Flying in Place [Turtleback]

Susan Palwick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2005

Emma, a twelve-year-old child, escapes from the subtle horrors of her life by learning to walk on the ceiling and to fly away from herself. A first novel.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prominent surgeon Stewart Gray is a pillar of his small Wisconsin community, receiving holiday gifts from the local judge and dining with the mayor. But, as this chilling and finely tuned first novel illustrates, Dr. Gray is no paragon: he has been sexually abusing his 12-year-old daughter, Emma, for years. His wife, a respected English teacher, might be regarded as his accomplice, as she chooses not to know what occurs almost nightly in her daughter's bedroom. Emma narrates this contemporary horror story calmly and with fluid grace, engaging in dialogues and imaginative excursions with her dead sister, Ginny, in order to insulate herself during her father's systematic assaults. Only the Grays' boisterous next-door neighbors, the Hallorans, give her affection and support. Mrs. Halloran, the school nurse, sees Emma's bruises, notes her withdrawal and plummeting grades, and, with a few pointed questions, manages to piece the scenario together. The arrival of Emma's estranged yet knowledgeable Aunt Donna precipitates an explosive family confrontation--and further devastating revelations. Palwick avoids pat solutions, offering instead a deeply felt, deeply moving tale.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

An imaginative first novel about incest from a young doctoral candidate at Yale. Twelve-year-old Emma Gray, daughter of a surgeon and a schoolteacher, lives in the shadow of her ``perfect'' younger sister, Ginny, who died at the age of ten, before Emma was born. Emma, who must also endure her surgeon father's early morning visits, finds a novel way of coping: she leaves her body behind and flies around her bedroom to escape the awful sound of his heavy breathing. Eventually, Ginny visits Emma, and the two sisters begin to fly together to a favorite retreat. In time, Ginny shares her own shameful secret: their father abused her, too. Meanwhile, the school nurse and mother of Emma's best earthly friend, Jane, has noticed that something is wrong with Emma. But the truth doesn't out until the day that Emma's aunt comes to visit and reveals her own suspicions about the father and his relationship to Ginny before she died. Told in a strong narrative voice that pulls the reader in- -despite an occasional awkward and uneven handling of plot and character (the father, for instance, is not really developed; too much is made of Emma's pretense of menstruating). Still, Palwick's debut has a wonderful fantasy tone and builds to a convincing climax. It may lack the impact of some of the more hard-edged novels about incest-- e.g., those by Kathryn Davis or Kaye Gibbons- -but it certainly stirs sympathy for the paths of survival such victims must take. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Turtleback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Demco Media (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606337652
• ISBN-13: 978-0606337656
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

More About the Author

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ORIGINAL AND DEVASTATING, October 29, 2003

By 

Rob B (Long Island NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying in Place (Hardcover)

Another author I never heard of (before or since), a book I never heard of, picked up off a book rack at the checkout of a local general store. Read the first 30 pages one night. Started the next night...and was up till 4AM finishing it! Absolutley could not put it down. I still tell people about it to this day, and I read it in 1992! Original, with real-life characters, it uses the "supernatural" not as it is used in ghost stories or horror, but as a backdrop that reveals the real-life events slowly unfolding, brilliantly and movingly telling of events of the past repeated in the present. Not an upbeat ending, but not downbeat, either. More about acceptance and cautious hope for the future, but laced with a touching sadness. To this day, absolutely one of the most memorable and devastating books I have ever read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The hidden secrets Of Emma's life, December 9, 1999

By 

C. Rodriguez (Orlando, Fl.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying in Place (Mass Market Paperback)

Recently I read one of the saddest yet intriguing book with the most unpredictable endings. In the beginning I thought that it couldn't get any more boring. As I read further the plot started to unravel and as it did I automatically clinged to the book. What I like the most about the book was the way the author described the scenes, so well you can picture them in your head. The most interesting part of the book was when they compare a scripture passage to Ginny's life (the dead sister that will give revelations to Emma soon after the same thing would happen to her) and the life that Emma would have. I thought the book was unexpectedly great. It caught my attention and I know the story of Emma's live as the book wrote it would probably never escape my mind.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book so moving I could not put it down!, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flying in Place (Mass Market Paperback)

I was captivated by this book. Once I started reading it I could not put it down. After I read the book it stuck with me for days. This book made me cry and realize that there are children out there lost in a world of adult lust and confusion. I passed this book on and everyone that read it was touched. I cant wait unitl she comes out with something else.