H is for Hawk

[Ecurb]

"H is for Hawk" is Helen Macdonald's new book that defies genre classification. It is partly a memoir about how she deals with her father's death, partly a book about goshawks and falconry, and partly a critique of T.H. White's life and writing.

White was a falconer who wrote a book about his own experiences with training a goshawk, as well as writing about animals in "The Sword and the Stone". In "The Book of Merlyn", the conclusion of "The Once and Future King" that White wrote after the rest of the book, King Arthur awaits his final battle. Merlyn appears. Arthur wonders if Merlyn is only a dream. Merlyn rebukes him for thinking so: "When I was a third-rate schoolmaster in the twentieth century every single boy I ever met wrote essays for me which ended: Then he woke up."

White WAS a schoolmaster, at Stowe. He clearly fancied himself another Merlyn, living his life backwards. In "The Sword and the Stone", Arthur and Kay go hawking, and lose their hawk. Kay goes home, but Arthur stays in the wood all night, searching for the hawk. It is there that he finds the hawk and stumbles upon Merlyn's cottage, and begins his kingly education. White lost his Hawk, Gos, and never found her. But, in his imagination, all things are recoverable if, like Merlyn, one is "born at the wrong end of time".

After finishing the book I went to Finley Wildlife Preserve, a bird-watching area, where I saw 5 or 6 bald eagles, and a pair of red-tailed hawks dancing through the air in their ancient mating ritual. I met two real bird-watchers, members of the Audubon Society, who said they were heading out to the Malheur Wildlife preserve this week to look at birds, ignoring the armed "militia" that has "occupied" it. I wished them luck.

White (Macdonald speculates) learned about magic and magicians from training hawks and falcons. The knots that tie the raptors to their trainer are slowly broken, and replaced by magical knots. White wrote:

"Knots were probably the earliest spells. My hawks consider themselves spell-bound by my arts."

Hawks are not "domesticated", although they can be trained. In the end, White's "Gos" flew away, and White never found him. White writes of the magician, with his falcon "Falco":

There he would stand, small and inverted, looking up from the scorned earth, his planetarium of a coat blowing in the wind, his wand outwitted, his white beard streaming. And Falco? And Falco? A triumph, a hatred and a gratitude. No logic or moral. Only magic for its own sake, weaving and unwoven."

H is for Hawk. Highly recommended.

[Tyrion Cheddar]

I could have sworn I posted a review after I listened to the audiobook, read by the author, and was spellbound by it. I came to it having read Eric Idle's review on his web site. I've recommended it to others. I'd never heard of Helen Macdonald before, though I was a huge fan of T.H. White from my early days. I went online and found some pictures of her with various hawks. Oddly, even though, while listening to the book, I was vaguely aware that it was at least based on a true story, I also clearly hadn't quite discerned that, because when I read her bio with the pictures, and saw the pensive expression on her face, as of a person pained, it hit me suddenly that it was all real.

Her voice, as it happens, is perfectly suited to the narration of the book, I can recommend the audiobook edition highly, too.