ladynigelia's review against another edition
3.0
The blurb indicates that this is a book about grieving and hawks. It's completely accurate. Nobody in my book club loved this. Nobody hated it. It was a fine book. I wasn't expecting so much about T.H. White. I've never read any of his books, though of course I've heard of them. Maybe I'll go read [b:The Once and Future King|43545|The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4)|T.H. White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338741283l/43545._SY75_.jpg|1140206] now, since it was referenced several times.
thegayngelgabriel's review against another edition
5.0
Dense, rich, delicious prose, and so many good and kind thoughts and trying to figure out ways of thinking, and, and, and. I really really enjoyed this book, even (especially) when I ached in recognition at her passage through grief. Probably my favorite parts, however, are the meditations on the nature of "wildness" and the human imagination.
Edited to add: looking through the other reviews, the most frequent complaint about this book is the inclusion of T.H. White's story, which on the one hand I want to understand--it is occasionally a little repetitious--but on the other hand fills me with fury and makes me want to yell at innocent Goodreads people about how they lack understanding. Part of this is gay territorialness--White's closeted and traumatized anguish makes me ache for him in recognition and solidarity. And part of it is also: the first six months after a major traumatic event, during which time a beloved uncle was also dying of cancer in my home, I became obsessed with Virginia Woolf. I read four of her novels, A Room of One's Own, and an eight-hundred page biography of her. Her work, of course, relates much less directly to my own experiences of sexual violence as a teenager (not a theme explicitly addressed in her work to any significant degree), but she haunted me nonetheless. People commenting that the book should have focused on MacDonald's grief instead of diverting into thinking about White seem, to me, to be missing the point entirely: the story of her moving through grief would not be complete without White, in some form or fashion.
Edited to add: looking through the other reviews, the most frequent complaint about this book is the inclusion of T.H. White's story, which on the one hand I want to understand--it is occasionally a little repetitious--but on the other hand fills me with fury and makes me want to yell at innocent Goodreads people about how they lack understanding. Part of this is gay territorialness--White's closeted and traumatized anguish makes me ache for him in recognition and solidarity. And part of it is also: the first six months after a major traumatic event, during which time a beloved uncle was also dying of cancer in my home, I became obsessed with Virginia Woolf. I read four of her novels, A Room of One's Own, and an eight-hundred page biography of her. Her work, of course, relates much less directly to my own experiences of sexual violence as a teenager (not a theme explicitly addressed in her work to any significant degree), but she haunted me nonetheless. People commenting that the book should have focused on MacDonald's grief instead of diverting into thinking about White seem, to me, to be missing the point entirely: the story of her moving through grief would not be complete without White, in some form or fashion.
beatrice_k's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the language here, how Helen Macdonald knows the names for the flowers and grasses, flora and fauna. I do feel that this bit of memoir would reach its zenith as a longform essay instead of a book. The White bits are interesting but throw the pace off. There’s never enough and always too much somehow.
There was plenty to be discarded here but I’m glad to have (slowly, eventually) read it.
There was plenty to be discarded here but I’m glad to have (slowly, eventually) read it.
andiamo's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
A beautiful story, beautifully told. Its about falconry… And it’s not. It’s about TH White… And it’s not. It’s about family and loss and death and grief and grieving and coping… And it’s not. Highly recommended.
liralen's review against another edition
4.0
Really lovely read. Grief and goshawks and stumbling through said grief and training of said goshawks... Macdonald uses [b:The Goshawk|1188127|The Goshawk|T.H. White|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320461488s/1188127.jpg|105249] as something of a counterpoint to her own story, and although it took me a while to come around to the White sections, in the end, she handles them so deftly that I couldn't complain. Here's White, doing just about everything wrong—even when he knows the right thing and is determined to do it—and then here's Macdonald, not so much criticising him as looking at his work, and her childhood understanding of his work, with a critical eye. And then, too, here's Macdonald training her own goshawk, a glossy beauty of a thing, and struggling to reconcile her need to grieve and train with her need to be around people, or her need to train Mabel—her goshawk—by the book with her need to give Mabel as much freedom to test her limits as possible.
Read for a class, and easily one of the best books on the syllabus so far.
Read for a class, and easily one of the best books on the syllabus so far.
frankiecully's review against another edition
3.0
I did really like this but it just got too much hawk sometimes. Abandoned more than half way.
jillyfay's review against another edition
2.0
I was seriously disappointed by this book. I listened to the audio, which is read by the author. This book rambles on and just doesn’t get anywhere. Yes it was interesting to hear of her her goshawk, but she kept saying how she had all this experience with falconry yet didn’t seem to really know what she was doing. She tried making connections between this and the shocking death of her father, but I don’t see it. I have no idea how long ago this happened, how old she was when her father died, how old he was, or really any info on who she was - she kept talking about being a student, but also her job? I had the most difficult time getting through this book. 2 stars is probably being generous.
jlmreader's review against another edition
5.0
One of the best books I have ever read. I started this book with no desire to raise a goshawk and I still have no desire in raising a goshawk, but Macdonald's amazing book has given me a new understanding of the concept of beauty in nature. I believe a good writer can make a reader interested in and understand nearly anything. Macdonald is a very good writer, indeed.