Rating: 
Summary: Best Book I've Read In a Long Time
Review: I was not as enthusiastic with "Fall On Your Knees" by the same author as other reviewers, but The Way the Crow Flies is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I was caught up on page one and my interest never lagged. I remember the 1960s but had forgotten how different society was, and I was a military (USAF) wife for 10 years and could certainly relate to base (station) living. Most of the story is seen through the eyes of 8-year old Madeline McCarthy, later an adult, and I'd love to know how the rest of her life is going.
I have recommended this book to all I know, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves being caught up in a wonderful story.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: In less than 10 days, I absorbed this 800-page book. Ms. MacDonald has a wonderful way of spinning 3 separate plots and having them intertwine and come together flawlessly at the end. When writers try to develop more than one plot, most just "slap" the ending together; her book flowed. I read this book until my eyes hurt and I couldn't read any more. The characters were beautifully developed; the setting in the 60's took me pleasantly back; and her treatment of a young girl's sexual abuse was tactful and not overblown. My only criticism is I didn't like the French phrases interspersed throughout the book. I never understood what they were saying, and I thought it was rude of her to insert a foreign language. Other than that, the book is wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: It is one of those books that is so engrossing that your own world slips away while you devote every minute you can spare to experiencing the drama unfolding within it. It is a very full story which succeeds in slowly building a picture of a family, the individuals within it, the evolution of their relationships to each other, the impact of the time they live in and the unforseeable impact of random events, choices and secrets. It is far more than a novel of suspense but it begins innocently and slowly but surely grows in intensity until the suspense feels unbearable. Nothing in it is rushed to a conclusion. There are surprises and there is ever deepening understanding. Reviews, particularly those which try to summarize the characters and events, can't convey the quality and atmosphere of this book. I almost never read a book that I feel strongly enough to want to review, but this is one of the best books I've read in a long time and I highly reccomend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Ann-Marie does it again! A wonderful book....
Review: Let's just say it and get it over with: Fall on Your Knees is an incomparible book-- a stunning book that just happens to have been Ann-Marie MacDonald's first novel. I'm too awed by it emotionally and cerebrally to compare ANYTHING too it. I practically shed a tear when I heard the Oprah had chosen it as a selection for her book club, but I'm sure it did wonders for MacDonald's bank account, so I I learned to live with it!Moving on, then... The Way the Crow Flies is one of the best books I have read this year-- I work (toil is more like it) in a bookstore, so I get to read a great many things-- mostly crap, to be honest. MacDonald's voice as a writer is so unique-- it is almost trance-inducing. She has a complete mastery of language and can take you right into the world of her characters, into their lives, into their minds. I found the story itself just as fascinating. For anyone who has ever kept a secret (and who among us has not), no matter how huge or how tiny, this book is an intense reminder of the prices paid. I cried my eyes out at the end of the book--I don't want to give anything away about this story; read it and take from it what you can. My interaction with my own family will never be the same after this book. A tiny note from an obsessive reader: I hated the US cover of this book; the UK cover is slightly better, but the Canadian cover is the best of them all. Seek it out!
Rating:
Summary: 4 and a 1/2 stars!!!!
Review: Once again MacDonald has succeeded in amazing me. The only reason this book does not recieve 5 stars is because the first 100 pages were somewhat dry. Don't get me wrong! Once the reader makes it past those first 100 pages he/she is richly rewarded with an epic tale about a seemingly happy family that slowly but dramatically unravels before his/her eyes.
While the beginning may appear somewhat sparse in the entertainment department, MacDonald is doing something very important for the rest of the novel. She takes her good old fashioned time letting the reader truly and fully get to know all of the characters before she dives in and destroys the readers hopes for ordinary happy-go-lucky occurrences. As in Fall On Your Knees, the more you read, the more shocked you become. No author since Wally Lamb (in my opinion) can present a picture of such dysfunctional horror while still making it poignant and hilarious. You know the old saying..."I laughed, I cried..." -that is what this book is all about.
Madeleine McCarthy is the main character who is easily the girl next door, despite all of her problems. The book is told through her eyes and unravels thirty years of trials and tribulations...being raised as an air force brat...daddy's little girl...can't get along with her mother...appalling child abuse...and the story goes on (I've only touched the tip of the iceberg).
Another pleasing facet of this novel is that it is a mystery up until the end which makes it almost interactive. Like with a good movie, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, sure you finally know the truth about what's going on when BAM!!! you realize you hadn't the slightest clue.
I won't lie. This book, like Fall On Your Knees, is sometimes disturbing but in such a delectable way...a guilty pleasure if you will. Just when things start to get rough, MacDonald throws in some humor.
