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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
This was a Bookclub one, and I can't say I was looking forward to reading it. It was a beautifully told story about one woman's struggle with grief. A fascinating insight into the world of falconry, and the importance of having a connection with the natural world around us.
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Macdonald wrote this book after the death of her father. It is is a chronicle of her coming to terms with his death; as with many people, the death of a parent prompts her to reexamine who she is. Unlike most people, Macdonald does this by deciding to train a goshawk. She is already an experienced and skilled trainer of raptors, but a goshawk is bigger and (at least by reputation) much more difficult to train than the other birds she has flown.
So this is also a chronicle of "training a person who is not human". It is the best, most articulate description I have ever read of the bond that exists between a human trainer and an animal trainee. Birds are certainly different than horses, but it seems there is much overlap in the relationship that develops between the hawker and the bird and between a rider and a horse, even though hawks are for killing and horses are prey animals. Macdonald is a skilled trainer who knows that in working with an animal, you become that animal in a very real, sometimes surprising, sometimes worrying way. The language that flows between the human person and the animal person is intimate, strange and very, very powerful.
The third aspect of this book is a close examination of T.H. White's "The Goshawk". T.H.White was a complex man and did not have the trainer skills that Macdonald possesses, but she is drawn to the book as a sort of bleak accompaniment to her grief and her experience with her own goshawk. This is my least favorite part of the book, but at the end, it makes such sense that she included it.
I loved this book so much I read it and then listened to it (masterfully narrated by the author) as well. It is a masterpiece of enlightenment about grief, personhood, literature and the natural world.
So this is also a chronicle of "training a person who is not human". It is the best, most articulate description I have ever read of the bond that exists between a human trainer and an animal trainee. Birds are certainly different than horses, but it seems there is much overlap in the relationship that develops between the hawker and the bird and between a rider and a horse, even though hawks are for killing and horses are prey animals. Macdonald is a skilled trainer who knows that in working with an animal, you become that animal in a very real, sometimes surprising, sometimes worrying way. The language that flows between the human person and the animal person is intimate, strange and very, very powerful.
The third aspect of this book is a close examination of T.H. White's "The Goshawk". T.H.White was a complex man and did not have the trainer skills that Macdonald possesses, but she is drawn to the book as a sort of bleak accompaniment to her grief and her experience with her own goshawk. This is my least favorite part of the book, but at the end, it makes such sense that she included it.
I loved this book so much I read it and then listened to it (masterfully narrated by the author) as well. It is a masterpiece of enlightenment about grief, personhood, literature and the natural world.
started off string but started losing interest pretty quickly and the pacing doesn't help