The Way the Crow Flies (2003)

I picked this book up in the local thrift store, based purely on the cover. Wow. This is such a captivating, and sometimes uncomfortable and disturbing, novel. I really enjoyed it. Especially because you keep getting surprised by the truth behind what you think happened. ( )

Excellent literature. Amazing symbols (eg butterflies, birds, planes) motifs (eg dogs) multiple themes (eg truth/lies) woven throughout the book. The characters are dynamic, round, and well developed so that you care about them (hate/love). There are enough hints to make you see what the author wants you to see (but does not want to tell you outright) and still many things left to the end.

I love the caricature of the 1950s/60s household: innocence and appearances in the memory of WWII and the face of the Cold War. I love the areas of grey that the author invites you to see. I love the writing style -- descriptive without being narration-heavy, for instance. Also, in the change in story between Parts 3 and 4 there is a shift in the writing that echoes the changes in time and characters -- the characters are older, the world is different, and without being completely different, the voice is also more adult, more mature. Brilliant.

The setting of this story is completely different from [b:Fall on Your Knees|5174|Fall on Your Knees|Ann-Marie MacDonald|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165517999s/5174.jpg|941309] but both books deal with disturbing subject matter. They both are so well written, however, that I still can call them excellent. ( )

Reading this novel I found myself veering from feelings of frustration at its hefty length to enthralled admiration at the scope of the writing and beauty of the prose.

I was swept away into a world of a quiet Royal Canadian Air Force station in rural Ontario during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The characters in this story were so vivid and plausible, none more so than the two main families featured in it - The McCarthys and the Froelichs. Madeleine McCarthy is the 9 year old daughter of RCAF Wing Commander Jack - one of the commanders at the base, and his Acadian wife Mimi. Her world is full of jokes and funny voices, a loving family home, playing with her friends and going to school. Asking her Papa difficult questions. So far so very normal. Except that being a military family means that their life is always transient, "say good bye to the house buddy". Friends come and go. But Madeleine never had a friend like Colleen Froelich before, the moody tough girl in the unusual family across the street. Some of the other girls at Madeleine's school are her closest friends, and then there is the bossy and annoying Marjorie, and Grace who nobody much likes and chews her fingers...

A new family from America arrive at the base, a USAF Exchange Officer on secondment. Only Madeleine's father knows why Captain McCarroll is at the base, only Jack that is and his top secret contact Simon at the British Embassy in Washington.

Within a year the lives of the McCarthys, the Froelichs, and the McCarrolls will all have changed dramatically for ever. Two of them will be dead. This is a wonderful story which by its finish has spanned over twenty years in the lives of the protagonists. The painful and tragic subject of child abuse crops up quite early on and throughout the book in passages - and it is difficult to read, but very integral to the plot. The vast scope of this book also encompasses the Cold War at its peak, the space race, a Nazi war criminal defecting from the Soviets, Vietnam, and a murder trial with some brilliantly executed courtroom scenes.

I read this book as part of the LT Reading Globally group's theme read on 'Closed Societies' and I'm so glad that I did. I might not have found this book if it weren't for that reason. In the end, the plot of the novel was more related to a 'closed society' than I bargained for - the transient nature of the families' lives, the secrets and duties that Madeleine's father Jack is burdened with, the false atmosphere of safety and security in a seemingly close-knit community. Ann-Marie Macdonald's writing is excellent. She wrote a book that was so cinematic and in its style, full of poignancy, tragedy, and a fair bit of humour too. Full of everyday cultural references that give the 1960s (and later 1980s) settings a particular vividness, I was totally transplanted to the places in the book. My only complaint is that it is so very long. At 700+ pages I think it could have been edited down by perhaps a 100 pages or so, maybe the author was guilty on occasion of just a little over-indulgence in her beautiful prose - but maybe the accumulative effect on the whole book wouldn't have been quite as good? I nearly put it down at about 100 pages as it was taking me a while to get going with it, (really down to my own distractions though and not the book itself) but in the end I'm so glad I didn't and that I pushed on. I found the rest of the book flew by pretty quickly. By the end I was sad to see the story over, and the ending did come as a surprise to this reader.

All in all a book that is well worth the effort and one that will reward the patient reader. ( )

I liked the book for the most part. Don't know French so had a bit of a struggle with the words. I was mystified as to who committed the murder and was shocked at the revelation. ( )

One of the best books that I've read in a long time. ( )