Flying in Place

by Susan Palwick

Book Overview

Every few nights, just before dawn, Emma's father comes to visit her. Since he's an important surgeon, he's too busy to visit Emma during the day. Emma's mother teaches English and keeps the memory of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765313863
• ISBN13: 9780765313867
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

deep thought provoking drama

In Wisconsin, everyone in the small town thinks highly of surgeon Dr. Stewart Gray, who dines with the elite. However, the much adulated Dr. Gray hides a dark side from public view. Every night after his wife an English teacher falls asleep he visits his twelve years old daughter Emma to have his sexual way with her. Uncomfortable and with no place to escape, Emma flies away in her mind though her body remains in place. On her mental trips she begins meeting her sister Ginny who at ten years old died long before Emma was born. Emma becomes more withdrawn with every nocturnal visit as her only friend is her sibling's spirit. School nurse Halloran notices the bruises on Emma's body and the negative trends of withdrawal and grades collapsing; she soon concludes that the epitome of upper crust society Stewart was assaulting his child. Still it is hard to prove until Emma's Aunt Donna arrives; she knows the real Dr. Stewart Gray not the image and believes history is repeating itself. FLYING IN PLACE is a deep thought provoking reprint of an insightful very dark early 1990s tale. The key characters are purposely left as two dimensional. This approach enables the reader to decide whether the two sisters are actually flying together or just a defense mechanism of the preadolescent, but also restricts the cast as women are courageous or victims and men nice or sinful. Black and white with no gray, FLYING IN PLACE grips the reader from the moment the mask falls off of Stewart and never eases the emotional shock until Donna confronts him. Harriet Klausner

ORIGINAL AND DEVASTATING

Another author I never heard of (before or since), a book I never heard of, picked up off a book rack at the checkout of a local general store. Read the first 30 pages one night. Started the next night...and was up till 4AM finishing it! Absolutley could not put it down. I still tell people about it to this day, and I read it in 1992! Original, with real-life characters, it uses the "supernatural" not as it is used in ghost stories or horror, but as a backdrop that reveals the real-life events slowly unfolding, brilliantly and movingly telling of events of the past repeated in the present. Not an upbeat ending, but not downbeat, either. More about acceptance and cautious hope for the future, but laced with a touching sadness. To this day, absolutely one of the most memorable and devastating books I have ever read.

The hidden secrets of Emma's life.

Recently I have read one of the saddest yet intriguing book with the most unpredictable ending. In the beginning I thought that it couldn't get any more boring, but as I read further the plot of the book started to unravel. As it did I automatically clinged to the book. What I like about the book was the way the author describes the scenes so you can picture them in your head, so well. The part of the book that I found more interesting is when they compare a scripture passage to Ginny's life (the dead sister that would give revelations to Emma soon after the same thing would happen to her) and the life that Emma would have. I thought the book was unexpectedly great. It caught my attention and I know the story of Emma's life as the book tells it will probably never escaped my mind.

The hidden secrets Of Emma's life

Recently I read one of the saddest yet intriguing book with the most unpredictable endings. In the beginning I thought that it couldn't get any more boring. As I read further the plot started to unravel and as it did I automatically clinged to the book. What I like the most about the book was the way the author described the scenes, so well you can picture them in your head. The most interesting part of the book was when they compare a scripture passage to Ginny's life (the dead sister that will give revelations to Emma soon after the same thing would happen to her) and the life that Emma would have. I thought the book was unexpectedly great. It caught my attention and I know the story of Emma's live as the book wrote it would probably never escape my mind.

A book so moving I could not put it down!

I was captivated by this book. Once I started reading it I could not put it down. After I read the book it stuck with me for days. This book made me cry and realize that there are children out there lost in a world of adult lust and confusion. I passed this book on and everyone that read it was touched. I cant wait unitl she comes out with something else.