Flight Lessons [Large Print] [Paperback]

Patricia Gaffney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2002

From the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Saving Graces and Circle of Three comes the poignant story of two women struggling to come to grips with the past that haunts them both.

Though Anna once adored her aunt Rose, that ended when she betrayed Anna and her mother -- Rose's terminally ill sister -- and Anna can't forgive or forget. Years later, her own heart broken, Anna returns home to Rose, and to the family restaurant, the Bella Sorella, now grown shabby with age.

Anna is still reluctant to forgive Rose, insisting that her stay is temporary. But the intimacy of working with Rose to put the Bella Sorella back on its feet, and an unexpected chance at true love, bring about a change of heart.

Patricia Gaffney once again delivers a story told with grace and warmth, reminding us that there's no place like home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alone in a chilly loft in upstate New York, ruing the end of her affair with a two-timing sculptor, Anna Catalano, the heroine of this follow-up to Gaffney's bestselling The Saving Graces, can't resist an invitation to return home to Maryland's Eastern Shore. Her aunt Rose desperately needs a manager for her restaurant, the Bella Sorella, and it has to be family, says intermediary Aunt Iris. Rose and Anna haven't actually been on speaking terms since Anna caught Rose having an affair with Anna's father while her mother was dying. Still, telling herself it's only temporary, Anna signs on for the job. A host of clangorous, adrenaline-pumping kitchen scenes follow, and anyone who's worked in the restaurant business will especially enjoy the clash between the self-taught red-sauce chef and Anna's new hire, a culinary school grad who wants to put pesto in the minestrone. But Gaffney is unaccountably less apt in charting the romance between Anna and a bird-loving lawyer-turned-photographer named Mason Winograd, who must overcome his fear of flying as Anna overcomes her fear of nesting. Their e-mails, while blessedly free of emoticons and tech talk, are too long and too similar in voice. A delicious first kiss leads to a flat full monty: "He got her undressed and then went in the bathroom and came back nude, with condoms." In contrast, the affair between Rose and the dying Theo, Mason's stepfather, is richly nuanced, as are the relationships among the many women in the cast.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Anna has felt betrayed twice in her life first by her glamorous, single Aunt Rose and now by her lover. So returning home to help Rose run the family business isn't easy, but you can bet it will lead to a happy ending. The one-day laydown bespeaks great expectations.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Harper; Lrg edition (July 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060093927
• ISBN-13: 978-0060093921
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,230,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia Gaffney began her writing career with the publication of Sweet Treason, a historical romance set in revolutionary Scotland. Eleven romance novels later, she tried something different--The Saving Graces, a story of women's friendships, that ended up spending 17 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List.

Circle of Three, Flight Lessons, and The Goodbye Summer followed, all bestsellers that established Gaffney as a premier mainstream fiction writer.

Her new book is Mad Dash, the story of a happy marriage in trouble. It's due out in Spring 2008.

Gaffney, who lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, is currently at work on a novel about a man who changes his life when he finds out he's dying--then finds out he isn't. Working title: On Second Thought.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Prodigal daughter, July 29, 2002

By 

Kcolorado (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flight Lessons (Hardcover)

The Oscar Wilde quote, "After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations" that Patrica Gaffney prefaces her book with, is an accurate description of the issues she explores in Flight Lessons. In a twist to the biblical prodigal son, Anna returns to her hometown on the Chesapeake bay at the age of 36 and after a disasterous end to a romantic relationship. Anna is a complex, and often quite exasperating character. She is balanced in the book by her aunt Rose, now 60 and the owner of a faltering Italian restaurant. Anna is welcomed home and agrees to manage the restaurant for the summer but is not ready to forgive and forget the family issues that caused her to leave. Rose is a more appealing character, particularly in regard to her relationship with Theo, a crusty Bay waterman, now sidelined with a degenerative disease. All of the characters are finely drawn, Frankie, the talented but troubled new chef at the restaurant, Eddie, the handsome but unreliable bartender and Carmen,the unmarried, overweight long time chef who is resentful of the new chef and the changes Anna wants to make to save the restaurant.The close up look at running a small family restaurant was particularly interesting and the bits of information about birds and bird photography, the avocation of Mason, another character were engrossing. (I will now try to catch a bird yawnings, soemthing I never knew they did) More than a love story, the book is honest and insightful as it explore the complicated dynamics of family and the ways individuals address their own family history. Anna's apparent dysfunction and inabilty to sustain relationships seems as much due to her own unforgiving nature as the tough issues she dealt with as a child and young woman. Our desire to paint family members as either black or white, good or bad is illuminated as Anna addresses her memories of her mother and father as well as Rose. More than a good summer read, the book has enough interest to make your reading list in any season.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful relationship drama, August 11, 2002

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flight Lessons (Hardcover)

In icy upstate New York, Anna Catalano ends her affair with her lover when she catches him with her boss in her bed just after she had outpatient laparascopy. When her Aunt Iris offers her the job of manager of Bella Sorella, Anna decides to accept on a temporary basis though she rarely has gone home to the Maryland Eastern Shore. Anna's Aunt Rose, whom she caught in bed with her father while her mother was dying from ovarian cancer, owns the restaurant. The aunt and the niece are banally civil, but truly communicate through Iris.

Restaurant management proves difficult, but Anna handles it with aplomb. However, she has more trouble coping with her feelings towards photographer Mason Winograd, as she does not trust relationships. More complex and harder on Anna's soul is Rose wants a reconciliation with her beloved niece and will do whatever it takes to succeed.

FLIGHT LESSONS is a wonderful relationship drama that is at its best when the women take center stage without any males in their way though the men are well written characters. The story line engages the reader by looking at the impact a long-term squabble has on individuals. The Rose-Anna situation is cleverly written so that many readers will recognize similar relationships with family members. However, the romance between Anna and Mason never leaves the ground, as it seems pale next to that of the women. Patricia Gaffney provides a strong character driven sequel to her best selling THE SAVING GRACES.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable drama, April 18, 2005

By 

C. Goodman "Book lover" (Midwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flight Lessons (Mass Market Paperback)

I really liked "Saving Graces" by the same author, although it did make me sad at times (when it was supposed to).

I just finished "Flight Lessons", and I really liked it. It's about coming home, looking back, and moving forward. Anna and Rose are both people you'd like to be friends with, I think, and I could understand both of their motives, their reasons. The background type characters, like Frankie and Carmen, Theo and Mason, make you care about them too.

I actually put off reading my new Mary Higgins Clark novel, as well as Judith Michael's latest, two of my favorite authors, to read this one.

I'll be adding Patricia Gaffney to my list of authors to explore more.