Mary Browning is an 87 year old facilitator of a writing group that meets at the Squirrel Hill Library in Pittsburgh. The group is populated by mostly elderly people who are aspiring writers. Mary has been a widow for 10 years and seems quite the recluse save the time she spends with her writers. The reader feels that there are secrets in her life that will eventually come to the fore.
How odd is it that Elyse Strickler happens upon the group one meeting. Mary is immediately drawn to Elyse because she reminds her so much of her sister. The two develop a warm relationship when Elyse encourages Mary to dictate her life story so that Elyse can type it into a word processing program. Elyse becomes the 2nd narrator who is also struggling with her identity and the problems of the real world around her - her father's cancer, school life and a boy who isn't worth her attention, but who leads her on, a mother whose job seems more important than her family, and the impending divorce of her parents.
Miriam (Miri) Lichtenstein, is a Jewish girl who is determined to be a pilot from the time she witnesses a pilot parachute into her yard. Determined to go to flight school, while her parents want her to go to college, she keeps her enrollment secret. She is accepted into the Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS) and goes to Texas to train and fly. The depiction of the treatment of women and a Jewish woman was interesting and insightful. While in Texas Miriam meets and falls in love with a young man, Solomon, who aspires to be a doctor. Because of medical school quotas for Jews, Solomon changes his name to Thomas Browning and the reader discovers the relationship between Miri and Mary.
The friendship that develops between Miri/Mary and Elyse is a touching one with each looking out for the other. Elyse puts Mary in touch with a needed doctor and Mary buys a plane ticket for Elyse to go to Florida to see her ill grandmother because her mother was not concerned enough to do so. Elyse provides the family for Mary that she has lost since she was "declared dead" by her own mother when she married Thomas and abandoned her Jewish heritage.
The historical parts of the novel were based on fact with many of the WASP incidents and characters taken right from the actual events. Perhaps, what was most notable for a reader from Pittsburgh were all the references to the city and the depiction of how the city had changed during the time span of the novel. The characters were well developed believable. The Secrets of Flight unraveled more secrets than could be imagined, which gave quite the twist at the end. It was a wonderful read and recommended for those who enjoy a good story masterfully crafted.
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