This powerful short novel describes the events of a single afternoon. Alwyn Towers, an American expatriate and sometime novelist, is staying with a friend outside of Paris, when a well-heeled, itinerant Irish couple drops in - with Lucy, their trained hawk, a restless, sullen, disturbingly totemic presence. Lunch is prepared, drink flows. A masquerade, at once harrowing and farcical, begins. A work of classical elegance and concision, The Pilgrim Hawk stands with Faulkner's The Bear as one of the finest American short ...
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This powerful short novel describes the events of a single afternoon. Alwyn Towers, an American expatriate and sometime novelist, is staying with a friend outside of Paris, when a well-heeled, itinerant Irish couple drops in - with Lucy, their trained hawk, a restless, sullen, disturbingly totemic presence. Lunch is prepared, drink flows. A masquerade, at once harrowing and farcical, begins. A work of classical elegance and concision, The Pilgrim Hawk stands with Faulkner's The Bear as one of the finest American short novels: a beautifully crafted story that is also a poignant evocation of the implacable power of love.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 136 p. New York Review Books Classics. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.
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Fine. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 136 p. New York Review Books Classics. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Seller's Description:
New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 136 p. New York Review Books Classics. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Good. Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code. Will not include dust jacket. Has used sticker(s) and some writing or highlighting. UPS shipping for most packages, (Priority Mail for AK/HI/APO/PO Boxes).
It is always special to discover a new book or author. My brother gave me a copy of this short novel, "The Pilgrim Hawk" by Glenway Wescott. I hadn't heard of the book or author before. Published in 1940, "The Pilgrim Hawk" has been reissued by the New York Review Books "Classics" series, which specializes in "reclaiming hidden gems of literature with introductions by distinguished contemporary authors." The Pulitzer-prize winning novelist Michael Cunningham wrote the introduction to the NYRB "The Pilgrim Hawk", describing it as "a work of brilliance". A NYRB reading group guide to the novel with discussion questions is available online.
The author, Glenway Wescott, (1901 -- 1987) grew up in rural Wisconsin and lived as an expatriate in France in the 1920s. He was one of the few individuals at the time who was openly gay. He wrote poems, novels, and stories, but his writings in these genres ceased in 1945. "The Pilgrim Hawk" received critical recognition when it was published but soon fell into oblivion. The work has been highly praised by contemporary critics, and it is valuable to have it accessible in the NYRB edition.
"The Pilgrim Hawk" is set in rural France in the late 1920s and is narrated by an unsuccessful American novelist approaching middle age, Alwyn Tower. Tower is staying at the villa of his close friend, an American woman named Alexandra Henry, referred to throughout as "Alex". The nature of the relationship between Tower and Alex, including what seems to me likely sexual frustration, remains ambiguous. The story takes place in a single afternoon when a wealthy Irish couple, en route to Hungary, comes to pay their friend Alex a visit. In its brief course, Wescott's novel explores the complexities of three relationships, those between Larry and Madeline Cullen, between Jean and Eva, house servants of Alex, and between Tower and Alex. Much of the course of the story is set out in the opening paragraph of the work and then gradually unpacked:
"The Cullens were Irish, but it was in France that I met them and was able to form an impression of their love and their trouble. They were on their way to a property they had rented in Hungary; and one afternoon they came to Chanceller to see my great friend Alexandra Henry. That was in May of 1928 or 1929, before we all returned to America, and she met my brother and married him."
Madeline Cullen comes into the story with her pet hawk, Lucy, perched on her wrist. It is rare to have an animal become an effective character in a story, but Wescott succeeds. Lucy is painstakinly and convincingly described and becomes the focus of the story in her own right, not merely as a symbol. She and the human characters each explore in their own way the tension between independence, freedom, and wildness, and love and domesticity.
The book moves slowly. It is made by its style which is at once beautifully dense and precise. Every word tells. The book also has a detailed structure in which scenes develop and are foreshadowed in what comes before. The story centers upon Alwyn's increased understanding of the relationship between the Cullens, from their apparently staid and shallow exteriors to the tensions not far below the surface in what Tower describes in his opening as "their love and their trouble". As the work proceeds, it expands its focus to include Tower himself and his relationship to Alex. Tower is himself a hawk-eyed observer of people and scenes. The book develops the tension between the ability to describe and understand people on the one hand and the ability to be involved and to attempt a relationship with another person on the other hand. My attention moved as I read this novella from the Cullens and their relationship to Tower himself and to what I understand as the frustration of his relationship to Alex. Perhaps the shortening of Alexandra Henry's name to "Alex" suggests something as well of the difficulties of Tower's relationship to her.
This short work is highly subtle, and it requires patience and concentration to read. It shouldn't be read quickly and would benefit from being read through twice. I was glad to find "The Pilgrim Hawk", to reflect upon it for itself, and to be reminded of the breadth and depth of literature written by Americans.
