Customer Reviews

Coming Up for Air

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

[Kirkus awarded this book a starred review, a rating with which I completely agree.]


"Coming Up for Air" catapults Patti Callahan Henry to Anne Rivers Siddons' level. That's walking in some tall cotton for any contemporary Southern writer. As I read "Air," I consistently and favorably found myself comparing it to some of Siddons' best novels, "Burnt Mountain" notwithstanding. Both writers demonstrate a similar love for the Deep South and share a lust for life's whimsies, particularly in nature. Both understand the convoluted mazes that are love and mother/daughter and male/female relationships. Both also appear to hold sacred the belief that the South's tumultuous 1960s should not be forgotten.

Set primarily in both Buckhead/Atlanta,GA, and in fictional Bayside, AL, which is a thinly disguised Fairhope on Mobile Bay, this story involves around Lillian "Ellie" Calvin, the female protagonist. The story includes: a manipulative husband with anger management issues and an opportunity to revive lost love; the unexpected death of her controlling mother who apparently died with a big secret that dates to the 1960s; empty nest syndrome after Ellie's daughter goes away to college; and a near-magical Summer House on Mobile Bay. It is whispered that those who stay there have a truth revealed and are forever changed. If Ellie stays there, will her truth be revealed, and will she be forever changed? Will she discover a truth about her mother that is better left a secret? Patti Henry beautifully reveals the answers in her luminous novel.

Others have said this is Henry's best works. She has previously had seven books on the NYT best seller list. "Coming Up for Air" is already among my all-time favorites. It is easily the best book I've read since "The Help" two years ago. This is one of those books you close, grab your cell, and call your best friend to share all your favorite parts.

Fair disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy from St. Martin's Press. Brief parts of the above appeared in my lengthy review published August 14, 2011, in the Mobile (AL) Press-Register. ~BBL

I have read all of Patty's novels, and found her latest Coming Up For Air to my favorite. She told a story that will resonate with many readers. The story is about a woman, Ellie Calvin who is at a crossroads in life. Her only child, a daughter, has gone to college, her mother has just passed away and she is realizing she is in a dying marriage. The unexpected happens when she runs into her college boyfriend and learns he is working on a project that involves her mother. She discovers a hidden diary of her mother's that answers many questions that she needed and ones that her ex boyfriend, Hutch wants for his project. She developed the characters beautifully, and her description of the coastal town in Alabama was right on. I never had heard of a Jubilee and after reading this novel I hope I get to experience one. Amazing! If you are looking for a wonderful last summer read this is it. I truly did not want the story to end and leave these wonderful characters.

Patti really has a way with words.....my favorite book of hers has always been "When Light Breaks" but this one is now tied for the position!! I am not a person who gives spoilers or summarizes a book but I will say this...either by Kindle or hardcover it is worth every penny!! I loved this book so much I am also buying it hardcover!!

Patti Callahan Henry's latest is a book to be savored in late summer. A woman on the brink--of being an empty nester, a grieving daughter, a troubled wife, finds solace and wisdom when she flees to a magical spot on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. If you love Jodi Picoult, Elin Hilderbrand or Anne Rivers Siddons, you'll treasure this book.

When the inscrutable Lillian Ashford Eddington passes away, her forty-something daughter, Ellie Calvin, struggles to deal with her grief --- the grief over losing a mother she both loved and resented --- and the realization that, despite a college-age daughter and their 20-plus years together, her marriage to husband Rusty has left her unfulfilled. When her old boyfriend, Hutch, approaches her about contributing to a documentary exhibit on her mother, Ellie is amazed to learn that Lillian was involved in the civil rights movement in Alabama in the early 1960s. This discovery, plus the unearthing of Lillian's diary, intensifies the mystery. Not only did her mother have a secret side, she also had a secret love --- one who was tied up in her activism, which all took place during the summer of 1961.

"Fans of THE HELP, THE NOTEBOOK and THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD will devour this chronicle of mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, old friends and old loves."
After reading her mother's diary, Ellie decides that the only way to have some closure is to find out what happened during that fateful summer so long ago. So she reaches out to her mother's best friend, Birdie, and leaves her Atlanta home to go to Birdie's beach house on the coast of Alabama, where her mother lived that summer. The beach house has a long, storied history. Legend has it that the truth is revealed to all who stay there, and their lives are forever changed because of it. After years of secrecy, a little truth sounds good to Ellie.

In addition to doing some much-needed research on her mother, the time and distance might help her gain some insight into her own troubled marriage: "I didn't know what to do with these disharmonious emotions about my marriage and my husband. There were, then, absolutely no words to define the mayhem of feelings, as if I had become the turmoil and fallen into a place where words and sentences didn't exist, explanations hadn't been invented, and only dread and anger survived. I wanted words to go with the emotions."

