Love in Mid Air

Elyse is on her way home from an art show where she has sold a respectable number of her pots when she ends up sitting next to Gerry, a wealthy banker. They strike up a conversation and make a connection that proves hard for them to break once their plane has landed and they must each run for their connecting flights. Ducking into the airport chapel, they kiss passionately before Elyse heads home to her stagnant and unsatisfying marriage. Chronicling three quarters of a year following this encounter, Elyse narrates as she commits to a long-distance affair with Gerry and continues on blindly through her ordinary life, taking her young daughter to school and sports and going through the motions with Phil, her husband who no longer sees show more her, and seeing her friends.

But the book is about far more than a considered infidelity. While Elyse does carry on her clandestine and exciting affair with Gerry, she is also going to marriage counseling with Phil. And the realities and numbness that embody marriage for Elyse, even in a marriage to a congenitally “nice guy,” are more the focus than the affair. That Elyse felt underappreciated, unnoticed, and as if a vital piece of herself was missing is more to the point than anything else. She has become a caricature of herself, or the person she’s supposed to be in her marriage. An imposter. Inauthentic. The fact that she craves happiness over mere contentment speaks to the state of her life overall. And she knows she is behaving badly. She knows what is at stake and what she will be giving up when she finally does walk out that door. Because really, Elyse is trying desperately to conquer the inertia that holds her in her safe, married, suburban world.

Wright has not glorified affairs but she holds a troubling mirror up to the institution of marriage even as she allows the reader to sit in judgment over Elyse. Remarkably, given the subject matter, she has managed to create a thoughtful and piercing work. All the characters are seen through Elyse’s eyes but Wright has created a character self-aware enough to recognize her failings as a friend and a wife so that we readers get a rounded view of the people important to Elyse. Both Phil and Gerry remain ciphers but as they are more symbolic of the issues in Elyse’s life, the fact that we can’t really know them works and reinforces the struggle that Elyse is facing. Not a book to write off based on the rather fluffy title, this is well-written and provocative and likely to be a book I think about for quite some time to come. show less

Though the underlying plot of a woman assessing her unhappy marriage is a common one, I found this treatment of it very unusual and original. I was delighted that the book focussed on a woman making decisions about her marriage rather than finding herself left behind for a younger woman. I mean, I'm married and so obviously frown upon the idea of adultery, but the thought of living in a marriage like Elyse's where your partner doesn't really see you or hear anything you say, and is content to be content (even knowing that you are not) is so crushing that I could understand why Elyse grasped at a relationship where she could at least feel a passionate connection to another person. I was also surprised that in a book about so many women, show more I couldn't really find a character that I thought I would like in real life, and yet still I enjoyed the book so much.

One thing I really enjoyed was Wright's use of old movies in the novel. Most of my friends also love watching old black and white movies for the romance of them, whereas most of our husbands love watching new action movies with lots of special effects. I found those scenes involving the movies very true to life.

This is one of those books I will recommend to my friends even though it is rather bleak in its look at relationships because I think it expresses some of the fear that so many of us have about where our marriages may end up. I didn't think the book itself was bleak, just the view of relationships as not one of the characters was truly happy. Of course, maybe none of us is ever really truly happy- maybe we just read too many books where it all ends happily ever after. I also thought the question of religion quite sensitively and accurately handled, a nice change from so many books I've read in the last couple of years. show less

There’s nothing worse, he says, than to be halfway up the face of a mountain, past the turnback point, and all of a sudden to realize you can’t count on the other person. I ask him what the turnback point is and he says there’s a place you get to in every climb where it’s as dangerous to retreat as it is to advance. I nod. It seems I should have known this. – from Love in Mid Air, page 5 -

Elyse Bearden has been married for nine years. She has a wonderful seven year old daughter, Tory, and her life is rich with friendship – especially that of Kelly, her best friend from high school – and creativity (she is a potter). But Elyse is unhappy. After nine years, she believes she has married the wrong man – a good man, but one show more who doesn’t “see” her, one who minimizes who she is and is content if things are just “nice.” Then one day, flying home from a business trip, she finds herself sitting next to Gerry, a mountain climber who is also married. What unfurls from that fated connection is an affair which not only takes Elyse by surprise, but has consequences for everyone in her life.

