8.Will Mattie end up settling down in Gandy with Luke? Might she keep the baby?
(a)Yes.
(b)No.
(c)You tell me.
9.Poor Mattie’s life was a nomadic, chaotic mess. The author’s life is/was:
(a)Similarly chaotic.
(b)Mostly normal.
(c)Completely normal.
(d)Is there even such a thing as normal?
Answers:
1.Mattie’s stepfather, Queeg, was inspired by:
(d)All of the above. Although my dad was probably the primary inspiration, he wasn’t Queeg. My dad was his own man, a builder and an attorney; a watcher of Hee-Haw and an expert maker of French toast; a stubborn man who tenderly cared for my mother as she sickened and ultimately died from emphysema. He died in 1999 of urothelial carcinoma of the kidney, which, like emphysema is directly related to smoking. I wish they hadn’t smoked. I miss them both every day.
2.Buttercup, the class guinea pig, was inspired by:
(a)The guinea pig that the author promised her parents would be no trouble at all . . . My guinea pig was named Tabitha and lived with us for many years, making her little oooeek noises and happily eating her atlfalfa pellets and the carrots I’d feed her while she sat in my lap and watched television with me. (Yes, we found homes for her two babies.)
3.In addition to dyeing poodles and taunting Gordon Penny, in which of the following shenanigans might Genie and Karleen have been involved?
(g)All of the above (duh!). In all fairness, the city fountain had never been cleaner, the crickets singing overhead added a pleasing, albeit temporary, outdoorsy ambience to every lab assignment (the Bunsen burners seemed like tiny campfires), and the new covered sign Earle finally bought was much nicer than the old one. If Genie and Karleen had been asked about any of these events, surely they would have replied, “You’re welcome!”
4.Mattie seems a little clumsy at times. The author just might be prone to falling:
(f)All of the above except for the one about balconies, although . . .
Okay, ready? Bicycles: Long story, but I somehow didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until I was in my early twenties, and so, although technically, I can ride a bike I’m much better off not doing so. Stairs: I once broke my foot running up a flight of stairs (prancing up the stairs, according to my husband, but we disagree on this point). Horses: Seven stitches in my scalp. Mountains: I have skied and snowboarded and have, after a few trips to the orthopedist, come to the conclusion that some people are simply not meant to go fast down icy slopes.
5.Why were both of Tilda’s dogs named Winston?
(c)It’s complicated.
Tilda did, indeed, name a dog Winston (the larger, less farty dog) after the music store she missed so badly. Every week at the senior center’s afternoon dance, Tilda discussed Winston with her regular dance partner, George. One Saturday George told Tilda he had bought a French bulldog of his own, although Tilda couldn’t help but note, from a less reputable breeder.
When a massive stroke felled George, no one in his family wanted the dog. It was only after Tilda’s offer to take the animal was accepted that she learned George had also named his dog Winston. She wondered at the time whether this hinted at some poignant, unexpressed affection for her on George’s part, or merely an appalling deficit of originality. Publicly, Tilda bemoaned her late dance partner’s lack of imagination, but her secret heart couldn’t stop remembering the warmth in George’s eyes, and how they were exactly the same color blue as her favorite cardigan. She never changed the dog’s name.
6.Photography is:
Yeah, well. Okay, probably the less said about all that, the better.
7.When it comes to beach vacations the author:
(c)a and then b because . . .
When I was a child and we went on family vacations to the beach we always stayed in a mobile home park. At the time I thought it was fun, although I suspect my mom was less than thrilled to have KP duty even on vacation. Once after we’d all gone crabbing, my dad made the mistake of leaving all the crabs we’d caught alive in a bucket out behind the trailer long enough for me to name them all. Then I cried about their fate until my dad finally drove me, and the crabs, to the pier so I could dump them all back in the ocean. Yes, even as a small child I was a pain in the ass.
8.Will Mattie end up settling down in Gandy with Luke? Might she keep the baby?
(c)You tell me.
I’m serious. I don’t know what happens next, because these characters aren’t mine anymore. They’re yours. They’re ours.
Some days I like the idea of Mattie raising that little girl with help from Luke and all of their family and friends in Gandy. But then sometimes I prefer the thought of Mattie getting in her car and taking that trip to California that her mother and Karleen never made. Maybe it would be a mistake to settle down before she’s figured out what she really wants from life. I do know that Mattie no longer feels an urge to self-destruct, but beyond that? I don’t have a clue. Do you? I’d love to hear it! Contact me on Facebook or via my website, and give me your best guess.
9.Poor Mattie’s life was a nomadic, chaotic mess. The author’s life is/was:
(d)Is there even such a thing as normal?
I grew up with married parents in an average house in a middle-class neighborhood in Oklahoma City. I lived in the same house from four years old until I went to college. My parents drank, yes, but they weren’t alcoholics. In our house there was not too much shouting, I’d say an average amount of laughter, and a lot of love. But, this was real life and not a television series. Things weren’t perfect. I was the youngest of three children, the middle sister was disabled and my brother, the eldest, went to Vietnam when I was nine and came home a heroin addict who spent the rest of his life battling addiction.
