, likewise is a student of the ways in which humans relate to the natural world, birds in this case. No one in the novel better communicates this linkage than the pivotal supporting character of Lijah Cooper, a Gullah sage and "tentpole" figure who helps the protagonists understand the need for connection with all aspects of the natural world.

But never does Monroe sentimentalize the raptors of the book: Santee, the bald eagle; the Tweedles (vultures); and PEFA 14, the peregrine falcon. "All these birds exist, though of course in real life we give them no names at the center. You don't want them to be seen as pets. They need to be viewed and accepted as wild."

Credit: Of The Post and Courier Staff