Faber & Faber Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

This is probably the most unusual book I've read in 2016. Even after finishing it days ago I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Part fiction, part poetry and a few other things in between, this story is one that definitely sticks with you. The story surrounds a young family after the sudden death of their mother and wife. They cannot function without her and are overcome with grief. As a result of this a crow enters, becoming their counsellor and helper to piece the family back together.The story is told from different perspectives – sometimes the dad, sometimes the kids and of course the crow. It is a fascinating look at how grief can affect people differently. The crow ultimately helps them to being to piece themselves back together before flying off and leaving them to continue on with their lives. This book is a short one, only one hundred and fourteen pages, but it feels like there is so much contained in such a short book. It’s difficult to even explain a little bit what this book is like. It’s wonderfully written, unique and beautiful.This review will not remotely do this book justice. It’s dark and compelling, the crow is particularly fascinating – how he finds human’s dull except when they are grieving – and is such an interesting and poignant look at how grief can affect someone. Taken from the Emily Dickinson poem “Hope is a thing with feathers” this book is experimental, and doesn't sugar coat the harsh realities of dealing with the loss of a loved one.

This is an astonishing book. That sounds like an over-the-top comment, but I have read many books on grief and the grieving experience, and unlike so many churned out by others, this one so accurately portrays the complicated experience of widows/widowers, especially with kids, that I was amazed to read that the author is not himself a widower. It is half-poetry, half-prose, and conveys stunningly well the emotional tsunami of grief's madness while still having to take care of everyday life as a new parent without your other half. It is not often I read a book in one sitting, but this one I did. It conveyed all the depth of the tragedy and the persistence of struggle and adaptation one must face to survive being the survivor. Porter has accomplished this in a very different style, but one which I thought perfectly fit the utterly disorientating experience of sudden bereavement and single parenting, and he did so with surprising brevity.It is not for the newly bereaved, in my opinion, but for those who have traveled that path for a time. I nodded in agreement in some places, cried and laughed at others. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who had lost a spouse/partner but with the caveat that it is best reserved for a time after the initial shock has passed, and some strength and sanity regained. I don't think I could have read this in the first year of bereavement.I don't know what the non-bereaved would make of this book. It might be useful to understand why someone close seems to have lost their mind in addition to their soulmate. Not sure. Someone else will need to comment on that.

I'm so glad I didn't give up on this book. First reading I only got a third of the way through and was feeling disappointed. Then I realised it was muchmore accessible if read out loud. The language really resonates if read as a spoken word prose/poem. It's also worth putting in the work to follow through some of the references/background. The humour/self-deprecation re the character's obsession with Ted Hughes is great - I loved the Oxford bit. The final part is very moving. All in all I feel the narrative has incredible balance - grief is very hard to write about - too sentimental and it becomes cliche - too harsh and it doesn't convey empathy. I can understand that a reader who is recently bereaved may not be comforted by the this book - but I don't think that's it's object. I can only describe the narrative as the creative output of grief left to gently simmer for many years. I loved this book and will be reading it again.(Just a side note on the cover - I'm sure Crow would want to peck it to bits! Way too many accolades and pages of them at the beginning. One or two would have been sufficient - readers can be trusted to make up their own minds)

This is a challenging read - I had to follow through many references unfamiliar to me, but that was worthwhile. It's a touching exploration of a father's grief at the loss of his wife, and how his and his two sons' experiences intertwine. Visited during this time by the Crow created by the poet Ted Hughes, as the father tries to complete a book about the anthology of the same name, this family's grieving comes across as real, so the conclusion is uplifting, The narrative is shared by all the characters, including the Crow, and the writing is rich and poetic.

If you like pretentious poetry with references galore, no real narrative or depth to characters and experimentation with English language you might like this. Personally i was left cold by this and in my book group I found the folks who had personal involvement in grief also thought it lacked something.