Cloud Cuckoo Land

By Lisa Borders

Young female street musician's search for a home, both real and spiritual.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579660304
• ISBN13: 9781579660307
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: River City Publishing
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

A Delicious Discovery

Remember when you were young and first discovered a favorite author or book? I remember I was nine and it was Agatha Christie. I read every single installment, and then I longed for the time when I hadn't discovered her, just to have that first-time pleasure all over again. I recall actually feeling a gritted-stomach jealousy of people who still had the chance to uncork the bottle and have that first delicious taste.I feel that way again now about those of you who have yet to read Lisa Borders' Cloud Cuckoo Land. Miri (short for Miriam) Ortiz has everything you'd ever want in a protagonist. She's lovable, smart, flawed, authentic, and layered as an onion. Experiencing the twisting road she traverses, starting with her less-than- perfect childhood in Prairie Rose, Texas, means not only the discovery of unknown and resonant worlds (foster homes of varying degrees of heartbreak; street life, at turns shadowy and joyful; the Philadelphia music scene in the 1980s) but also an opportunity to know these worlds through Miri's compelling and wholly original viewpoint.And then there's Borders' language. Oh. So often we read books that feel affected, too self-aware, "workshopped" to death. Borders' prose, on the other hand, is at turns skippingly light and hauntingly fragile. There are turns of phrase in these pages that make you have to run and tell somebody. Maybe I should stop being jealous, though, because the best thing about Cloud Cuckoo Land might be the feeling the author leaves you with after the book is done. Even in the face of Miri's upheavals, Borders manages to uplift with a non-saccharine kind of hope. In scenes that hover and drift back into the mind long after the cover is closed, Borders restores one's faith in in the power of human connections -- wherever and however one finds them.

Coming of Age Tale that Never Gets Old

Cloud Cuckoo Land begins life as an engaging coming of age story, told in a fresh and authentic adolescent voice. It's impossible not to be drawn into young Miri's world as she describes her chaotic childhood, nonexistent father, irresponsible mother, and frequent moves. We're there with Miri as she finds a sane refuge with her grandmother in Texas, and there with her as that refuge is taken away. Unlike some coming of age novels, however, Cloud Cuckoo Land doesn't run out of steam as its heroine grows up. As Miri moves from child to homeless teenager to young woman finding her way as a musician, her voice stays strong and her journeys and struggles are painted just as vividly. Some books seem to evoke their own soundtrack, and this is one of them, from an old Patsy Cline song heard from a passing Cadillac on a flat Texas highway to early REM drifting out of a diner at 5 a.m. on a grey, haunted Philadelphia morning. Cloud Cuckoo Land is realistic fiction that isn't mundane. Like the mythical place recalled by its title, this beautifully written novel has a strange magic that can't really be defined; it's hard to categorize and just as hard to forget.

Debut Novel Hits Home Run

With strong character development and almost poetic language, Cloud Cuckoo Land seems like the work of an experienced author--not a debut novel. Each chapter of her novel is well-crafted, with the preciseness of a short story. The main character and narrator, Miri, hooks the reader with her sweet,yet gutsy Texas charm. Born to a teenage mom who had problems with drinking, drugs and men, Miri was dumped on her grandmother's doorstepwhen she was 10. In the small town of Prairie Rose, Miri's singing talent was discovered in the church choir. But when her grandmother died, Miri's world came crashing down. From there began her journey through foster families, homeless hangouts in Austin, and ultimately to Philadelphia's underground rock scene. Miri, now a homeless street musician, and Jamie, a gay, talented musician from a wealthy family, form a band, Cloud CuckooLand. Miri still struggles to put her past behind her, to not repeat her mother's mistakes of fleeing when things get tough and mistaking sex for love. Ultimately, Miri's story is about making a life for herself and acquiring a family from her collection of friends. Well-written, thought-provoking, a great read!

Pop/Rock Culture Adventure

Touching story of a young girl from a small town who moves from home to home in search of a family. She eventually winds up on the streets and uses her gift of voice to get by. Here she finds a real family and partner with whom she shares her talent in a band called Cloud Cuckoo Land. They grow together teaching each other lessons of love, friendship and life. Very well-written; real and interesting characters; as funny as it is touching. I recommend it to anyone... especially those who lived and loved the 80s music scene.

A Jangle Pop Adventure (for punk folk)

You know, whenever you spin one of those early punk records, you imagine how easy it was, how exciting, how.... novel. And you think... hey, if I were there, I could have done that! And you start to go on this crosscountry counterculture joyride, full of thrift stores, all nite diners, poetry, sleeping with the bass player from the Holograms (okay, they didn't have a bass player, and they were cartoons)... and then the record stops, the dream goes poof. 40 minutes is a depressing amount of time for a fantasy, eh?. Cloudcuckooland is the novel you've written in your head a million times, because you believe deep in your heart that "underground" is the wrong word for something much closer to "America", and that the fantasy deserves a better treatment than an LP + yr brain. In the end maybe you'll find out that you were there after all, just by being alive. For lovers of Hi-Fidelty, R.E.M., and the great American novel!