In Hovering Flight by Joyce HinnefeldFiction, hardcover 260 pgs.(September 2008)
Unbridled Books, Denver Colorado
This is a love story with a great deal more. It's a look at the complexities of parental love and expectations, it's an environmental statement, it's an ode to nature. Addie Sturmer is a university student when she meets Tom Kavanaugh in his "Biology of the Birds" class. They both love birds, Addie as an artist and Tom as an ornithologist and birder. It's inevitable that they will love each other as well. The story follows them from the 1960's to the present through marriage and having a daughter, living in Pennsylvania and frequenting the New Jersey shore. Addie becomes an activist, a leader in the environmental community, her prime concern being bird habitat. Tom supports her in this, while continuing to teach and take students on field trips.
Young Scarlet is used to being being driven to protests with her parents. She spends her early years with her mother in the bird blind Tom built in the woods as a wedding gift, drawing and painting the birds alongside Addie. Scarlet is 34 and on her way home to her dying mother when the story begins. She still wonders if her mother loved her as much as she did her work and art. Love can seem so fragile to a child and she needs to understand a mother's love now more than ever for reasons of her own. It's also a story about lifelong friendships, last wishes, and loyalty.
The writing is exceptional. Lyrical, rich in natural details, and with complex characters, In Hovering Flight is as beautiful and as life-affirming as a long sunet.
Highly recommended. Five stars.
Joyce Hinnefeld's homepage: http://www.inhoveringflight.com/
The Publisher: http://www.unbridledbooks.com/
Thank you to Caitlin at Unbridled Books for the lovely reviewer's copy.
