Although this book is about some of the most horrible things that human beings can do to one another - child molestation, murder, betrayal - it manages to be beautiful, positive and empowering. Ann-Marie MacDonald has a unique writing style that allows the reader to feel the very air that her characters breathe. Basing her story (very, very loosely) on true events she weaves a strange, sad tale which incorporates local tragedy with the early stages of the Cold War and subtle post-WWII politics. ( )

You know when you have a novel sitting on your shelf for years and when you finally pick it up to read you are amazed that you neglected it for so long? Ann-Marie MacDonald's The Way the Crow Flies is such a gem.

The novel centers around eight-year-old Madeleine McCarthy and her career officer father Jack. Both hold secrets that dramatically influence the lives of their loved ones and those whose lives they share at an air-force base in Centralia.

The Way the Crow Flies reminds you of what it was like to be a child - Ann-Marie MacDonald masterfully captures the magic and confusion of childhood through the eyes of Madeleine.

There are many summaries of the novel available online, so I won't go into too much detail here.

This is one those rare novels that are absolute page-turners. Once the McCarthy family arrives at Centralia and the reader gets to know each family member (they are introduced during the drive to their new home), the pages fly by.

The only time this 700+ novel lagged for me was for the first while when MacDonald jumps forward in time and we find Madeleine 20 years or so later, working as a successful comedienne and struggling with her past. I think that the reason I slogged through this part was because I missed Madeleine as a child and I wasn't very fond of who she had become. However, once I got over this, I found myself devouring the novel once again.

The Way the Crow Flies is a book that, if you read it in public, a stranger is bound to say to you "That was a wonderful novel", wishing that they too were reading it again for the first time. ( )

This story is set in an air base in Canada with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the space race as an important backdrop. Reading this book, I found that childhood memories of the cold war came flooding back.

I was engaged with Madeleine - she was funny and quite an individual character. The examination of her psyche both during her childhood and as an adult was plausible.

It turns out to be a story of secrets and some of those secrets are very dark indeed.

One of the weaknesses of the book for me was the development of the plotlines. I found that I could never really get away from them and just lose myself in the story and some parts just being tied up too easily at the end.

Overall I enjoyed the book and found that I was reading late into the night. ( )

I thought this was a totally boring book and I put it down many times thinking I wouldn't finish it. I ended up getting through it by skipping big sections. Tragic true story of a boy convicted of killing a small girl on a army base in Canada. The boy was convicted because of the silence and lies of people in the community who had to live with their secret for a generation and tore them apart. The story was good, the writing wasn't. Skip this one. ( )

Excellent book. I can't believe that I'm the only one that has this book in their library. Go out and read this - especially if the name Steven Truscott is familiar to you. And I loved the French-Canadian references. ( )