David Willis McCullough
Helen Humphreys writes remarkably spare, uncluttered prose; she has a great knack for evoking unspoken love and finding stark beauty in matters as diverse as the sight of a burning ship at night or the creation of a silent language. -- New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
Toronto in 1933 provides the setting for this captivating novel about two aviatrixes who attempt to set a new world endurance record by flying 25 days non-stop, circling the city in the open cockpit of their Moth biplane. Veteran barnstormer 'Air Ace' Grace O'Gorman chooses novice Willa Briggs as a last-minute replacement for her ailing co-pilot. As days pass, mechanical failures, nasty weather and chronic fatigue threaten to curtail the flight, while the two pilots, hoarse from yelling over the roar of the wind, become close friends, communicating through sign and touch. Meanwhile, in a parallel earthbound plot, young Maddy Stewart, who idolizes Air Ace Grace, struggles to maintain her equilibrium when her Jewish mother, a carnival fortune-teller, becomes the target of a Nazi-inspired hate group. The two plots intersect when Maddy pulls the fliers from their beached aircraft. Inspired by an actual event that occurred in the skies over Miami, Florida, Humphreys has captured the courage and commitment of aviation's unsung pioneers, the sights and sounds of earth and sky and the somber mood of 1930s Toronto, all with a precise lyricism that amply demonstrates her talent as a poet.
Library Journal
During the Depression, two women pilot a plane in circles above Toronto, trying to break a record by staying aloft 25 days without landing. The effects on the women and on one little girl following them from below are beautifully detailed here, winning praise from major publications from the New York Times to the Washington Post. "An impressive debut," concluded LJ's reviewer. (LJ 9/1/98)
Kirkus Reviews
The story of two women pilots who try, in August 1933, to break a record by staying aloft for 25 days in a plane over Toronto. A novel with plenty of period interest but less depth—or height—of psychology and character than could be wished. Famous Grace O'Gorman, known as 'Air Ace Grace,' sets out to break the in-air record now held by her over-the-hill husband Jack—who's not happy to see his wife trying to grab the last record he'll ever set. But Grace pushes ahead, and, when her intended co-pilot breaks her wrist, takes on the younger and less-experienced Willa Briggs (Grace is 33, Willa 23). Up they go in a Moth DH60T, a one-engine biplane with wire struts and fabric skin, to begin 25 days of 10-minute circles. Once they're up, Humphreys offers much that's of considerable interest—how the women refuel in the air, get food (both from a plane flown by the not-quite-to-be-trusted Jack), how they stay clean, go to the bathroom, communicate, keep from falling asleep. But there's unquestionably a sameness about things—and the book turns to one complication and another for its density: on the ground is 12-year-old Maddy Stewart, whose infatuation for the famous flier is almost boundless—even to the point of her imagining Grace to be her real mother, while her actual parents (Jewish mother a fortuneteller, nostalgic Scots father the operator of a merry- go-round) make their way through the homely, money-pinched days of a Depression August—and feel the wrath of early Nazis, members of 'the Swastika Club,' who maraud when it suits them—as it does after Maddy's prize-fighting uncle, Simon Kahane, wins over a boxer who's German. Everything about theairplane—with its 40-gallon gas tank and top speed of 80 mph—is marvelously done, as are the locales of long-ago Toronto, but the tales and characters that keep the rest going just don't hold their altitude.
