
Becs (244 KP) rated Song Of The Sparrow in Books
Oct 2, 2019
Type: Stand-alone
Audience/ Reading Level: 12+
Interests: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Historical Reads, Lyricism, Poetry, Retellings.
Point of View: Third person
Promise: A tale of love, betrayal, and war.
Insights: I have no idea where or when I received/ got this novel. But ever since that day, Song of the Sparrow has been one of my favorite retellings of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. My copy is very beaten up, so it’s gotten it’s many of read-throughs in. It also makes me think that I use to be pretty rough with my books. (what in the heck is wrong with you Becca! smh) I remember reading through SotS and thinking of myself as Elaine, the MC. Does anybody else do that? Because it hasn’t gone away with me.
I loved every aspect of this little novel. My favorite part was not only the retelling of King Arthur and the Knights but also how the novel was written in a sort of lyricism way, a lot like poetry. Novels written this way have always drawn my attention and I find them quite refreshing to read when in a slump or trying to get out of one.
Favorite Quotes: “I am Elaine daughter of Barnard of Ascolat. Motherless. Sisterless. I sing these words to you now, because the point of light grows smaller, ever smaller now, even more distant now. And with this song, I pray I may push back the tides of war and death. So, I sing these words that this light, this tiny ray of light and hope may live on. I dare not hope that I may live on too.”
“So long ago now. But you remind me of her, you know. Sometimes I forget that you are not she. Sometimes I forget that I should not blame you for leaving me. It was her. I was her.”
What will you gain?: A new telling of what life back in the olden days was like for a female in an all men village.
Aesthetics: Everytime I read-through Song of the Sparrow, I always stare at the cover. Something about it is just very appealing, not only to the eyes but also with the mind. Another aesthetic I found that I loved was how the story was written like lyricism/poetry.
“And at that moment, a lilting melody lifts to the moon as a single sparrow sings.”

That Self-Forgetful Perfectly Useless Concentration
Book
More than a gathering of essays, That Self-Forgetful Perfectly Useless Concentration is part memoir,...

Charles Bukowski
Book
In this new interpretation of the life and work of the American poet, short-story writer and...

Li Mengyang, the North-South Divide, and Literati Learning in Ming China
Book
Li Mengyang (1473-1530) was a scholar-official and man of letters who initiated the literary...

Let Us Watch Richard Wilbur: A Biographical Study
Robert Bagg and Mary Bagg
Book
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur (b. 1921) is part of a notable literary cohort, American...
biography poetry

Winter Migrants
Book
Winter Migrants opens with Tom Pickard's prize-winning sequence Lark & Merlin, an erotic pursuit...
poetry

Amiri Baraka and Edward Dorn: The Collected Letters
Book
From the end of the 1950s through the middle of the 1960s, Amiri Baraka (b. 1934) and Edward Dorn...

Cawl
Book
Consisting of short stories, poems, essays, cartoons and comics, Cawl is an anthology of one...
Reading the Male Gaze in Literature and Culture: Studies in Erotic Epistemology
Book
This book examines the phenomenon of 'the male gaze', a concept which has spread beyond academia and...

The Unstill Ones: Poems
Book
An exciting debut collection of original poems and translations from Old English An exciting debut...