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cookedw 's review for:
H Is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
H is for Hawk is one of the most interesting books I've read in quite some time - it's a piece of non-fiction that is so many genres all at once: memoir, self-help book on how (and how not) to deal with grief, naturalist's diary, literary biography, and literary critique. Helen McDonald weaves a moving tale as brisk as fiction and as poignant as the sappiest novel but with all the trappings of reality that give the book an earnest, introspective core.
By offering TH White's experience teaching his hawk Gos as a foil for McDonald's own parallel experience, we are able to gain insight not just into White and his novice approach to the sport but also a great look at what it means to lose yourself, how we so often project our own world onto the things around us, and how that is especially true when we are trying to cope with the tragedy around us. This book is ultimately so moving because it is able to provide numerous windows into the darkness with the benefit and distance of self-reflection while somehow maintaining that connection.
The writing is occurring on so many different levels, and it allows the author to reach different depths: the benefit of hindsight allows her to write about herself; the unsure footing that explored her history with her family; the benefit of her parallel track with greater experience in falconry allows her to offer insight into White's missteps, which then provide insight into his character; the historian element is able to make the literary parallel with White's life and what he was trying to do shine; and her ability to lose herself in the hawk gives a depth to the natural scenes set that make you feel all of these levels of emotion at once. It's really quite amazing.
I definitely thought I'd made a mistake initially reading a memoir on grief because she absolutely admits throughout the book how messed up she was, but I was completely entranced with both her story, that of White, and even that of the hawks. I fully recommend this novel, both for the writing that is able to weave something cohesive out of so many jumbled possibilities and ultimately the realization of the process in the end. It was fulfilling in a way that is often hard to capture without feeling schmaltzy, and she does it magnificently.
By offering TH White's experience teaching his hawk Gos as a foil for McDonald's own parallel experience, we are able to gain insight not just into White and his novice approach to the sport but also a great look at what it means to lose yourself, how we so often project our own world onto the things around us, and how that is especially true when we are trying to cope with the tragedy around us. This book is ultimately so moving because it is able to provide numerous windows into the darkness with the benefit and distance of self-reflection while somehow maintaining that connection.
The writing is occurring on so many different levels, and it allows the author to reach different depths: the benefit of hindsight allows her to write about herself; the unsure footing that explored her history with her family; the benefit of her parallel track with greater experience in falconry allows her to offer insight into White's missteps, which then provide insight into his character; the historian element is able to make the literary parallel with White's life and what he was trying to do shine; and her ability to lose herself in the hawk gives a depth to the natural scenes set that make you feel all of these levels of emotion at once. It's really quite amazing.
I definitely thought I'd made a mistake initially reading a memoir on grief because she absolutely admits throughout the book how messed up she was, but I was completely entranced with both her story, that of White, and even that of the hawks. I fully recommend this novel, both for the writing that is able to weave something cohesive out of so many jumbled possibilities and ultimately the realization of the process in the end. It was fulfilling in a way that is often hard to capture without feeling schmaltzy, and she does it magnificently.