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The Hawk's Tale
Follows the adventures of a toad, a mouse, and a young water snake as they set out to rescue the mouse's niece who was carried off by a hawk and encounter their powerful ruler, the White Eagle.
148 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1988
6 people want to read
About the author
John Balaban
28 books6 followersJohn Balaban (b. 1943) is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose. He has won several awards, including the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, a National Poetry Series Selection, and, forLocusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems, the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. He was named the 2001–2004 National Artist for the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. In 2003, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He has also been nominated twice for the National Book Award. In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, Balaban translates Vietnamese poetry; he is also a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. Balaban is a poet-in-residence and English professor in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 14, 2023
***Wouldn't recommend for young children, especially of Judeo-Christian households....***
To me this was a book I came into reading with little idea of what the actual story would entail but it did look like something that I would be probably interested in since of the animal characters. Instead I struggled to keep up with the actual story itself for it was more of a modern take of the much more similar Redwall series although with much less fantasy elements, more of a modern take and also more of a religious overtone.
As a result I came to find this story rather slow and it dragged out quite a while while the characters weren't fully fleshed out to be really interesting to me. The book was most definitely an adventure tale but it just seemed to cobble on more adventures at points where the story should have ended for the four that started off together just to pad the book's pages thus really not feeling like it flowed smoothly together into one whole adventure. As a result I chafed to be done with it.
What confused me the most was the fact that the muskrats had taken on a French appropriation for their town thus using French names as well as terms that kept me looking for a pronunciation guide and occasional translation to know what I was reading. I am sure there has to be an interesting reason behind this but it wasn't shared here.
Creatively the book does take some steps into mysticism and religion, which makes me actually uncomfortable altogether for reasons soon to be explained. First of all I do find it fascinating that John Balaban would actual include the toadstone in the story although unfortunately it does end up being given more of a decorative usage rather than a legendary one. And secondly it seems that much later in the book a new character appears called the White Eagle who I am guessing is meant to be a god-like figure since he can dispel demons, punishes or redeems wrongdoers accordingly and has every creature's reverence with the exception of the one who conjures him. And that is where I draw the line.
In The Hawk's Tale, Mirais takes it upon himself to hunt down a magician mole that he ran into to assist him in finding this mythic White Eagle. As a result the magician takes it upon himself to conjure or summon the White Eagle by making a magic square while using names of power that very much resemble actual names of the Judeo-Christian God - Adonay, El, Yah and Agla although I am not quite sure about the usage of the latter. Mention of shadow-like demons appear during this summons while the rules are followed about having to be inside the square to stop negative consequences from these creatures. And as if that isn't enough to make one wonder about the reason for this strange inclusion following two pages later is a part of a spell that includes words from the actual Key of Solomon, which is considered an actual conjuration of demons followed a bit later on that the same mole will eventually tame the demons.
As a result I wouldn't really be able to say that I could recommend this book, especially for younger readers since of the inclusion of this information, which I find dangerous even if it isn't meant to be taken into a kabbalistic or mystic sort of way.
To me this was a book I came into reading with little idea of what the actual story would entail but it did look like something that I would be probably interested in since of the animal characters. Instead I struggled to keep up with the actual story itself for it was more of a modern take of the much more similar Redwall series although with much less fantasy elements, more of a modern take and also more of a religious overtone.
As a result I came to find this story rather slow and it dragged out quite a while while the characters weren't fully fleshed out to be really interesting to me. The book was most definitely an adventure tale but it just seemed to cobble on more adventures at points where the story should have ended for the four that started off together just to pad the book's pages thus really not feeling like it flowed smoothly together into one whole adventure. As a result I chafed to be done with it.
What confused me the most was the fact that the muskrats had taken on a French appropriation for their town thus using French names as well as terms that kept me looking for a pronunciation guide and occasional translation to know what I was reading. I am sure there has to be an interesting reason behind this but it wasn't shared here.
Creatively the book does take some steps into mysticism and religion, which makes me actually uncomfortable altogether for reasons soon to be explained. First of all I do find it fascinating that John Balaban would actual include the toadstone in the story although unfortunately it does end up being given more of a decorative usage rather than a legendary one. And secondly it seems that much later in the book a new character appears called the White Eagle who I am guessing is meant to be a god-like figure since he can dispel demons, punishes or redeems wrongdoers accordingly and has every creature's reverence with the exception of the one who conjures him. And that is where I draw the line.
In The Hawk's Tale, Mirais takes it upon himself to hunt down a magician mole that he ran into to assist him in finding this mythic White Eagle. As a result the magician takes it upon himself to conjure or summon the White Eagle by making a magic square while using names of power that very much resemble actual names of the Judeo-Christian God - Adonay, El, Yah and Agla although I am not quite sure about the usage of the latter. Mention of shadow-like demons appear during this summons while the rules are followed about having to be inside the square to stop negative consequences from these creatures. And as if that isn't enough to make one wonder about the reason for this strange inclusion following two pages later is a part of a spell that includes words from the actual Key of Solomon, which is considered an actual conjuration of demons followed a bit later on that the same mole will eventually tame the demons.
As a result I wouldn't really be able to say that I could recommend this book, especially for younger readers since of the inclusion of this information, which I find dangerous even if it isn't meant to be taken into a kabbalistic or mystic sort of way.
Displaying 1 of 1 review