I wondered whether this was a memoir disguised as a murder mystery, or a memoir injected with a murder mystery in order to hold our interest through 800 plus pages. And yet the murder had to be the pivotal event around which all the other themes hung, and so I concluded that this book could have been halved in size and resulted in a much more impactful novel.

Based on the Steven Truscott case in Canada, the author weaves the events surrounding the real-life murder of a 12 year old girl in 1959 into her fictional story set in 1963 in a similar armed forces base near London, Ontario.

Much of the novel focuses on life in the 1960’s in the military, and this is where the memoir aspect comes in, for the author too was raised on a military base around that period. The minutia of daily life replete with barbecues, picnics, schoolyard banter and family dinners are covered in excruciating and often repetitious detail. During this time men worked and women stayed home to raise families. The fundamental issue concerning everyone is the Bomb and its threat of nuclear war. Two story lines weave in and out of each other: the adult story of Jack McCarthy, newly posted to Canadian Air Force Base Centralia, and the child story of his daughter Madeleine who has to face the predators lurking in the adult world. Jack is a decorated airman who never saw combat in WWII and who is chafing under the fact that he was cashiered out due to an accident on the eve of going to the battle front. Madeleine is trying hard to understand adults like her teacher Mr. March who gets her to do “exercises’ after school, exercises that include fondling and strangling certain intimate body parts. Other subplots and characters are woven in: a defector from the Soviet Union who was part of the V2 rocket program during WWII and who provides an opportunity for Jack to do something meaningful for his country; a refugee from the same program and his family of adopted Metis kids now living on the base; and the lives of the inhabitants of the PMQs (Permanent Married Quarters), not always harmonious despite the all-expenses-paid lifestyles they have.

When the murder of the 12 year-old Claire, Madeleine’s classmate, takes place in the vicinity of the base, the lives of this close-knit group are thrown into chaos with the fallout taking many generations to heal. Fifteen-year-old Ricky Froelich, son of the refugee, is arrested and charged with the murder; his father mysteriously vanishes; Madeleine becomes a key witness and is forced to confront what telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is all about; and Jack is faced with a concealing a secret to support the greater good. Justice is miscarried in the interest of expediency. Years later Madeleine and Jack are still dealing with trying to reconcile the murder- she through therapy and he through multiple heart attacks. In the end, with a brilliant plot twist we discover whodunit.

Several points are made in the novel:
a) In life, often the guilty escape while the innocent are punished
b) Childhood is a scary time
c) Children can commit evil if conditioned by adults
d) The price of suppression is the breakdown of health
e) Sexual abuse destroys and distorts lives forever
f) Canada may have been the destination of the Underground Railway for runaway US slaves in the 19th century but it was also the starting point of another Underground Railway for eastern bloc defectors going the other way.

Given the political and social backdrop that this story plays out against, the authorial voice intrudes constantly making comments, observations and explanations that could have been excised to let the events speak for themselves. There is a also a great deal of repetition of quotidian events that does nothing to advance the story and maintain narrative thrust, and this is annoying.

After reading MacDonald’s first novel Fall on Your Knees and the blurbs on this her second novel, I was expecting an engaging thrill-ride. Instead I found a good book burdened with excessive writing, whose editor had taken a back seat in light of the fame the author had received from her debut.

An extraordinary novel. MacDonald brings the early sixties to life with vivid detail. THe characters so well-crafted that you can construct their faces, voices, and shapes as well as any loved one in real life and imagine with clarity how they inhabit their world. The story, so original in plot, is devastating to the reader. You want so much to step in and share what you know to save these characters from such heartache and destruction. A powerful, loving, ingenious novel.

Lyrical eulogy to a lost childhood.
A young girl is sexually abused by her teacher. A father hides a war criminal. A classmate is murdered.
Recovery, strength and courage.

Jeden z adeptů na letošní knihu roku - strhující kniha s košatým příběhem, kde nakonec všechno souvisí se vším, na pozadí děje běží velké dějiny, a to vše ještě odvyprávěno z několika perspektiv - čili přesně můj šálek čaje.

O tu detektivní rovinu ve finále v knize vůbec nejde, byť tedy to rozuzlení jsem moc nečekala. Tohle je kniha o důvěře, zklamání, vině a slepé víře v menší zlo; kniha o cestě do pekel dlážděné dobrými předsevzetími a také o tom, že i to nejlepší v nás se může pokazit, ani nevíme vlastně jak. A v druhé polovině pak také o snaze se se vším tím vyrovnat - pokusit se spasit svou duši. Velmi silná kniha, a byť jsou některé centrální motivy hodně obehrané (zneužívání dětí, homosexualita atd.) a jsem na ně již trochu alergická, tak tady mělo všechno své místo a nic z toho nebylo samoúčelné.

Na to, jak je kniha objemná, tak se čte opravdu velmi dobře, byť je to ten typ "pomalé" knihy - vše plyne v poklidu, rozvláčně, se spoustou odboček, ale ty se buď v ději někdy vrátí nebo dokreslují atmosféru - prostě jsem se nenudila z těch všech stránek ani jednu. A to jak si autorka pohrála s identitou dětské oběti je opravdu promyšlené - takže prosím žádné listování knihou, ani čtení konce dopředu - připravíte se o tu nejistotu, která ale knize jen přidává.

