Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (2015)
Crow – from Ted Hughes’s renowned poetry collection Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow – is mythologised in Max Porter’s hybrid novella Grief is the Thing with Feathers. In a London flat, two young boys are processing the sudden death of their mother alongside their father, a Ted Hughes scholar. Porter’s Crow: healer, trickster, therapist, is attracted to the family’s profound grief and, upon his arrival, determines that he will stay with them until he is no longer needed.
Described on Goodreads as ‘part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief’, Grief is a Thing with Feathers’ unusual structure is enriched with wonderful passages of prose that I have found an absolute pleasure to read and reread alongside Porter’s other publications (that I also thoroughly recommend!): Lanny, The Death of Sir Francis Bacon, and Shy.
Porter’s novella highlights the tumultuous process of grief as a response to loss, and how we as a society struggle with and avoid the subject of death and what comes after. It comprehends the emptiness of grief, and the expectations thrust upon those left behind in loss to pick themselves up and carry on with their ‘new normal’. Grief is the Thing with Feathers explores the non-linear and raw nature of grief through a stunning blend of poetry and long passages of inner thought and comprehension of life, death, and the in-between.
I thoroughly enjoy the influence and presence of Ted Hughes throughout the novella, and strongly recommend that Hughes’s Crow collection is read alongside Porter’s novella to maximise your reading experience.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)
Set from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalised biography that depicts Thomas Cromwell’s rise to favour in the court of Henry VIII. Mantel’s novel is the first of a trilogy series, with Bring Up the Bodies (2012) and The Mirror and the Light (2020) being recommendations of mine also.
Mantel’s complex prose and level to detail throughout the novel is exquisite – the sophisticated writing really brings the figures, from my favourite period of history, to life. The process of producing Wolf Hall is, for me, what makes Mantel’s writing stand out even further. Mantel spent five years researching and writing the novel, with the intention of matching her writing to historical records as accurately as possible. The intense production of the novel, in my opinion, results in a remarkable, stunningly detailed account of the court of Henry VIII.
The Wolf Hall trilogy is by no means a light read, and demands your full attention throughout. A grasp on Tudor England would enhance your reading experience but is not necessary. I do strongly recommend binging the BBC’s adaptation of Wolf Hall also!
By Anna Stevenson
