Tuco: The Parrot by Brian Brett will feature on the Radio 2 Fact not Fiction Book Club on Thursday 16 June.
The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of library staff from across the UK. Find out more about the non-fiction strand of the Radio 2 Book Club.
You can read an exclusive extract from Tuco and we also have some discussion questions for your reading group.
Tuco: The Parrot
For thirty years, Brian Brett shared his office and his life with Tuco, a remarkable parrot given to asking such questions as “Whaddya know?” and announcing “Party time!” when guests showed up at Brett’s farm. Although Brett bought Tuco on a whim as a pet, he gradually realizes the enormous obligation he has to the bird and learns that the parrot is a lot more complex than he thought.
Simultaneously a biography of this singular bird and a history of bird/dinosaurs and the human relationship with birds, Tuco also explores how we “other” the world – abusing birds, landscapes, and each other – including Brett’s own experience with a rare genetic condition that turned his early years into an obstacle course of bullying and nurtured his affinity for winged creatures. The book also provides an in-depth examination of our ideas about knowledge, language, and intelligence (including commentary from Tuco himself) and how as we learn more about animal languages and intelligence we continually shift our definitions of them in order to retain our “superiority.”
Selection panel review
Our reading panel from libraries and The Reading Agency loved Tuco – here are some of their comments:
“I loved this book! It made me laugh out loud in some parts and brought a tear to my eyes in others. It is the third book by Brian Brett that features autobiographical content, especially his relationship with Tuco, his African Grey Parrot. Interwoven into stories from his life are his thoughts on certain aspects of subjects such as science, ecology, biology, philosophy and the human condition. Part of the book is about birds and his and other people’s relationships with them. I have learnt a lot from this book from the author’s genetic condition called Kallmann syndrome and the influence this had on his life to the life of various birds to the alarming rate of extinction of species and humanity seemingly intent on destroying itself and the world. The book has the ability to give hope to people who struggle with their lot in life, is insightful and uplifting and at times devastating.”
“Not your normal pet memoir, particularly as this one (the parrot Tuco) can speak! The concept of the book is the exploration of the ‘Other’ – being the weird kid, odd one out, being genetically or biologically different. The relationship between man and nature is explored and the author is candid about his feelings and treatment by his peers – sometimes going down some very dark paths. There is humour in the book provided by Tuco with his quirks and quips – he definitely is the ‘little guru of Otherness’ who not only instructs the author but also us on the ways of the world.”
About the author
Brian Brett was born in Vancouver and studied literature at Simon Fraser University from 1969 to 1974. Writing and publishing since the late 1960s, he has also been involved in an editorial capacity with several publishing firms such as the Governor-General Award winning Blackfish Press.
He is the author of twelve books including the poetry collection, The Colour Of Bones In A Stream, and the novel, Coyote: A Mystery. His memoir, Uproar’s Your Only Music, was a Globe and Mail’s Book Of The Year selection by Ronald Wright. His best-seller, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life, won numerous prizes, including the Writers’ Trust annual award for best Canadian non-fiction book.
He currently lives on a farm with his family on Salt Spring Island, B.C., where he cultivates his garden and creates ceramic forms.
A word from Brian
“This is such an honour and I’m so grateful that a troubled teenager with a disastrous intersex childhood on the west coast of Canada could eventually tell his story to the villages of Britain.
Only when I was completing Tuco did I realize I’d been writing a poor man’s Divine Comedy – my father, Virgil. Tuco, my Beatrice. It’s a crooked story that flies the way a parrot flies, slightly sideways to the world, an eccentric time’s arrow flickering towards a very different vision of paradise.
After being ‘Othered’ all my young life I encountered Tuco, an African gray parrot, my cackling mentor, my guide, equally wise and crazy. I lived with Tuco for 25 years, rich with slapstick joy, while simultaneously learning the horrors of the history of Othering, Othering birds, Othering the people in the next valley, Othering nations, even Othering our climate and our eventual fate in this scattershot world. This long learning led me to recognize we can only cure our misbehaviour by practicing empathy. Our failure is not mechanical, it’s cultural, and empathy is the only answer.”
Get involved
Tune in to the Radio 2 Arts Show on Thursday 16 June to hear an interview with Brian Brett talking about his book.
Have you read Tuco: The Parrot? You can leave a review or see what other readers have thought. You can also share your thoughts with us on Twitter.
Want to find out more? Take a look at the Radio 2 Book Club Twitter feed or find out more on the Radio 2 Book Club website.