Opravdu výjimečná kniha a tentokrát bez zaváhání plný počet hvězdiček. A jdu si pořídit vlastní exemplář :-)

Kontext: Knížku jsme měla půjčenou z knihovny, už jsem ji chtěla vrátit, protože jsem si říkala, že za tři týdny, co mi zbývají do konce dvakrát prodloužené výpůjční doby, těch 900 stran nepřečtu, ale nakonec jsem si řekla, že to zkusím - a ejhle, ono mi na to stačilo něco přes týden.

První věta: "Ptáci tu vraždu viděli."

Poslední věta: "Claire."

Erinmainen lukuromaani, joka huokuu syvää ymmärrystä elämästä ja ihmisenä olemisesta. Nautin joka sanasta!

I don't believe I have ever read a more accurate depiction of what life was like as a Canadian "military brat" growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, and moving about from base to base.

Most of the action in the book takes place in the RCAF base of Centralia. The author warns "Don't look for it now, it has lost its memory...A temporary place for temporary people." Anne Marie MacDonald captures a childhood remembered as a series of events, rather than a home or a place.

This book is in part depiction of a marriage and family life, the burden of secrets, a murder, a whodunit, the story of a girl coming out. So much more.

I hardly noticed the length of this novel (720 pages) and I found it engrossing from beginning to end.

My second novel by this autor.
Appalled by the story, amazed by the storytelling.
A book for tough people which shows the ugly face of human beings.
Recommendable, but not a light and easy reading.

I adored this book.

The prose is lovely, the setting of a sleepy Air Force base in the 60’s wrapped up in the fervor of the Cold War is enthralling, and the perspective of a child encountering some truly heartbreaking situations was powerful.

I didn’t love the third act but the overall presentation and various story arcs weaving in and out was more than enough to win five stars from me.

From my Summer Reading List blog post (May, 2012)
Ann-Marie McDonald – The Way the Crow Flies: By the time I finished this book, I could hardly believe that Ann-Marie McDonald wasn’t one of the most famous and popular writers on the planet. This book is truly a masterpiece in the way that it captures a critical moment in history (the Cuban missile crisis from a Canadian perspective) through the eyes of a witty, naive observer, eight-year-old Madeleine, whose own secrets echo those of her military father. A further gift of the novel is the opportunity to observe Madeleine some twenty years later as she visits her therapist and struggles to process the events of her childhood. Truly remarkable. (I just have to add that McDonald’s first book, Fall on Your Knees, is almost equally as awesome. These are books I wish I hadn’t read so I could read them again for the first time!)

Už jsem myslela, že dřív umřu, než to konečně dočtu! Ale podařilo se a asi to za to stálo. I když teda, klidně by to mohlo mít o 400 stránek méně.
Prvních asi 300 nebo 400 stran se vlastně nic nedělo, jen se budovala atmosféra a utíkala padesátá léta. Ale pak to přišlo a bylo to zajímavé a smutné. Asi jsem čekala něco jiného.
Ke konci už jsem to skoro vzdala, ale čekala jsem, jak celý příběh Madeleine dopadne. A musím říct... Že jsem to nečekala.
Pro milovníky dlouhých a tlustých knih báječný kus. V postavách jsem se neztrácela ani přes jejich vysoké množství, příběh poklidně a nenápadně děsivě plynul. Počítám, že napsat ho bylo na úrovni životního díla.

I am a fan of a good plot, and I don't think I've ever read one so poetically written, so perfectly timed or so wonderfully crafted as the one "The Way the Crow Flies" presents its readers. Unlike other reviewers who complained about the length of the book or the "pace" of the first 100 pages, I chewed on each word, savoring each paragraph as I would if I were eating a delectable meal. And, like the last bite of a tasty dessert, I sighed as I turned the last page and loosened my belt, feeling full after having read the tales of the McCarthy family.

How do I rate this book? It was superbly written but I hated it. This book is 811 pages of fictional misery, I must have said "I hate this book" dozens of times in the week it took me to read it. It felt like it took 2 weeks to read, I was surprised to see that it was only 8 days that I had been suffering, hating to read each page, having to put it down every few pages.
This book is about child sexual abuse, the murder of a child, a terrible miscarriage of justice, a twisted sense of loyalty to the the job, cold war politics and deceits, with a little bit of The Bad Seed thrown in.
I was very angry at the child molesting character, I wanted to kill him, but since he was fictional I wanted to kill the book. Haha, a little irrational, but there you go.
This book received an excellent rating from most people. It must be the writing that they like, it is very multi-layered and detailed, it connects the reader to the time and place palpably. It is a substantial book in its scope, length and just getting down to all the realistic and often dreadful details. The author absolutely understands human emotion and portrays the emotions and thoughts of each character in a way that seemed true. Beautifully done and it made the book that much worse.
The one thing I did enjoy was the French and all things Acadian.
What is strange is that I might have read this book before. I recognized the description of the air base, then I recognized the "backbend exercises". So I either went amnesiac on the rest of the book the first time I read it, or I threw up at the backbend exercises and never finished reading it. Well now I have finished it, I read every miserable page.
This story was based on the Steven Trescott case. I didn't realize that while reading the book, but it probably would not have improved it for me as the child molestation part of the story was not part of the Trescott case (that I know of from the brief reading I did on the case). The rape and murder (although the girl in RL was 14 not 9) and the miscarriage of justice (probable in RL) were the elements of the Trescott case.