Friday Books: H is for Hawk

I read H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. I finished it on Friday, so that fits my pattern of Friday Book reviews, I guess. This is non-fiction, a memoir of British author Helen Macdonald who as a young girl was fascinated by falconers and especially by hawks. As an adult she obtains a young goshawk and undertakes training of the hawk for hunting purposes. This is a topic I have never paid attention to in my life. It isn't something that appeals to me. Yet Macdonald writes a beautiful book about her experiences with her hawk. Her dad's death occurred early in her hawk journey, so she is dealing with her grief, learning to understand her hawk, taking on her first attempts at hawk training, and pondering what the meaning of it all is and how it affects her life - whether it all helps her heal, hurts her healing process, or if it's something understandable in her life's context. Intertwined is her appreciation of the nature she observes while working with her hawk. The writing is beautiful; her language is exquisite. I didn't like the topic, but she handled it well, and I found it quite interesting.

(I read H is for Hawk while on vacation... I had taken along about this many books, but in my Kindle, so packing was a lot easier than for this family.)