Kim Wright’s novel is smart women’s fiction. This is no light weight read and Wright does not swerve away from the difficult questions about fidelity (or lack of it), marriage, parenting, and the inevitable consequences of stepping to the edge of our lives and taking a leap of faith. What Wright does in Love in Mid Air that separates it from other women’s fiction, is delve deeper into the psyche of women and ask the questions many women are afraid to ask themselves: Is it okay to want something more? Are our dreams made of fluff, or should we give them wings to fly? Can a woman truly be whole without the weight of a wedding ring on her finger or a man by her side? Are we brave enough to leave behind what we know in order to discover something bigger?

Wright’s sense of irony shines through her prose and rescues the novel from being too heavy. The friendship between Kelly and Elyse is captured perfectly, underscoring the honesty, humor and love that can develop between women. As Elyse begins to give voice to her unhappiness there is a sense that she must break apart the trappings of her life to uncover the beauty of who she really is…and Wright captures this rebirth though the symbolism of Elyse’s work as a potter.

It turns out there are many ways to break things. You can do it fast, with a single, wrenching snap, or carefully, with a hammer and chisel in hand. You can do it wildly, like a pinata, or methodically, like tapping an egg against the side of the bowl. Or – and this turns out to be the most effective way of all – you can just hold the pot over your head and drop it. Throughout the winter and into the spring I watch as the pieces fly across my concrete floor. – from Love in Mid Air, page 250 -

I read this book almost nonstop. I was hooked from the first page. Wright’s prose is captivating, sexy, funny, heartbreaking, and full of insight and truth. She has a finely tuned sense of character development, making her characters real by showing us their flaws, but also their strengths. This novel works on every level. Love in Mid Air is highly recommended for readers who love smart, humorous women’s fiction, and for readers who like strong women characters. show less

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

So why do I continue to read so-called "chick-lit" novels on such a regular basis, a lot of people ask, when I end up despising so many of them? Well, because I'm convinced that there actually are a few titles out there in the world that manage to be not only smart and unexpected but that wallow in the tropes loved by so many middle-class, middle-aged women; and since the signal-to-noise ratio in this particular genre is so shockingly high, I feel a constant obligation to go actually find these few great chick-lit novels that exist in the world, show more as a public service if nothing else to all of CCLaP's middle-class, middle-aged female readers (and there's a surprisingly large number of you out there). For example, take Kim Wright's Love in Mid Air, which at is heart tells a fairly simple and typical story for this genre (suburban mom has an affair) and makes sure to hit every chick-lit mark that seems to even exist (Shopping! Bookclubs! Church groups! Etsy businesses! Wine in the afternoon! Idiotic husbands! Soccer games! Er, shopping!), but that miraculously avoids being the kind of "Devil Wears Prada" dreck that sets smart readers' nerves on edge; instead, it's an incredibly nuanced and preternaturally insightful look at how these kinds of situations actually tend to play out in the real world, a hyper-intelligent blend of character and action that contains one of the most instantly addictive first chapters I've ever read in any genre.

