GRIEF IS A THING WITH FEATHERS - MAX PORTER

The most unique book you will ever read.

Grief is a Thing with Feathers (GTF) is arguable one of the best debut novella’s I have ever read. For some context I read this book when I was 18 years old and working in a Waterstones. I’m pretty sure I read this entire novella in during one of my lunch breaks and I was sobbing by the end.

GTF does things in this book that I have never seen in anything other I have read in my nearly 30 years on this earth. From the use of The Crow from Hughes’ Crow as a narrative device as well as a character, to the use of the text itself to paint a picture of the mental state of our protagonist, you will be hard pressed to find another book like it, especially a debut! The novella also jumps from prose, to script, to poem and even a piece of art using words. Frankly the fact porter was confident enough to do such wild things with his debut is a testament to him as an author.

The incredible structure aside, the plot of the novella is more important than ever. Our protagonist is struggling with the loss of his wife and how to handle that grief whilst not only raising two sons, but also writing about Hughes’ Crow, who as mentioned before comes to the aid of our protagonist as a therapist of sorts, clearly the protagonist is going through it. Through the course of the novella we learn how grief feels and how Porter’s character processes it successfully.

This is what I find most important, the process of understand and dealing with grief is handled so well. As an 18 year old who never truly experienced this sort of grief it taught me how to have a healthy relationship with that emotion. Something unfortunately young men nowadays are being brainwashed into using to harbour hatred and and anger, all to benefit a small selection of capitalists who thrive off of these negative emotions.

If you have a young person in your life who you think will be able to process the teachings of this book, I sincerely suggest you give them a copy of it. I know it changed my perspective on life. You can pick up a copy here from Waterstones or Bookshop.