Memoir of the Hawk creates a world populated by hundreds of characters,
believable and strange, tugged at the edges by the unexpected. In the
privacy of their homes, who can save them from themselves? In the
forests and hills and on the beautiful lakes, what could possibly be
wrong? Even in the sweet hometown, with its kindly police, menace lurks
in a thousand disguises. Mystery and magic surround this metropolis of
the imagination. Once again, James Tate has given us a world of
surprising pleasures:
... lost in the interstellar space between teacups in the cupboard,
found in the beak of a downy woodpecker, the lovers staring into the
void and then jumping over it, flying into their beautiful tomorrows
like the heroes of a storm.