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What an odd little book is Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter. Not your typical novel, it is told from three points of view, Dad, The Boys, and Crow. Each “chapter” is short, sometimes only a paragraph and more than a page or two is unusual. It is easy to read quickly but you don’t want to read it quickly. It is kind of like poetry but it is not. But it isn’t straight prose narrative either. It is tragic and funny and sometimes hallucinatory, covered in sadness and grief and bewilderment, full of questions that one asks when in the depths of darkness — how can I go on? why did this happen? what are we going to do now?
Suddenly widowed with two young boys — Mom fell at home and hit her head — Dad is struggling to complete a book called Ted Hughes’ Crow on the Couch: A Wild Analysis. One night Crow arrives in their lives. Crow is many things from mythic trickster to scavenger. The Boys and Dad all talk about Crow and Dad talks to Crow and Crow is presented as being a real creature, but after awhile one starts to wonder whether Crow is a living bird or a figment of Dad’s imagination and result of a mental breakdown.
When Crow arrives he promises he “won’t leave until you don’t need me anymore.” And this turns out to be a few years.
I spent a lot of time reading and wondering how the book was connected to Emily Dickinson and her poem “Hope is the Thing With Feathers.” Crow did not seem hopeful and in Dickinson’s poem hope is a little bird that weathers the storm not a big sometimes vulgar, sometimes nonsensical crow. But when Crow finally says goodbye he and Dad have a conversation:
BIRD: But the credit should go to the boys , and to the deadline. I knew that by the time you sent your publisher your final draft of the Crow essay my work would be done.
MAN: I would be done grieving?
BIRD: No, not at all. You were done being hopeless. Grieving is something you are still doing, and something you don’t need a crow for.
Aha! So Crow did represent a kind of hope, not hope itself, but he brought hope with him, hope that the grief might eventually end. Though as the conversation implies, grief never truly goes away, and Crow goes on to say that grief “is everything. It is the fabric of selfhood and beautifully chaotic.”
But Crow is not just related to Emily Dickinson, Crow comes out of Dad’s work writing about Ted Hughes. You may know that Hughes wrote a series of Crow poems and published a selection of poems in 1970 called Crow: From the Life and Songs of Crow. It was originally to be part of a much larger project in which Hughes, according to Neil Roberts at the Ted Hughes Society, was attemtpting to write an epic folk-tale. Hughes began the Crow project not long after Sylvia Plath’s death but was unable to complete it after the death of Assia Wevill and his daughter Shura.
So many interesting connections! I have not read the Crow poems. Some of them are available online and they are intense and strange. Because I have not read them and because I don’t know all that much about Ted Hughes, I probably missed a few things in Porter’s book. But I still found the book moving so I don’t think full Hughes knowledge is necessary. Still, I think I would like to read Hughes’ Crow sometime and then perhaps give Porter’s book another go.
Grief is the Thing With Feathers is Porter’s first book. It is so skilled and polished I was amazed about its debut status. I kept thinking, surely he has written other books? Nope. Clearly Porter has a long and exciting career ahead of him and I eagerly look forward to it.
Interesting. I sometimes enjoy these cross-genre books.
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Jeanne, It’s really short too, more novella than novel but the book cover calls it a novel. Delightfully unconventional 🙂
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I just took a look at the crow poems and…wow. I’ve read Hughes before, but never these, and they are going to require more time and thought. The book intrigues me as well, and I love the excerpt you included.
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Jenclair, I know they are really intense aren’t they? I plan on borrowing the book from the library sometime, hopefully soon. I feel like I have to prepare myself mentally for them though!
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Grief is the Thing With Feathers is definitely a book to read slowly. I did start out so very well yet found over time that I also needed to reread parts. As my reservation couldn’t be renewed at the library I had to read the second half at a speed that caused me to loose touch with the story. I will read it again in a couple of months and then I will have Ted Hughes’Crow poems close by as well. Like your review Stefanie!
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Cath, I had the same problem and had to rush through the final part because the book was due back to the library. I had been hoping I could read it a second time but I am going to have to wait on that. But it is maybe just as well since now I can read Ted Hughes before reading the book again. So maybe having to return it to the library worked out best for both of us! 🙂
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This sounds like an interesting, unconventional read. I can’t say I’m looking for tragic books these days, but I’ll keep this in mind for when I’m in the mood.
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AMB, it is very unconventional. It is a sad book but didn’t leave me feeling sad. It ends on a hopeful note.
