The Woman Who Rode the Wind [Paperback]

Ed Leefeldt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

France during the Belle Epoque. When determined dreamers conquer the skies in the first flying machines, a daring new breed of adventurers capture the imagination of the world as they reach for the stars - and awaken a new instrument of destruction. One woman, driven by love and the need to redeem the tranished legacy of her father, becomes the unlikely heroine who discovers that her destiny is entwined with this new world of flight waiting to be born. This is the historical backdrop of award-winning journalist Ed Leefeldt's stunning literary novel, The Woman Who Rode the Wind, a romantic and richly authentic story that celebrates the indomitable spirit of the early pioneers of the clouds like Amelia Earhart and Harriet Quimby.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a fictional debut inspired by the early career of pioneer aviatrix Harriet Quimby, journalist Leefeldt (In Search of Paper Children) concocts an entirely new biography for his heroine, telling the lively if simplistic story of a magnificent woman and her flying machine. Leefeldt reinvents Quimby as Tennessee farm girl Mary Ann Pitman, spurned by her neighbors for assisting her father in experiments using the new combustible engine to power a heavier-than-air flying "contraption." Mary Ann is discovered by hard-drinking Harding Cooper, who accompanies her first to New York in 1901 to meet their wealthy sponsor, Neville Bishop, and then to Paris to compete for the prize of a million francs offered by industrialist Henri Meurthe to the first person to circle the Eiffel Tower by air. Mary Ann's French competitor is dashing, irreverent Alain Chevrier, and the German pilot is ne'er-do-well Maximilian von Hohenstauffen, a military attach‚ whose desire to win doesn't preclude murder. While preparing for the contest, Harding is drawn to Mary Ann, Mary Ann to Chevrier and Chevrier to Meurthe's daughter. Leefeldt describes turn-of-the-century Paris with bright clich‚s that lack the precision and individuality he brings to his descriptions of flying machines. As a result, Mary Ann's contraption with wings, von Hohenstauffen's dirigible and Chevrier's bicycle-plane are finely drawn creations while the protagonists who fly them border on caricatures. Although Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leefeldt sputters with the intricacies of character and plot, he pilots deftly through uplifting descriptions of men and women learning to fly in the dawn of the aviation age. Author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Compelling and suspenseful...clever subplots complicate story in an intriguing way. Arouses immediate interest [and] captures the reader's attention." -- Writer's Digest

"With great panache Leefeldt has revived the obsessive quest to build the first airplane...parable for our future obsessed age." -- Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker and The New New Thing

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Lighter Than Air (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967953510
• ISBN-13: 978-0967953519
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,116,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Cute, January 23, 2009

By 

Tara (Utah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Woman Who Rode the Wind (Paperback)

I found this novel cute and entertaining but a bit amateurish. I can see the Young Adult crowd enjoying it. It starts in France during 1901 and a a very rich man proposes a contest and whomever can fly around the Eiffel tower wins big money. The reader is then introduced to a variety of characters, Mary Ann, an innocent naive American girl, Harding, a drunk newspaper reporter, Alain, dashing and rebellious aviator, and of course a villain, a German that wreaks havoc and destruction. There are others of course, rich and poor and many a love triangle and broken heart ensues. I would have liked more information on the "flying machines." I simply kept visualizing bicycles with balloons somehow attached to them and some piano wire mixed in there somehow.. was unclear to me how these machines were made and operated. All in all, the book is good but not something I would read again.. a bit too cutesy for me. I did enjoy the look at early aviation. I would like to add that majority of novels are too descriptive, whereas this one could use a bit more. It lacks descriptive details, such as what people look like. Reader has to fill in the blanks a bit.