In a nut shell, if you want to read an emotionally draining novel that will make you laugh, swear, push down a lump in your throat, keep you up half the night turning the pages and dying for the moment when you can tell everyone you know about it...THIS IS THE ONE! This book was worth every penny of the $28 I paid for it, and then some. Unfortunately, now I get to sit around for another year or so waiting and hoping for her next novel to hit the shelves.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story line
Review: RCAF officer Jack McCarthy, his wife Mimi, and their two children twelve years old Mike and eight-year old daughter Madeleine have been stationed in West Germany for years. However, in 1962 Jack is been reassigned to the Centralia Air Force Base in Ontario. The family quickly adjusts and is happy to be home. Jack is assigned the job of safeguarding a Soviet defector until the scientist can be smuggled into the U. S. to work on the space program. However the ethical Jack is shocked tothe core when he learns that his ward is a former Nazi who used slaves to work on the Nazi rocket program. While Jack's morality is tested on a global scale, fourth grade school teacher Mr. March molests students in his class including Madeleine. Soon one of them is murdered. Twenty years later Madeline remains haunted by the homicide and seeks the truth, but uncovers more that she wanted when she realizes the duplicity of her hero, her father. The fascinating story line starts very slow as Ann-Marie MacDonald paints the scenario of a military post during the height of the Cold War. As the tale takes off it turns darker raping innocence by betraying values. Globally it is America sheltering Nazi war criminals to work on the space program; with family it is secrets that Madeleine and Jack ironically keep from one another that when revealed undermines their relationship. The climax is incredible, as the audience will stop to reconsider all that previously past is not what it seems. This historical novel is great work by a multitalented superstar. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: The Way The Crow Flies
Review: The Way The Crow Flies captivated my interest while on spring break. As usual, books read during vacation remain favorites. I loved this novel, every lengthy inch of it.
Ann-Marie MacDonald gifts us with an incredible story which is both hard to put down and difficult to pick up. The voice of Madeleine spouting slogans and silly remembrances was so real to me, including all her commercial malapropisms. The viewpoint of this child is incredible. So often, a child narrator is too sophisticated for her age. Not so, here. I do not think there was a single wasted word from her POV, although some readers might want to "get on with it". I loved her very real child's-eye notes and take on the world, through her eyes.
Child molestation and innocence, wonderful narration and character development, a good marriage, political upheavals involving Cold War criminals and the Space Race, all culminate to deliver a pretty fine package. Secrets and lies by sin of omission propel this story. The crux of the novel. So does a pretty level headed look into a typical Air Force Military Base in Ontario, Canada in the sixties. This novel also involves a murder mystery, revealed exquisitely, over time. The reader is in the dark, making assumptions.
What I enjoyed the most was the 150+ page conclusion in a 700+ page book. Not told in as much detail, it was reaffirming and reassuring never-the-less. So often, a novel drifts away. The Way The Crow Flies, while not especially tidy, delivers a resolution the likes of which I've not seen in a while, masterfully. The reader may breathe more easily upon completion. MacDonald delivers one fine story from beginning to end. Roe
Rating:
Summary: I would recommend
Review: The Way the Crow flies was a good story. My complaints about the book would be 1) There should have been explanation of what all the French sentences meant. I didn't know sometimes what was being said as I don't speak French. 2)Part 4 was the most dragged out/boring part of the book. Who cares about Madeline's job as a comedian or her lesbianism? Luckily Part 5 was much better. 3)Some of the descriptions of things went on too long.
Didn't see the ending coming. A bit shocking.
Overall, good storytelling
Rating:
Summary: Can't wait to spread the word!
Review: This is one terrific book! This book is sad, frightening, funny but most of all it tells a wonderful story. I grew up in the 60's myself and so identified with Madeline and the times that surrounded her. The secrets she should keep and the secrets she shouldn't have, will melt our heart. If you're in doubt about reading/buying this book. DON'T BE.
I would highly recommend it as one of those rare books you may want to read again & one of the books that is so very hard to put down. My thanks to Ms. Mac Donald for a very interesting & entertaining book!
Rating:
Summary: Storytelling at its best
Review: This is such a confident, bold book, that it's hard to believe that Ann-Marie MacDonald has written just one other novel. Wonderfully written and beautifully realized, it is captivating from start to finish. It is the early 1960s, and Madeleine McCarthy's Canadian Air Force family is moving back to a base in Ontario after being posted in Germany. MacDonald lovingly paints a rich portrait of the rituals and traditions of families who move every three years--the neighbors, the welcome barbeques, the women who automatically greet new arrivals with enough food to see the new family through the unpacking stage, the kids who relish the anticipation of finding a new best friend. MacDonald takes time setting this all up. It is so friendly, so happy, that something must be wrong, but what? Pay attention, because she is planting little mines all over the place, and they will explode. Madeline's loving French-Canadian mother, her adored dad, her kind older brother, are created with such love that they break your heart. The early sixties are a character in themselves, a time when WWII was a fresh memory and the cold war was a fact of life. Scientists were being smuggled out of the East to spill their secrets to the West. We talk about the Bay of Pigs in an abstract fashion today, forgetting how terrifying it was at the time and how it effected the psyches of everyone who lived through it. "The Way the Crow Flies" is certainly one of my favorite books so far this year. It hiccups once the life of the adult Madeleine takes stage, but does that take away from the affect of this novel? No. Ann-Marie McDonald is a sweet, tough writer. This book is hard to put down, and hard to forget.
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