Flight - Hardcover

Strand, Ginger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743266846 ISBN 13: 9780743266840

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2005

Synopsis

His world shattered by the events of September 11, long-time pilot Will Gruen sees his love for flying deteriorating in the face of a mandatory retirement, a situation that is complicated by his wife's efforts to convert the family farm into a bed-and-breakfast, his first daughter's open marriage, and his second daughter's impending wedding. A first novel. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

"Ginger Strand trumps Wally Lamb's trick of writing against gender. "Flight"'s Will Gruen is an American hero -- pilot, farmer, family man -- and he may be going down, but Strand's dead-on reckoning of his heart has me flying high."

-- Lisa Lerner, author of "Just Like Beauty"

"Strand's debut is an absolute knockout of a novel, a multilayered story of a midwestern family flying in directions no one -- least of all any of them -- could have imagined. Stunning, surprising, and at times as thrilling as a first biplane ride, "Flight" is rich with the intimate knowledge of how families struggle to work out their lives. Dazzlingly written and aloft with humor, "Flight" truly soars."

-- Caroline Leavitt, author of "Girls in Trouble" and "Coming Back to Me"

""Flight" is an intelligent, compassionate portrait of one midwestern family at a complex emotional crossroads. Ginger Strand's depiction of the dynamics between parents and children, spouses, siblings -- the dense fabric of family, its secret ardors, strifes, and sacrifices -- is deft, insightful, and deeply satisfying."

-- Darcy Cosper, author of "Wedding Season"

""Flight" is a wonderful first novel. It takes off with assurance. It climbs with lyrical beauty. It levels off above a colorful landscape of American weddings, wars, and wisdom. It lands, honest and funny and mature, at its final destination of both love and truth."

-- Romulus Linney, author of "Heathen Valley" and "Slowly, by Thy Hand Unfurled"

"Ginger Strand's book is a marvel, weaving its myriad threads into a dramatic, vivid whole. There's a momentum to this story, an emotional pull that reveals itself with grace and sophistication. Indeed, "Flight" introduces us to a masterful talent, a writer who pulls no punches in her depiction of marriage and family, what it means to grow older, to return home. Evocative in its rendering of small-town America, here is a moving portrayal of four distinct lives and their circumstances, a novel filled with wisdom, abundant in heart, uniquely perceptive to these qualities which bind us."

-- Matthew Iribarne, author of "Astronauts & Other Stories"

"Ginger Strand's "Flight" is a profound examination of American lives edged by wars, friendships, and strong family bonds, old-fashioned and new. A translucent and beautiful novel."

-- Josip Novakovich, author of "April Fool's Day"

About the Author

Ginger Strand was raised in Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Her fiction and essays have appeared in many places, including The Believer, The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Carolina Quarterly. She has been awarded fiction residencies by Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Sewanee Writers' Conference. She lives in New York City.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743266846
• ISBN 13: 9780743266840
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 311