The Art of Crash Landing Melissa Decarlo Book Redommendations

Dysfunction breeds more dysfunction. Mattie Wallace is heir to her mother�due south alcohol-fueled unhappiness, a premature death from cancer leaving the daughter biting and self-subversive. Child of an alcoholic, Mattie has learned the coping skills of the chronically disenfranchised, inherent mistrust and poor choices perpetuating more of the same. Living in the shadow of an undisciplined, emotionally immature mother in the Florida panhandle, Mattie has not learned the language of success or self-honey, and she continues the cycle as she finds herself homeless and pregnant at thirty, untethered and circumvoluted the drain. Mattie�southward simply emotional connection is to her stepfather, Queeg, who is facing a diagnosis of lung cancer when she receives a notice of her maternal grandmother�s expiry in Gandy, Oklahoma.

Though she hasn�t seen her grandmother for years, Mattie goes her headstrong way against Queeg�southward advice, driving to Oklahoma in an ancient and failing Chevy Malibu (her mother�s beloved car) that promptly quits near the lawyer�southward function in downtown Gandy. Her inheritance isn�t much: outstanding debts, a pocket-sized house and two dogs named Winston. Mattie is stuck in Gandy at least three months for probate. Falling into her usual pattern--snarky, cynical and adept at manipulating others--Mattie settles in and gets a job, surprised to feel her rage subsiding and replaced past a yearning to understand her mother�s secret past and why she left Gandy thirty-five years before. A talent for photography links mother and daughter. Mattie ignores her pregnancy and carries her mother�s camera bag, slowly navigating the house of an old adult female who clearly loved her errant daughter, Genie�due south room the same as when the girl left without a discussion. Gradually, Mattie learns that people in town recollect Eugenia Wallace, a few fondly, most not.

DeCarlo mines fertile territory in her offset novel, her acerbic, witty protagonist a study in contradictions, a adult female without boundaries and a need to reject a world that has brought little only pain and confusion. Escaping her own troubled past, this flight into Genie�s history yields unexpected insights and a pathway to forgiveness. Mattie�s harsh judgment of maternal shortcomings  is softened past the detritus of a childhood room, complete with teenage paraphernalia and a makeshift darkroom. Sensing the roots of family, Mattie is seduced unwittingly, wandering the rooms of a shabby house littered with photographs and memorabilia, the home her mother fled without caption: �I�m starting to worry that I�ve done what I always exercise: mistake a lark for a chance at redemption.�

This is a novel about mapping the lost territory of the by, finding the courage to confront the truth and assuasive the balm of forgiveness to heal a weary soul. De Carlo�s unlikable, selfish protagonist throws off the bondage of pain she has embraced as a protective shield, acknowledging her own responsibleness in determining her choices: �Sometimes my entire life has felt like one long exercise in lowering expectations.� It is an emotionally painful, jagged journeying, each graphic symbol accurate, flawed and unembellished. Mattie changes the manner she views the world, shedding years of rage in the process: �I�m the 1 who insists on trying to swim with pockets total of memories as heavy as stones.� There is more than loss, more grief alee as Mattie learns how to say goodbye without bitterness, savoring the condolement of memories, especially of the human being who never turned his back on a rebellious stepdaughter: �Until I let go of him, I�d never be able to take hold of ahold of anything else.� Peace is found in unexpected places, an old woman�s dwelling a temporary haven in a life that might have ended tragically.

Without bamboozlement or unnecessary complications, the author explores the poor choices of a lost mother who, in turn, leaves her angry daughter to face the earth unprepared, a child lashing out in cocky-protection, blaming others to excuse her own transgressions. On her own in Oklahoma, Mattie falls under the spell of her own family history, her fears quieted, her heart leached of the need to retaliate. Mattie is on the precipice of becoming the woman she was meant to be.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Proficient Volume at world wide web.curledup.com. � Luan Gaines, 2015

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