Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter

People have been making a fuss over young (36 years old) Max Porter's first novel, Grief is a Thing With Feathers. I'm not sure which part of the fuss I ran into, maybe The New York Times Book Review, which I try to keep up with. Maybe not. But I ran into it, and I obtained a copy of the novel from the Louisville Free Public Library, and I've just now finished reading it.

And it was, in some ways, a remarkable thing.

The pain at its core felt very real, and I've just seen an interview with MP in The Guardian which referenced the fact that his dad died when he was 6 years old, so that explains that--though the dad survives and the mom dies in the novel. And of course real is always an important part of what we're looking for when we read or watch or listen. 

And it was inventive--both in terms of the central (crow) metaphor and in terms of the way the narrative unspooled. 

And there were some very nice lines here and there. Here are two of my favorites:

"We missed on the seat. We never shut drawers. We did these things to miss her, to keep wanting her." which meant a lot to me because it made me think of Clare, and how I didn't realize it, but I didn't change much of anything in my house after she left, because I missed her so much, and maybe because I wanted to go on missing her, I suppose.

"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." which I immediately linked to Hamlet when Claudius is telling Hamlet that to continue to mourn his father is "unmanly grief." And how people are so fucking weird about telling you to get over shit and stuff like that. 

But it was so short. 114 numbered pages, but the text starts on page 3. And some of the pages are pretty empty. A few are blank. And they're very small pages.  5" x 7.6".  I'd say it's novelette length at best. So I have to say that it isn't worth the $14 price tag, but it is worth reading.

Thanks, Louisville Free Public Library.