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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Ugh. Reads like a pretentious master's thesis. Painful to slog through.
This book was absolutely phenomenal. I really connected a lot with the themes of loss and depression and how a connection to the natural world can providing healing. The writing is just exquisite and listening to it on audio read by the author gave a more intimate connection to the loss she experienced and what her relationship with her hawk really meant to her. Just beautiful.
"An hour later I'm walking down the street with a white paper bag in my hand. It weighs almost nothing. He says [the SSRIs] will make things better. Which is ridiculous. How can this grey and mortified world be washed away by little dots and lines? Then I start to worry that the drugs will make me ill. Even more absurdly, I panic that they'll stop me thinking clearly. That they'll stop me flying Mable. That whoever I'll become under their chemical influence will be so strange and alien she won't fly to me any more. The worries are a tedious avalanche but I put them to one side for long enough to swallow the drugs with water."
In my time with Mabel I've learned how you feel more human once you have known, even in your imagination, what it is like to be not.
This book made me care about falconry in the way that Pat Conroy makes me care about basketball and The Citadel. I likely wouldn't have picked it up on subject matter alone, but I was lured by the promise that this book is also about grieving and loving, and, yes, rediscovering what it means to feel human. It is one of the most beautifully written memoirs I have ever read. Macdonald also parallels her story with that of T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King and aspiring falconer himself. I kept thinking of this part of White's novel as I was drawn deeper into Macdonald's memoir:
And it seems to me that in this is a particularly fitting time and reason to read this book: to learn something, to fully immerse myself in a world completely unfamiliar to me, to believe that despite the horror and uncertainties of the world our ordinary lives can be works of artistry.
This book made me care about falconry in the way that Pat Conroy makes me care about basketball and The Citadel. I likely wouldn't have picked it up on subject matter alone, but I was lured by the promise that this book is also about grieving and loving, and, yes, rediscovering what it means to feel human. It is one of the most beautifully written memoirs I have ever read. Macdonald also parallels her story with that of T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King and aspiring falconer himself. I kept thinking of this part of White's novel as I was drawn deeper into Macdonald's memoir:
“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
And it seems to me that in this is a particularly fitting time and reason to read this book: to learn something, to fully immerse myself in a world completely unfamiliar to me, to believe that despite the horror and uncertainties of the world our ordinary lives can be works of artistry.
A story about nature and loss, about connecting with animals and reflecting on life. A tale teaching us about falconry and the English landscape, introducing us to the life of author T.H. White (whose works are known to child all around) and the autobiographical struggles of the author.
This is excellent books that is an interesting mix of memoir and nature writing. One, it details the author's journey of training a goshawk named Mabel. Second, it is a memoir about overcoming grief. And third, it is a discussion of the author's T. H. White's experiences training his goshawk. Beautifully written and engrossing.
When I started reading this book which is about a woman training a hawk and also a parallel biography of another author who tried to do the same, I thought it was an incredibly niche book and wasn't sure if it would be for me. However, the slowness of it all (especially in the audiobook) ended up hypnotizing me and I was sold by the time the author discovered she could play with her hawk (a wonderful moment). It is definitely not for everyone: there are endless description of landscape, animal behaviour and, above all, a lot of feelings, a lot of musings, a lot of speculation about the other writer that trained a hawk. It is gloomy and wintery (the season for hunting with hawks) and yet there is something enchanting in this, even if you find that you would never in a million years hunt with a hawk.
H is for Hawk is a deeply personal and poetic memoir by Helen Macdonald. While grieving the death of her father, Macdonald adopts a goshawk. Macdonald patiently tames her goshawk, Mabel.
"The hawk was a fire that burned my hurts away. There could be no regret or mourning in her. No past or future. She lived in the present only, and that was my refuge. My flight from death was on her barred and beating wings. But I had forgotten that the puzzle that was death was caught up in the hawk, and I was caught up in it too."
The memoir parallels the story of the life of T.H. White amateur falconer and author of The Sword and the Stone and The Goshawk. H is for Hawk is blended with history and ethics. Macdonald copes with what falconary has historically signified from elite English society to Nazi Germany. She also explores questions of wildness against descriptions of the English countryside. Macdonald tells her story is rich and honest language. She is a natural writer.
"The hawk was a fire that burned my hurts away. There could be no regret or mourning in her. No past or future. She lived in the present only, and that was my refuge. My flight from death was on her barred and beating wings. But I had forgotten that the puzzle that was death was caught up in the hawk, and I was caught up in it too."
The memoir parallels the story of the life of T.H. White amateur falconer and author of The Sword and the Stone and The Goshawk. H is for Hawk is blended with history and ethics. Macdonald copes with what falconary has historically signified from elite English society to Nazi Germany. She also explores questions of wildness against descriptions of the English countryside. Macdonald tells her story is rich and honest language. She is a natural writer.
H is for Hawk is not my normal type of book, but I truly enjoyed it. The enjoyment was enhanced by the author's reading and her word choice and her lovely accent. Helen Macdonald, an experienced falconer, who has been somewhat obcessed with these birds for much of her life, adopts Mabel, a goshawk. Throughout this process, Macdonald is also mourning the unexpected death of her father. In additon, she somewhat parallels her experiences with those of author T.H. White. Along with wanting t know more about goshawks, I also want to read some of T.H. White's works that MacDonald referenced. I wil also look for more of Macdonald's writings.