H Is for Hawk

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H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
283 pages

What’s it about?
This memoir centers equally around grief and the natural world. Helen Macdonald is a young adult when she loses her father. She then loses herself in her grief. She eventually finds her way out with the help of a Goshawk named Mabel.

What did I think?
I felt as if I was reading a classic book written at a different point in history. At times it was a little slow (she was fascinated with author T.H. White) but her story was always interesting. I knew nothing about falconry and it’s origins so I learned a lot.

Should you read it?
If you are interested in nature, English history, or the grief process this memoir is a must read. If you just love a book with beautifully constructed sentences then you will also not want to miss “H is for Hawk”.

Quote-
“Here’s a word. Bereavement. Or, Bereaved. Bereft. It’s from the Old English bereafian, meaning ‘to deprive of, take away, seize, rob’. Robbed. Seized. It happens to everyone. But you feel it alone. Shocking loss isn’t to be shared, no matter how hard you try. “

“The hawk was a fire that burned my hurts away. There could be no regret or mourning in her. No past or future. She lived in the present only, and that was my refuge.”

Question-
What did you think of falconry after reading this book?

If you like this try-

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

Growing up, the author loved reading books featuring animals, but despairs that the stories always end in the death of that animal. In telling us this, she assures us that this book will end while her goshawk, Mabel, is still alive. But that is the only grief that is spared the reader, as her narrative grapples with the loss of her father, and her own wretchedness and isolation, as well as that of the schoolmaster and author T.H. White, a half century earlier. Both White and McDonald take it upon themselves to train a goshawk, with McDonald, an experienced falconer, having much more success. The end of the book leaves us all at a moment with her father dead, her hawk still alive, and McDonald herself almost metallurgically transformed by the experiences she shares with us here.

Sarah

One of the best.

I usually love books about animals, but this one didn’t catch me Grieving for her father, when he died, that was also overwhelming. I had a hard time getting into this book and just never got into the Goshawks, or the writing.