The Printed Page

Title: Lift
Author/website: Rebecca K. O’Connor
208 pages
Publisher: Red Hen Press
Publication date: November ’09
Genre: Memoir
Would I recommend it: Yes
Journal notes: Lift is a love story. A love story between a human and a falcon. Rebecca loves Anakin. From the first page to last you’re surrounded by her total devotion this wild, winged, predatory creature. The opening prologue is both spellbinding and haunting. Rebecca and Anakin are hunting, killing game. There is nothing pretty about what they’re doing. There will be death and yet in death there is life. Anakin hunts because it is what he does, Rebecca flushes game for Anakin because she is his provider. From the moment Anakin comes into Rebecca’s life they are bound by mutual need. Theirs is relationship based on trust. Anakin trusts that Rebecca will look out for his best interests, Rebecca trusts that Anakin will faithfully return to her. Both Rebecca and Anakin display exceptional fortitude showing the other how to survive and move forward.

Anakin

The culmination of a ten-year career in falconry, Lift is a memoir that illustrates the journey and life lessons of a woman navigating a man’s ancient sport. Captivated by a chance meeting with a falconer’s peregrine as a child, the indelible memory eventually brings the author’s life full circle to flying a peregrine of her own. Exploring themes of predator and prey, finding tribe, forgiveness and femininity, the memoir asks universal questions through a unique backdrop. Lift illustrates the beauty and meaning the sport of falconry can add to a falconer’s life, echoing the challenges and triumphs of being human.

(Lift was provided to me by the author, Rebecca. I was not paid and I have deleted the pdf file from my Kindle )