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emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gore
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I've had this little booklet on my shelves forever and randomly picked it up last night. I'm not entirely sure about it.
The writing is emotional and well-done, sometimes beautiful. The last pages are definitely the strongest of them all. I sometimes felt the described grief tangibly. But oftentimes it also felt a little chaotic and strange - but maybe that is also part of the point?
I feel like this book is probably either a hit or miss and probably also very much depending on time and context when it's read.
There were scenes that expressed a hint of weird perspectives on women or gender generally. Those weren't fleshed out at all but there were several scenes in which different characters commented weirdly which I didn't particularly enjoy.
The writing is emotional and well-done, sometimes beautiful. The last pages are definitely the strongest of them all. I sometimes felt the described grief tangibly. But oftentimes it also felt a little chaotic and strange - but maybe that is also part of the point?
I feel like this book is probably either a hit or miss and probably also very much depending on time and context when it's read.
There were scenes that expressed a hint of weird perspectives on women or gender generally. Those weren't fleshed out at all but there were several scenes in which different characters commented weirdly which I didn't particularly enjoy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
a very interesting take on battling grief. written in a mix of linear narrative and poems, this book has a cast of strange characters and some absolute gems of heartwrenching lines. fun, if a bit confusing, to analyse. it has very heavy focus on grief and recovering from the loss of a loved one. the ending was lovely.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Strange and invigorating. Beautifully written, despite the slightly eccentric approach. Thought provoking and sad, oddly nurturing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Animal death
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I absolutely did myself a huge disservice by not checking the blurb before reading this book, as I would've enjoyed it a lot more if I had read literally any Ted Hughes work beforehand. That said, I didn't have a bad time reading this. I think that anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one will be able to find something to relate to in this story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
You've lived a long time and been a crow through and through, but you still can't take a joke.
It struck me, reading Grief is the Thing with Feathers, how odd it is that this book has spawned not one but two major adaptations featuring Big Name Actors™: first a stage play by the Irish playwright Enda Walsh, starring Cillian Murphy, then a film - titled simply The Thing with Feathers; I suppose they lost the "Grief is" because it was cleaner - that premiered at Sundance this year, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. I say that because the book, Max Porter's first, is, pardon the pun, a truly odd bird. An elliptical observation of grief and recovery, it takes for its subject Dad, a scruffy academic, and his two Boys. When we meet them, they're mourning the sudden loss of their mother; one day, in the early stages of their sorrow, a Crow arrives at the door, a mysterious figure who finds humans "dull except in grief." He tells Dad that he'll stay in their flat until they no longer need him. As the years elapse, the Boys grow up, Dad writes a book about the poet Ted Hughes (perhaps best known for his series of poems written after the death of Sylvia Plath, collectively known as - wait for it - the Crow poems), and Crow offers his own sardonic, foul-mouthed commentary as they try to move on with their lives.
That last paragraph represents an attempt to impose a proper narrative structure on a book that is sometimes doggedly determined to avoid one, to both its credit and to its occasional detriment. There's a clear inciting incident and a clear ending, but in between those two poles (in the book's very slim 114 pages), Porter scrambles the chronology, jumping to accounts from his three narrator figures that could come at any point on their road to acceptance. In that way I suppose it mirrors its subject matter, and Porter has a knack for casting a spell with his prose, particularly when playing his differing narrative voices off of one another. One striking example finds Dad giving a brief, heartfelt monologue about the intensity of his grief, concluding with a truly gutting phrase: "the whole city is my missing her." Crow, not missing a beat, responds, "Eugh, you sound like a fridge magnet." It's in this exchange where what Porter is doing in Grief is the Thing with Feathers is most gripping, plunging the reader into the depths of sorrow, then blindsiding them with pitch black humor with the control of an orchestra conductor.
I'll admit that some passages - particularly when the Boys have the spotlight - either went a bit over my head or felt like padding, which sticks out all the more sorely in a story this brief and which explains the score being what it is. However, the novella's brevity is also what gives it its strange, beguiling power. Porter judged its length well: any longer and the prose's incantatory effect would start to wane, any shorter and the already slight narrative might entirely dissipate. As it is, Grief is the Thing with Feathers is a carefully polished jewel of a story, curious and intelligently observed and, in many ways, truly unlike anything I've read before.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Death of parent
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Death of parent