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Porter’s a senior editor at Granta – I suspect all that time reading and editing incredible work must have strengthened his own 🙂
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Elle, ah, perhaps that’s it!
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Oh this sounds interesting. I like that it’s not quite poetry or straight fiction. But it definitely sounds like something you have to take your time with so you can really enjoy it. Love that cover too.
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Iliana, it is a short book and it makes one think oh I will just breeze right through it but the more I read the slower I read, so yeah, definitely something to take your time with.
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Oh, very interesting! I’ve seen this book around but not been particularly inclined to read it until now. Hm. I suppose this could be a good time for me finally to read Ted Hughes — I’ve held a grudge against him since I was a callow youth who believed Sylvia Plath was Terribly Wronged. And it wasn’t that she wasn’t, but rereading her journals as an adult, it does also seem that she’d be a very difficult person to live with. So while I’ll never like Ted Hughes personally, I suppose I don’t need to carry on boycotting his work. :p
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Jenny, heh I am familiar with that grudge because I had it too! There is still a bit of residual resentment but I am working on separating that from the poetry too!
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I have heard so much about this book, long before its release here. Now that I am grieving I am not entirely sure it is a read for me for now or for a little further down the road.
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roughghosts, even though the book ends on a hopeful note, I agree, it is not one to read while grieving. Though it could potentially be cathartic in a way I suppose.
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This sounds very good. I tend to like allegorical and fantastical stories. I also have not read the Crow poems. I would likely want to read some before taking on this book.
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Brian Joseph, it isn’t necessary to read the crow poems but I think it will make for a richer experience of the book.
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Have you read Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s Crow Planet? It truly made me love crows. I did hear an interview with the author, about this book some years ago, and it left me uncertain whether I would want to read it, but I recently had a friend rave about it, and now you’ve had such a positive experience with it too, well, it’s settled. Must read.
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buriedinprint, I have not read that book. I love crows so don;t need to be convince, they are such fascinating and smart birds. I am always up for learning more about them so I will look for the book. Thanks!
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Whew! I am rather tentatively excited that I don’t think these are for me. Which is great, there are too many books I want to read that it is a refreshing task to purposefully put something on a ‘not-for-me-just-skip list’ and ignore it all together.
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Care, yeah, It’s nice to be able to pass on a book now and then, isn’t it? 🙂
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Definitely falls into the category of an odd book. I think I might find it irritating
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BookerTalk, yeah, you might want to skip this one especially since Crow sometimes talks in rhyming nonsense. A relief to not add something to the TBR 😉
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This book sounds lovely. I like that is tied up with a poet who also experienced much grief.
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GTL, yes indeed, the book has all sorts of resonances that add flavor and depth.
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What a creative way to write. And, love the book cover. Something an online eRead can’t provide. 😉
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Arti, isn’t the cover nice? I like it too and the bright yellow made it easy to find on my reading pile!
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I like odd books. I heard an interview about this book a couple of months ago when Mr Gums and I were out working in the garden – it was with Porter and Jonathan Cape whose written a biography of Hughes. (I take my iPad out and stream our national radio station when we garden). It was the replay of a panel discussion at the Adelaide Writers Week. I was really intrigued by it and felt I’d like to read it though I hadn’t read the Crow poems either. Here is a link if you’re interested: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/ted-hughes-the-crow-aww/7345168
I like the comment about Grief – it never does end, it just changes. “Beautifully chaotic”? Chaotic yes, not so sure about beautiful.
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Sorry, Jonathan Bate (i was confusing his name with that publisher!)
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whisperinggums, thanks for the link! I will have to give it a listen some evening when Bookman isn’t around. The biography of Hughes would probably be really interesting.
As for “beautifully chaotic” I guess it all depends on perspective?
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Yes, I think it does.
I think you’ll enjoy the session if you can find time to read it. I’d happily listen to it again.
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This appeals to me, but I would definitely have to be in the right mood for it.
Really good review of what sounds like a challenging book to wrap your head around.
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Jane, thanks! Yes one does have to be in the right mood for this one otherwise there is much that might grate.
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Great review! And such interesting connections! I have not read much of Ted Hughes but after this, I want to look him up!
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cirtnecce, thanks! I’ve only read a poem by Hughes here and there and he is interesting and not quite what I expected.
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What an intriguing review! Adding this to my list of books to read. Thank you.
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Hope you enjoy it!
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