A review by arellareads
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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.