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| Falcon (Animal) | 
 enlarge | Author: Helen Macdonald
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Category: Book
List Price: £12.95
Buy New: £8.42
You Save: £4.53 (35%)
New (26) from £5.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 389715
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1861892381
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.96
EAN: 9781861892386
ASIN: 1861892381
Publication Date: January 9, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive, eclectic, marvellous January 24, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is not a zoological monograph, but a comprehensive history of the complex relationship between humans and the falcons. In describing the varied ways in which we have attempted to deal with the unsettling presence of these birds in our world, Macdonald delivers new insights into ourselves and the essential strangeness of the genus.
The author is also a published poet, and the writing is well-matched to its subject. In general, the result is subliminal - like listening to an erudite, academic friend expounding on their specialist subject. But occasionally, where the situation demands, the language expands to suit and the results are spectacular. From the preface:
"Shrugging one shoulder sharply forward to slice through the molecules of resistant air, she dropped away from the astonished cameraman, cutting the sky in two at a velocity of over 200 miles an hour." (p.7)
At other times - particularly in response to the wilder excesses of our appropriation of falcons as icons of our own values - the voice changes to a gentle, dry humour, as in the caption to a photograph of US Air Force US servicemen holding their live falcon mascot: "Real men, it seems, don't need gauntlets to hold falcons" (p.47).
This is a beautiful book, of breathtaking breadth and full of surprising detail, throughout which the author's command and love of the subject is clearly apparent. The only question now is whether Reaktion will commission Macdonald to write 'Eagle' and 'Hawk' as well.
A multifaceted gem January 25, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Some cultural history makes one feel that the author thinks only other cultural historians are a worthy audience. This wonderful book is not one of them. It is the sort of thing that makes you feel smarter by the minute. It links the culture and mythology of falcon imagery to the riveting details of ancient and modern falconry and sandwiches them together with an examination of falcons and the military (my favourite part).Macdonald writes with unpretentious erudition, ease and wit, and has that rare quality (in a historian) of knowing when parts of history are just funny as hell. Look out for the story of the New York falconer who was run out of town because his peregrine was eating the Mafia's racing pigeons. The book is lavishly and gorgeously illustrated, with brilliant and often hilarious captions which all by themselves make the book a brilliant browser. Stills from the Royal Tennenbaums and A Canterbury Tale, the US Airforce's mascot peregrines, heart-stopping shots of the peregrine's famous 200mph stoop. With human skydiver in tow. Seriously. Falcons are just cool. And after this, you'll know why.
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