Once at the cottage, Ellie begins her detective work in earnest and is able to start piecing her mother's life together, one clue at a time. Hutch arrives in town to assist her with the task, and while Ellie is grateful for the help, his presence and her memories of their long-ago romance only serve to complicate her already muddled feelings about the decision she made long ago. Was she wrong to abandon Hutch in favor of the more "appropriate" Rusty? Did she pick the right man?

The more she delves into her mother's past, the more she sees parallels with her own life: "There was a day when my mother didn't believe in inappropriate or appropriate love. There was a day --- an amazing day and time --- when she believed in only this: love. And when she stopped believing in that, she passed that disbelief on to me and into my life." The more Ellie uncovers, the clearer her mother becomes to her, and conversely, the more confused she is about her own life.

COMING UP FOR AIR by Patti Callahan Henry is a transcendent read that will whisk readers away to another place and time. Through these two women's entwined lives, we are treated to a story that is relatable, entertaining and surprising. Fans of THE HELP, THE NOTEBOOK and THE DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD will devour this chronicle of mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, old friends and old loves. Ellie is surprised that this journey into her mother's history provides such insight into her own life, noting wistfully that "... the past is where I found my present."

--- Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller

It's rare that I write a review, but this is one of the most power books I have ever read! The complex relationships took me on an emotional journey which will stay with me for a long time! Henry creates the story of Ellie Calvin, who learns as much about herself as she does about her mother, whose journal she finds, and eventually, lives through. The story is beautifully crafted and rich with metaphors.
This is a story about life and death, mothers and daughters, and loss of redemption.

Ever felt your life was at a crossroads, you felt confused, wondering if you had made some wrong choices, perhaps one irreparable one? Meet 48-year-old Ellie Calvin, an artist, mother to college age daughter, Lil, and married to Rusty. They've been married for 20 years and that union is dissolving around her.

She tells us, "Standing in a white dress in front of family and friends, vowing to love forever the handsome man in front of me, is on the top of my wonderful list. Then years later, standing in the receiving line at my mother's funeral and pulling away from that same man's touch because I knew I didn't - couldn't - love him anymore is more than awful. It's tragic."

She is surprised to see her former boyfriend, Hutch, at the funeral. He is involved in a documentary concerning her mother, Lillian, a woman who was little known to Ellie. He asks for Ellie's help in finishing this, and she agrees although she's a bit disturbed by feelings that began to surface when she saw him again.

She's surprised to learn that Lillian had been a part of the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 60's. She is even more surprised to find a hidden diary that reveals a great deal about Lillian. After reading a portion of it she decides to go to the Alabama coast, to a beach house owned by her mother's best friend, Birdie, and try to discover what really happened one summer in 1961.

Once there Hutch arrives to help her with the research. The question for both of them is can they work together without reviving what both believed was a lost love?

- Gail Cooke

The writing in the book was vague and made it difficult to identify with the main character. I never fully understood why Rusty had such a chip on his shoulder. I felt the scene at the 50th anniversary party with Sara was random and then it was mentioned towards the end of the book. For me, this book didn't come together as I hoped it would in the end and I felt disappointed. Every time Ellie sat down to talk with Birdie, I felt like I could predict the scene, Birdie would give a little nugget of information and then she'd shut down. Instead of making the book suspenseful, it made the book quite predictable. All in all, I was left wanting more information on each of the characters. This book was a disappointment, especially considering one of my favorite writers of all-time is quoted on the front cover with her stamp of approval.

I don't understand how this book got such glowing reviews ~ I really did not like it at all. The book was very slow moving and the characters were not memorable. I finished it last night and I can hardly come up with Ellie, the main character's name. The author kept alluding to Rusty's rage as a reason that Ellie would leave him, but she never really developed this story line. The whole book seemed to be about Ellie lusting after her old boyfriend. The way the book skipped to snippets of her mother's journal was also annoying. Plus, I don't know if it bothered anyone else, but the way He and Him were capitalized, I felt like I was reading the Bible. I will give the author credit in that I did not figure out who "He" was. I was putting my money on Hutch's father. All in all, a disappointing read.

I'd never read any of Ms. Henry's earlier works, but after thoroughly enjoying this one, I'll be searching out the others!

The character of Ellie is so relatable to anyone who's ever been either: the daughter of a strong woman, or married to a manipulator, or still loves the one that got away.

And the description of the jubilee is just wondrous.

Great little novel!