Review by Jill Hedgecock
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (2016, Grove Press, paperback, 320 pages, $10.06) weaves the author’s grief-stricken journey as she grapples with the death of her father while training a goshawk. In the book, Helen says, “…walking the forest you come across all sorts of things you don’t expect.” But it can easily be said that while reading this book you will similarly encounter the unexpected. Along Helen’s emotional journey, she learns from the mistakes of T.H. White, who also engaged in falconry, but best known as the author of the King Author series, most notably The Sword in the Stone. H is for Hawk is somewhat a literary biography of White and his story is told on a parallel track with Helen’s self discovery.
Riddled throughout the narrative are fascinating details about the sport of falconry. Readers will seamlessly discover what mutes, creances, swivels and jesses are as they learn the dedication needed to train a wild bird of prey. The details of hawk, and specifically goshawk behavior, is fascinating. For instance, instead of attaching bells to hawks’ legs on tiny leather straps called bewits, a tail-mounted bell is much better for a goshawk, which has a habit of shaking their tails. But even more interesting is the bond that develops between, Mabel, our narrator’s goshawk, and her human handler. Throughout the book, the savage, yet somehow endearing, personality of Mabel shines through the pages. This writing is brutally honest, poetic, gut-wrenching, historical, and informative all at the same time.
Helen’s descriptions of frustration at not being able to flush prey to give Mabel an opportunity to “do what she was born to do” are intense. The brutality of a hawk kill is described both vividly and with a kind of stark forgiveness. Mabel’s antics during the hunting flights often put Helen in impossible situations. Yet, the book somehow drifts in nostalgia as our narrator reveals her father’s obsession with warplanes that dotted the skies of his youth. This is a book like no other. I highly recommended it not only to bird and nature lovers, but also for those that have experienced the grief of a loved one.
H is for Hawk landed on more than 25 Best Books of the Year lists, including TIME (#1 Nonfiction Book), NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine (10 Favorite Books), Vogue (Top 10), Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle (Top 10), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and Amazon (Top 20). Given the poetical style of H is for Hawk, it is not surprising that her first book, Shaler’s Fish, is a collection of poems. She has plans to tackle the subject of how humans perceive the natural worlds as separate from themselves in her next book. Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an Affiliated Research Scholar at the University of Cambridge. She lives in Suffolk, UK.
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