The Goshawk (New York Review Books Classics)

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There's always a chance that Gos is happy and free, that humanity can learn the lessons of wildness but still act and think as itself, and the world isn't ending after all. The narrative follows a detailed diary format and the ‘Goshawk Summer’ of the title ends in late June. I passaggi bucolicamente poetici si alternano a riflessioni filosofiche un po' spicciole e volte anche un po' noiosette. In larger doses this would perhaps grow wearisome – but we are soon back to crisp delineations of feather and flight, and patient logbook chronicles of comings and goings at the nest. The book is his non-fiction log of the training of the bird named Gos, using two dated manuals, one written in 1619, as his only guides.

It was the falconer’s duty to lift the hawk back to the fist with his other hand with gentleness and patience, only to have him bate again, once, twice, twenty, fifty times, all night…”. Al millesimo salto della giornata, col braccio piegato a L, irrigidito e dolorante fino all'osso sotto il peso dell'uccello, limitarsi a dargli dei colpetti col guanto per farlo tornare al pugno, parlargli cortesemente ricorrendo al miagolio che nei miei tentativi di conversazione era la cosa che sembrava gradire di più, sorridere allo spazio ignorando la sua presenza, rassicurarlo col calma.

Yet something I read on the back cover or introduction gave me pause and I made the purchase, and am glad I did.

Today The Goshawk is regarded as a literary classic, considered by [many] to be White’s finest work. Chi invece vuole gustarsi una lettura lieve, piacevole e rinfrescante, si deve accomodare perché è arrivato nel posto giusto. Me being the out of touch curmudgeon that I am, I somehow managed to commit myself to the ancestral work a couple of years before the modern work came out, and true to form, didn't actually get around to reading it until just over a decade later.All in all, despite its covering of some old ground, and repeating of answered questions, this is a fresh and enthusiastic perspective and a welcome addition to the fold.