Part of that can be chalked up to the complex main character herself; a cynical and funny woman but with only slightly better-than-average looks, she compensated when younger by being transgressive and sexually adventurous but has grown larger, softer and more Christian in middle-age, making the poetically intense start of her surprise dalliance just as much a shock to us as her, and drawing us into the ways it serves as a catalyst for her to simultaneously recapture some of her youth and also finally claim some of the traits of the confident, vaguely erotic older woman she was always destined to become. And part of this book's success for sure can also be chalked up to its incredibly engaging style, which oh-so-blessedly for chick-lit treats its males as complex, sympathetic wholes instead of the mustache-twirling cartoon characters so many of these types of novels do; readily admits the faults of our heroine and isn't afraid to show her sometimes acting pretty badly herself; contains the kinds of subtle observations about well-known situations that only a master storyteller can pull off; and is filled with the kind of dry, gently subversive humor that made even bitter, science-fiction-loving ol' me giggle in public on a regular basis. (Two of my favorite moments: the main characters stumbling across a forgotten freezer in their church basement, filled with a hundred frozen 1950s-style "emergency casseroles," many made by spinsters who have been dead for decades; and how the Hallmark store at the mall suddenly transforms into an exotic import shop in Manhattan in our protagonist's eyes, the day after consummating her affair for the first time.) One of those rare books whose score kept getting higher and higher in my head as I read more and more of it, I suspect that this will be showing up on CCLaP's best-of lists at the end of the year as well, a little-known gem within a genre that tends to muddle in the mind's eye many times into a big, shiny, high-heeled mess, and a worthy companion not only to Tom Perrotta's Little Children but the classic predecessor that both often reference, Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. It comes strongly recommended to CCLaP's entire audience.

Out of 10: 9.5 show less

This review was first written for Author Exposure: http://www.authorexposure.com/2010/10/book-review-love-in-mid-air-by-kim.html

As an unmistakable respite from the contemporary fiction that I typically read, I optimistically chose Kim Wright’s debut novel, LOVE IN MID-AIR. I completely immersed myself in a surprisingly interesting cache of characters unconstrained in their lucid display of similar and diverse views of love, marriage, friendship, and infidelity while attached to a suburban lifestyle which not only suggests privilege, but also ambiguity with respect to some of the mores that ordinarily unite or divide such a community.

Elyse Bearden’s life might appear quite appealing to the vast majority of women who would relish a show more lovely home replete with comforts and the financial security that her husband Phil, a dentist provides. Though secure in her social surroundings and a loving mother to her daughter Tory, Elyse’s personal discontent propels her into an unexpected, yet welcome opportunity for an affair with a fellow passenger, also married with a family, but sharing similar restlessness within the routine confines of his daily life. Gerry’s apparent affluence provides the rather sufficient means to travel hither and yon, thus affording both those highly desirable, yet unrealistic elements of anonymity and mystery.

“…I didn’t start calling my marriage a failure all at once. At first, I tried…There’s just the tiniest bit of hypocrisy around the whole issue---everyone agrees you should Work on Your Marriage, but if you’re ever caught actually Working on Your Marriage, you look ridiculous. And the only thing worse than being unhappily married is being ridiculous…” - Pages 50-51

Kim Wright’s insightful portrayal of Elyse’s tangible “angst,” is vividly authentic, and her instinctive ability to quickly tug the reader through the pages to discover how this circuitous plot will expose the unfaithful wife, affect the requisite resentful friend, possibly enlighten the painfully clueless husband, and reveal the unavoidable dichotomy that marriage often engenders. We also examine some of the indefinable aspects that husbands and wives judge as happiness and hindrance within the often inflexible framework of marriage. With considerable wit and zesty humorous episodes to divert us, almost voyeuristic in our scrutiny, we commiserate and share the immeasurable fluctuations through the characters’ life experiences, expectations, and personal introspections. While the primary focus is on Elyse, it would not be the impressive narrative it is without her circle of friends and their husbands, especially her closest friend Kelly.

“When I was a teenager my grandmother used to tell me, ‘You marry the man, you marry the life,’ and it seems to me logical, perfectly ordinary karma, that the reverse is also true. If I leave this man then I must leave this life…” - Page 181

Elyse’s ultimate journey clearly reminds us that often a woman’s primary quest for fulfillment, self-indulgence, or that intangible “what if,” outside the context of family has the power to leave a path of destruction in its wake. For those who define infidelity as an unacceptable moral or selfish choice, this may not be a desirable read. Personally, I believe such decisions and their consequences belong to the person who makes and lives with them, and I do not profess to judge. In this vein, Kim Wright is remarkable in expressing the characters’ various points of view without meandering prose, compelling behavioral excuses, or blameless justifications. As readers, we are encouraged to draw our own conclusions which tend to rely upon our own mores, life experiences, and personal values. LOVE IN MID-AIR may not be a book for everyone, but it definitely is one that captures you from beginning to end. show less

From my blog:

This is author Kim Wright's debut work and if this book is any indication, she is looking at a successful career as a writer. Because this book is a literary grand slam.

