54 - In Hovering Flight; Joyce Hinnefeld

In Hovering Flight , opens in 2002 with Addie Kavanaugh, of Pennsylvania, dying of breast cancer at the home of a friend on the New Jersey shore. She is surrounded by family and friends and has made an strange last request for her remains: an illegal burial. When she dies her body is carried by loved ones to a walk-in in cooler at a seafood restaurant. (After that happened it thought this story might be a little far out for my tastes). I continued to read, and I was pleasantly surprised.

The story then takes the reader back in time to tell the story of how when Addie was a college art student, she fell in love with birds and with her biology professor, Tom Kavanaugh. Through Addie’s field guide journal entries she documents her college girl crush with Tom, who returns her affections, eventually divorces his wife and the two marry. The early years of marriage follows their birding passion, and Addie's involvement in political and environmental activism. When their daughter Scarlet is born, (named after a bird - Scarlet Tanager), Addie's passion for the outdoors, birding and painting, continues often with young Scarlet at her side trying to imitate her Hippie mother.

When Scarlet returns home as her mother is dying we learn more about the mother-daughter relationship. Scarlet had always felt she took a backseat to her mom's aviary passion, and she is determined to find out more about why the environment and activism meant so much to her mother.

This book is not so much about Addie's death, but really about her life and her passions. It's a story about relationships, conflicts, nature and love. A beautiful family drama, that will make you as the reader understand Addie's strange last request, and make it seem not so strange after all.

RATING - 4/5 - COMPLETED - 4/4/09
WHERE FROM: Library