1928 - Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon

A couple of meta-comments. First, how can you not giggle a little at the title of this one?

Second, the Newberys have kind of gone in pairs so far: Gay-Neck and Smoky were stories about animals from birth, Silver Lands and Shen of the Sea were geographically specific folk tales, and the Dark Frigate and Dr. Doolittle were Englishmen going on sea voyages. (And History of Mankind may as well have been two books in one.)

As for the book itself, I'm not sure what to think. Plot-wise, the story is pretty aimless. The anecdotes are mostly unrelated, although many involve the main character and a friend searching for Gay-Neck after he's gone missing. Thus, some chapters have almost no pigeon in them at all. However, others are told from the point-of-view of Gay-Neck, so there aren't any human characters involved.

I guess, then, while Smoky was about the horse interacting with humans and how that affected his life, Gay-Neck is not. The relationship between Gay-Neck and his owner is more like that of friends, rather than master-servant.

Also pervasive, and perhaps the main theme of the book, is the spiritual side of how humans and animals interact, and how they're similar to each other in a religious way. There are actual Buddhist monasteries visited in the book, but the characters also talk about their philosophies of how fear affects humans and animals, about how both view nature as a whole. Some chapters take place in the battles of World War I, and both humans and Gay-Neck are deeply affected by the killing seen on the battlefield.

So, this isn't a plot book, and I don't even think this is a character book. It feels almost like an allegory, about the spirit and how it reacts to fear, but it's hard to pin down. Like I said, I'm not sure what to think. This is the oddest of the Newberys so far, but in a way that I think I like.