Low Flying Aircraft is a collection of interrelated stories in
which one life is equally capable of influencing another "under a
sky the size of history." Spanning a period of fourteen years, the
stories are connected by the pasts of Orion McClenahan and Helen
Jowalski, childhood friends whose fathers shared a law practice in
Chicago. In 1976 a freak accident changes their lives irrevocably,
and the stories are about the people Orion and Helen grow up to be,
the people they love, and the people they lose along the way. In
"Paris, the Easy Way," Sam is a stable manager who steps in to the
lives of others while trying to avoid his own. Troubled by the
disappearance of his brother in Cambodia and his own complicated
relationship with his brother's wife, Sam finally accepts the
mysteries that surround him: "Lightning, gravity, love--I've never
properly understood any of it." Anna, a columnist writing on the
complexities that face young modern women, loses all sense of her
identity while visiting her father, a dying man who wants a
grandson almost as much as he wants a daughter like Milly, the
heroine of his favorite western novel. The voices in this
collection describe a world of uncertain borders, where individuals
are sustained by "thin, brief moments of direction." Orion a
disillusioned photojournalist, sets himself free from his wealthy
family and their Midwestern habits by discarding the things of his
life: a clock radio, a blender, paperbacks. He will board a plane
and fly to Central America "in order to document the situation, do
some good." In "Breathing is Key," Sarah momentarily decides to
stay with her abusive boyfriend because she doesn't know where else
to go. "I think we have a lot here" she says, "and not all of it's
bad." In story after story personal histories unfold, always what
lies in wait is the possibility for connection. A brother who dies
young, a first love, an abandoned husband--each persists in the
realm of memory, adding texture and meaning to the lives they
influence. In "The Future of Ruth" a woman comes to understand that
"the proof of one's life lay in her death and the trees that might
spread out and over a soul." In revolutionary Nicaragua, on a ranch
in Arizona, from a Vermont Ski slope, the souls in Low Flying
Aircraft soar, all hoping to catch a glimpse "of the shape of
things to come, of possibility."
General
Imprint: |
University of Georgia Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
April 2008 |
First published: |
April 2008 |
Authors: |
T.M McNally
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 10mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
176 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8203-3098-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
Special features >
Short stories
|
LSN: |
0-8203-3098-1 |
Barcode: |
9780820330983 |
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