Book Title: Grief is the Thing with
Feathers
Author: Max Porter
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Pages: 128
Rating: 4/5
CROW
In other versions I am a doctor or a
ghost. Perfect devices: doctors, ghosts and crows. We can do things other
characters can’t, like eat sorrow, un-birth secrets and have theatrical battles
with language and God. I was friend, excuse, deus ex machina, joke, symptom,
figment, spectre, crutch, toy, phantom, gag, analyst and babysitter.
I was, after all, ‘the central bird …
at every extreme’. I’m a template. I know that, he knows that. A myth to be
slipped in. Slip up into.
Inevitably I have to defend my position,
because my position is sentimental.
I read about this book on some review
blog and that made me curious to explore it. Basically it is written in a
texture of novella, poetry or simply a short fiction. The fiction which hardly
left anyone without realizing what our reality is. I mean, Loss of our loved
ones can’t be just a fiction. I experienced it so I connected deeply with the
moments, author weaved in the book.
Loss and pain in the world is
unimaginable but I want them to try.
It is all about wreckage, moments and
conversations more than some story-line. The book is kind of void wrapped
with feeling of grief. When a lady of the family left the world, how her
husband and two boys were trying to cope up with the reality and then author
introduced a third element A Crow. A metaphor more than a mere bird, book is
designed in a way where every character of the book speaks for itself
alternatively and somewhere it seemed , author put his thoughts into the
crow’s section. Sometimes it seemed witty along with grey humour and sometimes
it seemed a poignant tale of a person who just lost his love of life. The
narrative style was different still impressive.
This Book will hardly take your
couple of an hour but you feel like to read it again to sense it properly. As I
mentioned earlier it is not some storybook, it is a void wrapped with lifelong
grief, and author added few superfluous adjectives that enhanced the feelings
which made us eager to read the book. If you try to read some amazing,
short and more than a novel thing, it would surely be a Great Read.
Excerpt:
Moving on, as a concept, is for
stupid people, because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project.
I refuse to rush. The pain that is thrust upon us let no man slow or speed or
fix.
Introduction: Crow’s Bad Dream I miss my wife
Ch. 1. Magical Dangers I
miss my wife
Ch. 2. Reign of Silence I
miss my wife
Ch. 3. Unkillable Trickster I
miss my wife
Ch. 4. Aphrodisiac Disaster I
miss my wife
Ch. 5. Tragic Comedy I miss
my wife
Ch. 6. The Baby (God) in the
Lake I miss my wife
Ch. 7. The Song I miss my
wife
Conclusion: Recovery and Growth I
miss my wife
About The Author:
Max Porter trained as an art
historian but his career took him in to the world of books. He previously
managed an independent bookshop and won the Young Bookseller of the Year award
in 2009. Max joined Granta and Portobello Books in 2012. This book is his Debut
Work.