Dear Mrs. Lindbergh: A Novel [Paperback]

Kathleen Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2004

"A compassionate exploration of a woman's life—between motherhood and dreaming, living the everyday and taking flight."—Jane Mendelsohn, author of I Was Amelia Earhart

When two elderly Iowans, Ruth and Henry Gutterson, disappear mysteriously on their way home from Thanksgiving, their adult children find a crate of Ruth's letters written to Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In the letters the children read of the origins of their parents' passion: how they first met in 1924 when Henry crashed his Air Mail plane into Ruth's family's cornfield; how Ruth flew alongside Henry as his navigator; about Ruth's passion for flying; and how the birth of her children kept her on the ground.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A passion for flight in the exhilarating early days of air travel and the deep demands of home and family form the background of this bittersweet debut novel. Growing up on an Iowa farm in the 1920s, Ruth Sheehan longs to fly like the glamorous lady barnstormers of the decade, but she isn't even permitted to go to nursing school. When pilot Henry Gutterson, a WWI vet, lands his airmail plane in her parents' field, she's given a chance at love and at flight. As Henry's wife, Ruth navigates his airmail routes in their fragile Jenny, "the Model T" of planes. Pregnancy grounds her, but still she wants "to feel the world fall away from her, to feel the land flatten out and spread" in flight. When her second child dies, Ruth, convinced it is somehow her fault, retreats into private sorrow. She finds some comfort in writing unsolicited and unanswered letters to famous aviatrixes, especially to Anne Morrow Lindbergh, with whom she empathizes for the loss of her child. Though Henry, too, eventually quits flying, years later he encourages Ruth to renew her dream, to fly solo at last, at the age of 80. But Ruth and Henry then disappear during a Thanksgiving holiday, and their grown children must piece together the events of their last days. The trove of Ruth's letters reveals to them the desires and hopes she had long hidden. Hughes tells Ruth's story quietly and compassionately, and readers may brush away tears at the novel's affecting ending.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

As a girl, Ruth is fascinated with the daring stunts of barnstorming aviators. As the wife of a bush-league airmail pilot, she learns how to navigate Henry's routes and accompanies him on the flights that crisscross midwestern farm communities, a task patterned after her idol, Anne Lindbergh. Pregnant with their first child, Ruth reluctantly gives up flying, vowing to return as soon as feasible. The birth of their second child interrupts her plans, and when their daughter dies in infancy, shattering Ruth's fragile psyche, she vows just as fervently never to fly again. The promise is kept until, in their eighties, Ruth and Henry take flight once more, only to disappear without leaving a clue as to their whereabouts. Writing lyrically of Ruth's twin passions of family and flight, Hughes' elegantly constructed debut novel gracefully explores the nature of things that vanish and things that remain, of longing that endures and love that transcends, of dreams that die and hopes that survive. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393326225
• ISBN-13: 978-0393326222
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,238,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dear Mrs. Lindbergh: Well crafted/ characters with depth, October 28, 2003

By 

Alicia Resnick (Wilmette, il United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Mrs. Lindbergh: A Novel (Hardcover)

I want Amazon guests to know how MUCH I enjoyed Kathleen Hughes' first novel. It got better and better as I read on. At first, I was a liitle distanced by the flying talk, but when it got into the family, I got caught. The relationship between Ruth and Henry was so well crafted. This was a real love affair, with real people, flawed, and disappinted in each other, and yet still ready to go on loving. I thought her description of Ruth's breakdown was so fine. I loved Ruth's father's inarticulate terror. And her mother's quiet strength.

I think I most admired the author's ability to give us a woman who has made hard choices, and who sometimes chose AGAINST her own best interest, and who somehow worked it out. She recognized the supreme value in giving life to the world in her children, but this life was given at some sacrifice, an idea which is so countercultural today.

Margaret's discover of the letters was so poignant, and I really like the relationship between the brother and the sister.

Kathleen Hughes has one more fan.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping, tear-jerking first novel. Bravo!, November 18, 2003

By 

Amy Richardson (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Mrs. Lindbergh: A Novel (Hardcover)

I started reading Dear Mrs. Lindbergh last night and couldn't stop! It is a searching examination of the challenges faced by the heroine, Ruth Gutterson. Through Ruth, Hughes explores how a woman born in the early part of the 20th century attempts to reconcile the fierce love she has for her children and husband with her passion for flying. Hughes's prose is clean and unflinching, her style underscoring her characters' drive to understand themselves and those they love. Early American aviation history enriches the novel, and through her letters to Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the reader is given a vision of Ruth's psyche and deepest desires. Dear Mrs. Lindbergh is a rarity in contemporary fiction--- Hughes builds her characters and story with grace and quiet, the novel's pull on the reader ever increasing until with the powerful conclusion, we are firmly within this gifted novelist's beautifully evoked world. Bravo to this promising author. I eagerly await her next publication!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a heartbreaking work of staggering genuis, November 13, 2003

By 

Sarah (New Orleans, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear Mrs. Lindbergh: A Novel (Hardcover)

I borrowed a line from author Dave Eggers to describe Kathleen Hughes' book "Dear Mrs. Lindbergh." It's an emotional story that only gets better as you read, and such a superb ending, unexpected and perfect.
Everyone should read this book!