“The Way the Crow Flies”
by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Published: January 2003
ISBN: 0676974090

(Updated: February 7, 2005.)

From the Publisher…

The Way the Crow Flies, the second novel by bestselling, award-winning author Ann-Marie MacDonald, is set on the Royal Canadian Air Force station of Centralia during the early sixties. It is a time of optimism — infused with the excitement of the space race but overshadowed by the menace of the Cold War — filtered through the rich imagination and quick humour of eight-year-old Madeleine McCarthy and the idealism of her father, Jack, a career officer.

Okay then… here we go…

It is very rare to be be so very engrossed in a book and to be immediately at peace when the back cover closes (particularly when the book lasts over 700 pages and certainly fails my mother’s “Will this hurt my nose when I fall asleep?” test). This though is my overwhelming reaction. And I was engrossed.

I read this book standing in line at my son’s school’s cafeteria waiting to meet his teachers. I read this book in the waiting room of our local clinic waiting for my childrens’ names to be called in order that they see a doctor. I read this book while waiting for my daughter during her piano lesson. I read this book standing by our stove as I was cooking dinner. The book is heavy but I lugged it around with me. The print is small but I squinted my way through it. And I wished that my best friend — with whom I grew up (and hopefully am still growing up :o) in small town Ontario in the 60’s and 70’s — were there reading with me.

Ann-Marie MacDonald managed a story — many stories — that I didn’t see coming. She brought voices — outer and inner — to life. And the details… the wonderful details… of things, of thought, of emotion, of speech, of senses, of the still-bouncy heel of new flip-flops… pure pleasure. And, amazingly, Ms. MacDonald managed closure on all of these things the she so wonderfully and so horrifically opened up.

I definitely and highly recommend this book. My normal “couldn’t wait to get back it?” measure sort of doesn’t work in this case. I never put it down. Guess that’s a 5 out of 5 hearts then :o)