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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
I was surprised I decided to stay with this book and finish it. The story is unlikely likeable - about a young woman's training of a goshawk in memory of, and what became a method of grieving her father's sudden unexpected death. The writing of this author can only be described by me as extremely 'rich'. The book is beautifully written, full of exquisite detail. She frequently references White, his personal life, in their mutual interest in hawking and falconry, and in his writings, much of the content linking to the difficulties and trials he suffered during his lifetime. H is for Hawk is not a 'light' read. It is a book you would want to read slowly, to savor the textures, sounds, and words.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A great, great book. HM is a master stylist.
Highly recommended. The best book I've read this year and one of the best books I've read in the last 2 or 3 years
Highly recommended. The best book I've read this year and one of the best books I've read in the last 2 or 3 years
The plaudits around this book are amazing, everyone seems to love it.
Which is probably why it has sat on my bookshelf for the past 10 years. I'm rarely one to do what everyone else tells me, even if it was a gift from my mother.
Essentially, this is a book about grief. And how, through a relationship with a goshawk Helen Macdonald was able to come to terms with the death of her father.
What this book also is, is a vastly over-written look at how no end of distraction techniques can save you from what's really the matter.
Overall this tale raises more questions and answers and I just kept finding myself thinking 'you really should see a therapist', followed by 'stop hanging about with those people'.
At least then, a beautiful wild animal might not have had to be shipped about the place in a box.
Which is probably why it has sat on my bookshelf for the past 10 years. I'm rarely one to do what everyone else tells me, even if it was a gift from my mother.
Essentially, this is a book about grief. And how, through a relationship with a goshawk Helen Macdonald was able to come to terms with the death of her father.
What this book also is, is a vastly over-written look at how no end of distraction techniques can save you from what's really the matter.
Overall this tale raises more questions and answers and I just kept finding myself thinking 'you really should see a therapist', followed by 'stop hanging about with those people'.
At least then, a beautiful wild animal might not have had to be shipped about the place in a box.
While I loved the idea of this book, and can appreciate that Helen Macdonald is a gifted writer, this book just wasn't for me.
I'm a fan of the grief memoir - Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is one of my most favorite books. But I found H is for Hawk to be difficult. As others have noted, the book goes back and forth between Macdonald's own story and that of author T.H. White. I felt that this made the book drag a bit. I was much more interested in Macdonald's own story, particularly how she was handling her own grief over the unexpected loss of her father.
I'm a fan of the grief memoir - Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is one of my most favorite books. But I found H is for Hawk to be difficult. As others have noted, the book goes back and forth between Macdonald's own story and that of author T.H. White. I felt that this made the book drag a bit. I was much more interested in Macdonald's own story, particularly how she was handling her own grief over the unexpected loss of her father.
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
"The archaeology of grief is not ordered. It is more like earth under a spade, turning up things you had forgotten."
The story of Helen Macdonald's efforts to train a goshawk she names Mabel is woven into (or against) the troubled story of T.H. White's life and his somewhat incompetent training of his own hawk, Gos. But this is less a book about falconry and the raw beauty of a hawk than one about bereavement and the weight of grief. In the wake of her father's death, Helen retreats from humanity and inhabits the alien mind of the goshawk, becomes it, before finally emerging from her grief human, renewed, and separate from Mabel once again. Beautifully written.
The story of Helen Macdonald's efforts to train a goshawk she names Mabel is woven into (or against) the troubled story of T.H. White's life and his somewhat incompetent training of his own hawk, Gos. But this is less a book about falconry and the raw beauty of a hawk than one about bereavement and the weight of grief. In the wake of her father's death, Helen retreats from humanity and inhabits the alien mind of the goshawk, becomes it, before finally emerging from her grief human, renewed, and separate from Mabel once again. Beautifully written.
Wonderful descriptions and visuals (especially of Mabel), and an interesting trio of subjects - being a falconer to the hawk, mourning her father, and information on White. Interesting, particularly in the earlier portions of the book, that the author comments on White's cruelty to hawks but does not comment on how some may see cruelty in modern falconry as carried out by the author.
Part memoir, part naturalism, part history, part social commentary, and almost entirely beautiful. I wanted to read this book since hearing Macdonald on NPR a year or so ago. Listened to the audio book (downloaded from the local library via Overdrive), read by the author, mostly on long weekend runs through wooded neighborhoods filled with birds -- a fitting setting. Her soothing voice lent an extra layer of authenticity to a story of grief, love, and empathy. Hauntingly lovely lyricism in some parts of the book.
Helen Macdonald has been passionate about birds of prey ever since she was a little girl. She'd had many years of experience as a falconer prior to the death of her father, an event that put her into a tailspin and motivated her to take on the training of a goshawk. The goshawk is a particularly fierce and challenging animal to raise. Helen isolates herself from friends and family using her grief as the catalyst to bond and empathize with, almost inhabiting the mind of the bird she has named Mabel. The story of T.H. White an author of the Arthurian novels The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone among others, as well as a novice goshawk trainer is interwoven throughout the book. White's trials and inept attempt at goshawk ownership were recounted in his book The Goshawk which Helen had read as a child. Macdonald's portrayal of White is both sympathetic and ghastly. Her migration through grief is told with palpable emotion and graceful exposition that allows her story to soar.