Review of 'The Peregrine : The Hill of Summer & Diaries' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
These are two quite extraordinary books. On the one hand they lack a plot, there is a huge amount of repetition, especially in The Peregrine, where time after time the hunting by the peregrine and killing of its prey are described, and condensing ten years into one gives a strange impression that every time you step out into the countryside you could expect to see multiple rare and secretive animals, a bit like watching a natural history program on TV. Nevertheless, I've still given it five stars. That is quite simply because of astonishingly beautiful and poetic prose. The use of language is so incredible, so creative, so forceful that feels more like a poem than a novel. And it works, you really feel what it is like to be there in the field observing the birds. Of the two books, The Peregrine has received the most acclaim. However, I …
These are two quite extraordinary books. On the one hand they lack a plot, there is a huge amount of repetition, especially in The Peregrine, where time after time the hunting by the peregrine and killing of its prey are described, and condensing ten years into one gives a strange impression that every time you step out into the countryside you could expect to see multiple rare and secretive animals, a bit like watching a natural history program on TV. Nevertheless, I've still given it five stars. That is quite simply because of astonishingly beautiful and poetic prose. The use of language is so incredible, so creative, so forceful that feels more like a poem than a novel. And it works, you really feel what it is like to be there in the field observing the birds. Of the two books, The Peregrine has received the most acclaim. However, I must say that I preferred The Hill of Summer. That was in part because of the relentless kill after kill in The Peregrine got a bit much to me, but above all, because his obsession with that bird meant that the rest of what was going on got too much squeezed out. The Hill of Summer was in that sense much more balanced. The whole habitat was described, still with a focus on the birds, but at least the other animals and the trees were given their due, even if the rest of the plants are only a backdrop and barely mentioned. So far I have only dipped into the diaries, that's not the sort of text you want to just read, but I'm looking forward to coming back to them and reading more.
