Name: Grief Is the Thing with Feathers
Rating: 3.929487179487179 (156 reviews)
ISBN: 9781555977412

Max Porter

Originally published: London: Faber & Faber Ltd, 2015.

A Novel

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

In a London flat, two young boys face the unbearable sadness of their mother's sudden death. Their father, a Ted Hughes scholar and scruffy romantic, imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness. In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow - antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This self-described sentimental bird is attracted to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and physical pain of loss gives way to memories, this little unit of three begin to heal. In this extraordinary debut - part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's compassion and bravura style combine to dazzling effect. Full of unexpected humour and profound emotional truth, Grief is the Thing with Feathers marks the arrival of a thrilling new talent.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers

I couldn't put it down. It's heart-wrenching and deep and funny - all those things.

Tabea

Niki Sotiropoulou-Nassika

Fine diary of "what Time? there is no stopping".

martian1138

TOCDA*

Fine diary of "what Time? there is no stopping".

kayla 

Maasje Steur

this was a startlingly beautiful and intriguing entertainment of grief. short, cryptic, but a very well told story of the universal feelings of loss. I especially love the narration. who are the boys? which one of them is talking? if we don't know which one is even talking, how can we trust the crow is real? Porter's writing begs these questions, which are interesting to try to answer.

heleen de boever

Hellboy TCR

Its a 3.5 star book which I thought was going to fail for the way grief(a crow that talks) was portrayed, but man, the writer's avoided most of the traps that could come up in such a narration. There were beautifully written passages and touching moments all through. But sometimes it also tries be a bit clever. Almost a 4 star and a great way to launch a writing career. More on it later.

High Fidelity

Pricam o muskarcu koji ostaje bez zene.
Prica o dva decaka koji ostaju bez majke.
U njihov skrhani zivot ulazi vrana koja je stvarna, koja je metafora, koja je tu za razgovor, koja je tu da bude dadilja, vrana koja je tu da ih ujede za srce I da im pokaze kako je tuga dugotrajni projekat.
Jako lepo napisano, velika preporuka.

Celine

Fraser Simons

For a book about grief it sure doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. But also opaque to me, in a weird way, since it’s also gripping on audio. I like sad things usually, and I liked the concept of this book quite a bit. I suspect it might be a bit disappointing because of how hyped this is for me. 

I have had it recommended to me about 25 times. And I rate based on expectations. 3 being, it met my expectations, which is hard to do when it’s so highly recommended. But also felt a bit sad I didn’t connect with it more so I could be on the same train as the other friends, who absolutely adore it. The nice thing is that at two hours long I can easily revisit it at some point and perhaps like it more, having my expectations adjusted for that reading of it. We shall see.

nina

i liked some of the prose. the characters felt contrived sometimes. it was very self-indulgent and i'm sylvia plath all the way.

carla watson 

it was was good but i wouldn’t read it again because i don’t think i understood what it was about as i wasn’t really paying attention definitely something different

Patty M.

Around the Year in 52 Books
Week 15 Prompt
A book with a unique format/writing structure

This book was written in the form of poetry, sometimes versed, sometimes not. Strange use of onomatopoeia. Came across choppy and disjointed. Interesting, but not memorable.

Olivera Mitić

I'm not sure if people who have never lost anyone will be able to get this book. I'm not trying to be pretentious, I just honestly don't think you could see how accurate this is unless you have grieved yourself. 
Personally, I lost two very important family members 4 years ago. They died within a year of eachother and it felt something like this book does. I hope I won't have to re-live that feeling any time soon, but it's also weirdly comforting to see that other people out there had horrible experiences that are similar to mine.

Grief Is the Thing with Feathers A Novel

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