![]() ![]() ![]() Strange enough, both times Ted Hughes (1930-1998) crossed my path, the first time with Birthday letters, published a few months after my first spouse’s death, and now again with Max Porter’s novella, exuding Ted Hughes from every pore. ![]() A glance on the explicit cover art however leaves no room for dulcet misunderstanding: the ‘thing with feathers’ isn’t a tender still-downy birdie, but a lugubrious black bird – It is Ted Hughes’s sinister Crow, resuscitated in this fable-like tale about coping with the sudden death of a spouse and mother.ĭo we find books or do books find us? Having experienced the death of a spouse twice – a brutal, sudden one and one following a long illness, going through a childless mourning and one together with two children now, this novella focussing on the grieving process of a father and his 2 young sons came to find me. I picked this up because the title struck me like a poem in itself, sounding like an titillating modulation on that wonderful poem Hope is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson I am intrigued by the technique of altering variations on a theme, like in music, and keen on searching for changes in harmony, rhythm, melody, or orchestration. ![]() You Cannot Prevent the Birds of Sorrow from Flying over Your Head, but You Can Prevent Them from Building a Nest in Your Hair ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |