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reading_rainbow_with_chris 's review for:
H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
“H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald
Helen’s father has passed away suddenly, a heart attack on the streets which surprised her and everyone in her family. In her grief, she turns to one of her passions: falconry. Not long after her father’s passing, Helen obtains a young goshawk, whom she names Mabel and begins to rear. As she continues to pour her energy into Mabel and her grief compounds, she finds herself reflecting on the falconry experiences of T. H. White, finding striking parallels to her own experiences and her own fears.
I very deeply appreciated this memoir upon finishing it. While I have not yet experienced the grief of losing a parent, I am extremely familiar with falconry from an aspirational point of view. When I was younger, I was obsessed with raptors of all kinds and often imagined myself in place of the protagonist from Jean Craighead George’s “My Side of the Mountain.” That Macdonald is fascinated by hawks and throws herself deeper into falconry as a method of coping with grief not only makes sense. It makes for a gripping yet soft story of processing, a stunning piece of inferiority triggered by her devotion to Mabel and the release of all other responsibilities. My only complaint is that at times I felt the writing style was a little on the dense side, with words like “coruscate” and “quixotic” in the mix, words I am familiar with but can bog down the moment. But I can’t say this was a significant detractor for me. This was very enjoyable and, for my first physical memoir since September 2024, a delightful dip back into the joys of really sitting with someone through their memories.
Helen’s father has passed away suddenly, a heart attack on the streets which surprised her and everyone in her family. In her grief, she turns to one of her passions: falconry. Not long after her father’s passing, Helen obtains a young goshawk, whom she names Mabel and begins to rear. As she continues to pour her energy into Mabel and her grief compounds, she finds herself reflecting on the falconry experiences of T. H. White, finding striking parallels to her own experiences and her own fears.
I very deeply appreciated this memoir upon finishing it. While I have not yet experienced the grief of losing a parent, I am extremely familiar with falconry from an aspirational point of view. When I was younger, I was obsessed with raptors of all kinds and often imagined myself in place of the protagonist from Jean Craighead George’s “My Side of the Mountain.” That Macdonald is fascinated by hawks and throws herself deeper into falconry as a method of coping with grief not only makes sense. It makes for a gripping yet soft story of processing, a stunning piece of inferiority triggered by her devotion to Mabel and the release of all other responsibilities. My only complaint is that at times I felt the writing style was a little on the dense side, with words like “coruscate” and “quixotic” in the mix, words I am familiar with but can bog down the moment. But I can’t say this was a significant detractor for me. This was very enjoyable and, for my first physical memoir since September 2024, a delightful dip back into the joys of really sitting with someone through their memories.