From the first page, I was hooked. Hooked on Ms. Wright's writing style, hooked on the story and hooked on the characters. I literally snuck reading in whenever I could, so anxious was I to find out what was going on in Elyse's world, putting off sleep and household chores to read.

Elyse was a complex character. On the one hand, I liked her and felt for her predicament. On the other, she is nothing like me and I sometimes wanted to beat my head on the wall in frustration. Ms. Wright did a smart thing in making Elyse's husband Phil a likable, decent man, a show more good father and good provider but a man she simply did not, and could not, love.

Elyse's girlfriends, members of her book club, were a wonderfully varied bunch, each one an individual in her own way, from best friend Kelly, to the "perfect" pastor's wife Nancy, to recently divorced and recently outcast Lynn, to sweet and somewhat left in the shadows Belinda. So vivid were these characters I could actually visualize them and hear them talking as I read the book. Ms. Wright has proven herself to have an excellent ear for dialogue and none of the conversations in Love in Mid Air sound scripted or pretentious. You could be listening to your own girlfriends while thumbing through these pages.

While the seemingly obvious love interest in the book would be Gerry - - the man who convinces Elyse that her marriage has gone stale, or always been stale - - I felt that the real love story in the book was the friendship between Elyse and Kelly. These two were friends that truly loved each other, that depended on each other through thick and thin. They had a real understanding of each other that neither woman shared with any other person in the book. It was a welcome diversion to have two such devoted people, with their individual flaws, who weren't a romantic couple.

Despite the subject matter of Love in Mid Air (because adultery would hardly be a fun subject), I thoroughly enjoyed the book. In fact, I didn't realize until I had finished the book that the story was relatively sad - - a woman who felt trapped in a marriage that everyone else considered successful and happy, and a husband who believes everything to be fine and can't grasp the seriousness of his marital situation.

For the more conservative readers, this book may be a bit too much to handle. There is the obvious adultery, and there is a smattering of sexual situations and strong language. This is definitely not a book for kids. Love in Mid Air is, however, a perfect read for a book club as there are so many debatable discussions and issues that would spark conversation for hours.

I would highly recommend Love in Mid Air to anyone looking for a read that will get your mental juices flowing and really make you think. Is any affair forgiveable? Is Elyse a bad person? Is Gerry?

Love in Mid Air isn't your typical love triangle story - - it sets the classic love story on its ear. Elyse may not be an easy character to root for in some cases and the same could be true for Phil, for Gerry or for any of the characters in the book. But it's a story that will have you quickly turning pages, staying up into the night to finish it and it will remain with you after you turn the last page. While I found the ending debateably happy, I was satisfied with the book and left with an appreciation for my husband. show less

I started reading this book yesterday, I got behind on reading and realized, oh no, I have a blog tour tomorrow. So I pick up the book and start reading, and reading, and reading. I find myself so utterly engrossed in Elyse's life that I have completely tuned out of my own. That is what this book did for me, it let me lose myself for a little bit.

I feel a strong connection with Elyse, she is strong, she knows what she wants but she just doesn't quite know how to get it. She loved her daughter and her BFF but she also loves herself enough to know that she needs something to change. Through out the whole book I just want Phil to look at her and see her, but unfortunately he can't hear me.

This book is exactly what I think a book should be. show more It is thought provoking and real, so real that is almost feels magical, it is exciting and sad, it makes you think. This book gives you an escape and it strips away your own thoughts and fears about marriage so that you can glimpse some of your own happiness or unhappiness. For good or bad, I think this book will incite change. show less