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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Full of grief, frustration, wonder. Ms McDonald’s search for solace after the death of her father through training a goshawk is poignant, at times comical, in the end, rewarding.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Gorgeous narration & deeply emotive. I haven’t read many books where an animal plays a leading role, but it makes for a memorable story — especially with the author’s control of prose. “The archaeology of grief is not ordered. It is more like earth under a spade, turning up things you had forgotten.”
There is a strange moral quandary to this story as well, which became more obvious to me the more Macdonald’s grief and goshawk grew together. While I love her personal revelations, I found the sections on T.H. White and the allure of the hunt at best slow, and at worst disturbing. I felt like Macdonald’s affection for White often overshadowed his severe abuse (specifically during the pigeon chapter at the start of Part II). At some points, Macdonald emphasizes the flaws in this sadistic, “conqueror” narrative upheld by traditional falconry, and at other points, she paints a whimsical picture of it, even taking part in the cruelty with her own hawk. There are some particularly brutal sections where Macdonald helps her goshawk capture, skin, and dismember her prey (TW: pulling a rabbit from its burrow and admiring as the hawk eats it alive).
There’s no question that “H is for Hawk” is an evocative book, containing a nuanced and multi-layered storyline about the depths of grief, including the double-edged sword of self-healing and self-destruction that accompany it.
I liked this book but found it very slow and for me it was spoilt by the many references to T.H. White, would have much rathered more detail about how Helen trained her hawk.
The descriptions about the country side and the hawk were great and very enjoyable to read.
The descriptions about the country side and the hawk were great and very enjoyable to read.
This book was my first full audiobook of a book I hadn't already previously read. I listened to it on long runs while training for a half-marathon. The soothing voice of Helen Macdonald helped pass a lot of those arduous miles as she transported me to lush English countrysides, telling me about how she trained her goshawk Mabel to hunt.
Macdonald's prose is extraordinary. Her sentences are full of creative description. The book weaves together a fascinating tale of Macdonald's training of her hawk, coming to terms with the death of her father, and the life of TH White, whose book on hawk training, The Goshawk, was a formative text in Macdonald's own life. You might not think at first that all of these disparate themes can possibly go together, but Macdonald achieves it in a way that feels natural and easy.
H is for Hawk is a remarkable meditation on people, nature, and the effect of death on the living.
Macdonald's prose is extraordinary. Her sentences are full of creative description. The book weaves together a fascinating tale of Macdonald's training of her hawk, coming to terms with the death of her father, and the life of TH White, whose book on hawk training, The Goshawk, was a formative text in Macdonald's own life. You might not think at first that all of these disparate themes can possibly go together, but Macdonald achieves it in a way that feels natural and easy.
H is for Hawk is a remarkable meditation on people, nature, and the effect of death on the living.
Enjoyed reading this, though at times, my interest faded. Was not a fan of the White storyline.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
While I am usually not the targeted audience for books like these, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I originally picked it up because I wanted to hear about the hawk, but while the hawk is an extremely crucial part of the book, the book is more a memoir about the grieving process and moving on than anything else.
The author is a great writer and I enjoyed both the more emotional parts and the informative, educational parts about falconry. If you don’t like emotional, contemplative books this probably isn’t for you.
The one big issue with the book I had is that I just didn’t see T.H White’s relevance to the story the author was telling. I understood what she was saying about him and I did enjoy reading about his struggles with the Hawk, but I just didn’t really get why the author was trying to present her journey and White’s side by side, as if to compare them. Still, the story of White’s falconry attempt added another dimension to the book, and even despite my questions I thought he was a good addition.
The author is a great writer and I enjoyed both the more emotional parts and the informative, educational parts about falconry. If you don’t like emotional, contemplative books this probably isn’t for you.
The one big issue with the book I had is that I just didn’t see T.H White’s relevance to the story the author was telling. I understood what she was saying about him and I did enjoy reading about his struggles with the Hawk, but I just didn’t really get why the author was trying to present her journey and White’s side by side, as if to compare them. Still, the story of White’s falconry attempt added another dimension to the book, and even despite my questions I thought he was a good addition.
Wonderful book. Beautifully written and read on the audio by the author. I was fascinated by her fascination with the hawk and drawn in by the beauty of her prose.
I thought this would be a book about a woman raising a wild hawk with some meditations about the relationship between humans and nature. I knew nothing about falconry before reading this often bloody and raw account of training a goshawk to hunt, and probably would not have cracked the spine if I had known about the graphic descriptions of how to keep a hawk well fed. But this is a thought provoking, nourishing and often devastating revelation of the author’s grieving process after the sudden death of her father, tangled up in contemplations about literature, human nature and history. Worth a slow and contemplative read, and a book I will remember.