In the final years before England became ensnared in the madness of World War 2, the young writer T.H. White (now most famous for “The Once and Future King” a retelling of the King Arthur story) decided he wanted to get into falconry. He acquires several books on the ancient art, finds himself a goshawk which he names Gos (…clever?), and gets right to it. His initial enthusiasm is dampened considerably when Gos proves to be less than eager at the whole training thing. Animal and man proceed, days and nights, into an increasingly fraught relationship that might, just MIGHT, end in a strange kind of mutual respect…
T.H. White can churn out some beautiful prose, which can help you get through this book that is, all things considered, the story of one man and his hobby. Do hawk’s and birds interest you? What about Falconry? If not, you’d best look elsewhere. It doesn’t even really qualify as a how-to-guide because, as White himself readily admits, he started out as an outright incompetent falconer. Like, he actually has no idea what he’s doing. Full disclosure (and…spoilers) it eventually turns out the falconry books he’s reading are DECADES OUT OF DATE. This is a common failing of introverts (I should know, being one myself) who would much prefer reading to social interaction…sometimes you don’t realize society has moved on until you start quoting, say, Charles Darwin to a bunch of modern day biologists. Things…things change, my brothers.
Another thing: how much patience you have for the book can depend on how irresponsible you find T.H. White and his half-ass approach to taking care of animals. I found him fairly irresponsible (owning an awesome animal is cool, but not if you are clueless how to care for them), and so some of the…events…of the latter half of the book did not surprise me at all. Sigh. Me like books.
Me Like Books 