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A review by wendoxford
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
4.0
Wow! What an amazing, immersive read.
Whilst the context is the Canadian Air Force in the Cold War, the fulcrum is a class of 8 year old girls, changing allegiances, secrets and the consequences of telling the truth or not. The story of the young Madeleine is paralleled by her father and the silence he keeps, placing political expediency above personal connections. Both of them and the rest of the family segue into different forms of self-destruction over the subsequent decades.
MacDonald maintains the tension by having a febrile finger on the pulse of adult and child emotions, the contradictions within us all intertwined with the grey world that is subjective morality.
Whilst the context is the Canadian Air Force in the Cold War, the fulcrum is a class of 8 year old girls, changing allegiances, secrets and the consequences of telling the truth or not. The story of the young Madeleine is paralleled by her father and the silence he keeps, placing political expediency above personal connections. Both of them and the rest of the family segue into different forms of self-destruction over the subsequent decades.
MacDonald maintains the tension by having a febrile finger on the pulse of adult and child emotions, the contradictions within us all intertwined with the grey world that is subjective morality.