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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
She’s an excellent writer. I enjoyed the insights into falconry. Less so the dependence on White.
Is it a tutorial on how to raise a goshawk? Is it a reference book about goshawks in general? Is it a personal recollection of grief? Is it a self-help book to deal with grief? Is it a biography on T.H. White? Is it all just Macdonald's diary?
Yes. Maybe yes.
Yes. Maybe yes.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
“Hands are for other human hands to hold. They should not be reserved exclusively as perches for hawks. And the wild is not a panacea for the human soul; too much in the air can corrode it to nothing.”
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I really liked the discussion on how humans coexist with nature and wildlife. Some parts were slow to get through however
This was a really beautifully written book. The intertwined stories of T. H. White, the death of Macdonald's father and her memories of him, and her experience training her own hawk illuminated each other and added a great deal of depth. Tracking White's progress with training a hawk alongside her own allowed Macdonald to get across a lot of information about the history of falconry and the good, bad, and ugly of training hawk, without getting pedantic.
I do wish I had gotten a little more of Macdonald. Her father is a very shadowy presence, so that her grief, which she describes in very harrowing terms, feels more like madness and less like a loss. (I'm sure it did feel like madness to the author as well, but I didn't connect to her loss because compared to her hawk and to her attention to history and White, her family is a tiny part of the book. Likewise the loss of her familiar college life is mentioned as a major blow, but it's not present enough to register with the reader as a huge loss. We just have to take her word for it.
As I think the cover says, Macdonald really evokes the natural world -- different creatures, the landscape -- vividly and often lyrically. The world of falconry is so complex, with a sometimes dark history, and this memoir is a fascinating way to learn about it.
I do wish I had gotten a little more of Macdonald. Her father is a very shadowy presence, so that her grief, which she describes in very harrowing terms, feels more like madness and less like a loss. (I'm sure it did feel like madness to the author as well, but I didn't connect to her loss because compared to her hawk and to her attention to history and White, her family is a tiny part of the book. Likewise the loss of her familiar college life is mentioned as a major blow, but it's not present enough to register with the reader as a huge loss. We just have to take her word for it.
As I think the cover says, Macdonald really evokes the natural world -- different creatures, the landscape -- vividly and often lyrically. The world of falconry is so complex, with a sometimes dark history, and this memoir is a fascinating way to learn about it.
Libby loan expired, and I was too bored with the recurring T.H. White subplot to renew.
3.5, probably. This is a beautiful book about the death of Macdonald's father, how it lead her to train a goshawk, and -- in between all that -- her changing understanding of and relationship with nature. There's also a B plot, such as it is, about TH White. Macdonald is a spectacular writer, and I learned a great deal from this book, but it's a bit too long and drawn out for my tastes. Macdonald writes with an intensity that, while deeply affecting, starts to wear on you after a while. I found myself losing interest a bit about 2/3 through. I'm glad I stuck with it, but I found it hard to maintain that pitch of emotion for as long as the book goes on.