Natalie Pascale Boisseau reviews Marilyn Stablein's THE COMPANY OF CROWS
THE COMPANY OF CROWS, bY MARILYN STABLEIN
A Review by NATALIE PASCALE BOISSEAU
To hold between my hands The Company of Crows by Marilyn Stablein is like holding on to the threshold to many layered worlds. The finely textured paper, the illustrations of crows cawing with their mouths wide open, their peacock comrades, the large font size of the text—all publishing details which open an entryway into new worlds. The handmade paper offers the tactile experience of the elusiveness of the story to come. The absence of pagination—which is not missed—brings an element of timelessness. The large format of the book, 13 by 9 inches—which doubles when the book is open—allows us to be small and childlike again, to be able to step inside the story.
The Company of Crows is published by Book Arts Editions, in Portland, Oregon, printed in 65 limited numbered copies signed by the author and by the artist Dmitry Sayenko, of St. Petersburg, Russia. Mr. Sayenko designed and printed the cover from original linocuts, on beautiful textured archival paper he handmade specially for this edition. Paul Veres designed the pages and used his own fonts, setting the text in Aperto and Espresso. Each element contributes to making the book an opening to many things of wonder, all at once.
The author begins with a simple and beautiful narrative about the presence of crows, in a cemetery in Portland, Oregon, home to the narrator, and follows with her other memories of birds such as kingfishers. Then there are the tales of corvids seen as a nuisance by some, and her recall of a Mother Goose nursery rhyme.
The story takes flight in very few words. The narrator becomes the traveler, following the crows and peacocks, and kingfishers
The story takes flight in very few words. The narrator becomes the traveler, following the crows and peacocks, and kingfishers, retelling stories heard in Tibet and Bhutan, offering new or different or ancient perspectives, old myths, spiritual visions, crow augury, the meaning of directions, of the time of day. We also follow the stories of humans in India, through the company of birds.
Storyteller Stablein reveals unexpected layers throughout: her own adventures in a Buddhist vihara in India; her interactions with a crow attracted to the shininess of an aluminum lid; crows presence in funerals rituals; her experiences with the lives of people and crows downstream from her houseboat. Soaring like the bird, we cover great distances to find ourself in other cultures and countries. “A vol d’oiseau,” as we say in French, translated in English “as the crows fly,” to catch something as it flies past, as the traveling itself is picking up speed, to live in the middle of new tales and stories. Reading this book gives us seeds for our own experiences to spread our wings, an invitation to play with language.
This book of arts and crafts is an intimate meeting with the author who has lived in the Himalayas and written essays on climate and bestiary. As a new reader of Marilyn Stablein’s work, The Company of Crows is a magnificent first entry point. For readers who already follow her work, this book gives new moments of discovery coming home to roost with new images, elusive memories, and pleasures.
Natalie Pascale Boisseau is a bilingual Québec writer from Montréal now living in Washington State. She is currently writing “Exiles and Migrations in the Landscape of Maternal Suicide,” a memoir on finding refuge in the midst of personal storms. She is recipient of a 2023 4Culture Project Grant. Her stories appear in Isele Magazine, Crab Creek Review, and This Light Called Darkness, a Raven Chronicle Anthology. Her life’s work has also included working for Cirque du Soleil, being a former copyright attorney, practicing as an acupuncturist, and saving a forest near her new home in Lake Forest Park, WA.
The Company of Crows
by Marilyn Stablein
Cover design/linocuts by Dmitry Sayenko; text design by Paul Veres, using his own fonts Aperto & Espresso
Book Arts Editions, 9405 NE Hancock Drive, Portland, Oregon 97220, marilynstablein.com
2022, Archival paper, 13 x 9, 16 pages, Edition of 65 copies, $300.