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Inspiring story of the author’s relationship with a goshawk that she is training. Devastated by the sudden death of her father, MacDonald retreats into communion with the natural world, tramping across fields and through woods accompanied by the hawk she calls Mabel. In her book, she links memories of her father, the training of Mabel, and the tormented life of author T. H. White whose book The Goshawk tells of his own experiences with training a hawk.
The strength of this book for me was the d ...more
The strength of this book for me was the d ...more
Beautiful proses, beautiful reading. The author's voice is affective and mesmerising.
H is for Hawk is about Helen the author, and Mabel her goshawk. It is Helen's journey of recovering from the loss of her father, while Mabel is a wild predator bred in captivity learning to fly, to hunt, and to live with a human.
In my time with Mabel I've learned how you feel more human once you have known, even in your imagination, what it is like to be not. And I have learned, too, the danger that comes in mi ...more
H is for Hawk is about Helen the author, and Mabel her goshawk. It is Helen's journey of recovering from the loss of her father, while Mabel is a wild predator bred in captivity learning to fly, to hunt, and to live with a human.
In my time with Mabel I've learned how you feel more human once you have known, even in your imagination, what it is like to be not. And I have learned, too, the danger that comes in mi ...more
I am usually frustrated by memoir because either it feels unfocussed or because too much focus has been imposed on it for the sake of the book, and it then feels false. The combination of subjects—hawks, grieving, TH White, storytelling—well it's enough of a connected framework on which Macdonald could create something intriguing and truly unique. The book is personally insightful, funny-sad, and full of interesting detail.
One thing I particularly enjoyed was the way the author was able to recre ...more
One thing I particularly enjoyed was the way the author was able to recre ...more
I'm kind of a bird person. I've owned parakeets and canaries and cockatiels and even a Macaw parrot. I named all the finches who play in my backyard birdbath "Krishna," because why not? Somewhere along the line, I realized two things: one, birds are WAY smarter than we have any idea of, and two, I will never put another bird in a cage. However, Helen Macdonald's description of training her goshawk made me want to leash my own raptor to a curtain rod in the living room and watch it bate while I o
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Everything was good with the book, except that I didn't enjoy the descriptions of the hawk killing its prey. I guess I should've thought of that before I started the book!
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While I found much of this book fascinating, especially the history of hawking and the bits on T.H. White, I had trouble connecting with author/narrator Helen herself. She comes down quite hard on White, and while her observations on him are penetrating, she doesn't seem to apply the same kind of critique to herself. Both their desires to keep untameable wild animals in their homes seem to stem from some similar desire to compensate for uncontrollable personal lives. But is it fair to rope an an
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Dec 09, 2014
Rosana
marked it as to-read
Mar 16, 2015
Viv JM
marked it as to-read
Apr 02, 2015
Karen Michele Burns
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
my-5-star-books,
1001-books-completed
Jul 15, 2015
Susan
marked it as to-read
Mar 05, 2025
Genia Lukin
marked it as to-read