My parents, my brother, and my sister are all gone now. I’m the last one standing, the only one left to tell stories about my dad’s naps in front of the television, my mom’s paintings, my sister’s sweet smile, my brother’s struggles, and ultimately my own.
Although the events and people in my book are certainly fictional, the themes—difficult family relationships, addiction, guilt, shame, redemption—have been as real in my life as my pet guinea pig and the sound of the oyster gravel in the trailer park popping under the tires of my dad’s 1973 Buick LeSabre. So, has my life been nomadic? No. Chaotic? Sometimes. Messy? Yes, yes, and thank God, yes. Yours too, I’m betting.
Read on
Have You Read?
Melissa DeCarlo’s Favorite Books
A blessed companion is a book—a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend . . . a book that, at a touch, pours its heart into your own.
—Douglas William Jerrold
SO, HERE’S WHERE I GET to introduce a few of my friends. There’s no way to make a list of all my favorite books, but I can share a sampling. Some of these I’ve known for many years while others are more recent acquaintances. Yet, old friends or new, my heart is richer for having loved them.
Straight Man, by Richard Russo (and while you’re at it, Nobody’s Fool). Russo is a master of the serious-funny novel, and as a bonus both of these books feature a main character who’s a magnificent pain in the ass. Win-win!
The Jane Austen Book Club or Wit’s End or for that matter anything written by Karen Joy Fowler. Smart, funny with a soupçon of heartbreak. They hurt so good.
I love a good dysfunctional family novel, and This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper, and The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson, both hit what I think is a perfect blend of humor and pathos. Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters is a fabulously entertaining take on sibling dynamics, and if you’re in the mood for a darker (yet also very sharp) family drama, Jacquelyn Mitchard’s Deep End of the Ocean is dynamite.
Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner; Boys Life, by Robert McCammon; American Gods, by Neil Gaiman; I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb: These four books have absolutely nothing in common other
than how many times I’ve forced them upon friends, saying, “Trust me, you have to read this!”
I love funny mysteries like Susan Isaac’s Compromising Positions and the Spellmans series, by Lisa Lutz. And for a literary mystery, you can’t go wrong with Duplicate Keys, by Jane Smiley. Paranormal mystery fans might want to read The Aura by Carrie Bedford, and maybe The Last Will of Moira Leahy, by Therese Walsh, which is deliciously mysterious if perhaps not technically a mystery.
Maybe you like books with a little (noncliché, naturally) romance thrown in the mix. If so, I recommend Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson or any novel by Ellen Sussman—from French Lessons to A Wedding in Provence.
If you have a weakness for end-of-the-world postapocalyptic mayhem (and, oh, how I do!) you’ll want to put California, by Edan Lepucki, and Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel, on your must-read list.
Okay, I’m about out of space, but let me squeeze in three of my favorite memoirs: Drinking: A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp; Here if You Need Me, by Kate Braestrup; and The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After, by Melanie Gideon. I can’t even tell you how much I enjoyed getting to know these women through their books.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
PRAISE FOR THE ART OF CRASH LANDING
“I fell in love with Mattie, the hero of The Art of Crash Landing, with all her sass, her snark, her badass ways. The best compliment I can give this talented new author? I wish I had written this novel. You nailed it, Melissa DeCarlo. And you deserve legions of very happy readers.”
—Ellen Sussman, author of A Wedding in Provence and French Lessons
“Mattie describes herself as a natural disaster, and she may on to something. Accidentally pregnant and unemployed (too old and too smart for either), she’s on the run from a past she doesn’t really understand. In a few short months, she will figure out the riddle of her mother’s death, learn that even the most powerful love doesn’t always look pretty, and that sometimes there are very good reasons for very big secrets. Melissa DeCarlo’s storytelling is strong and sure, genuinely moving, and genuinely funny. Like her unlikely heroine, she’s a force to be reckoned with.”
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean
“The Art of Crash Landing is full of heart and sass. It’s about forgiveness, self-understanding, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. Readers will root for DeCarlo’s goofy, sharp-tongued heroine. . . . This is a sparkling, funny, and moving debut.”
—Edan Lepucki, author of California
“Behind the smart-ass mouth of Mattie Wallace, our troubled protagonist, is a whole lot of heart, soul, and humor. Mattie’s only assets are a stolen guitar strap, a nearly dead 1978 Chevy Malibu, and her wickedly acute observations, which keep the reader completely and totally hooked. You won’t stop reading The Art of Crash Landing until all the great mysteries of Mattie’s messed-up life have been unraveled by the ever-wise Mattie herself.”
—Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Wonder Bread Summer
“A dazzling debut that truly soars, about figuring out the tug of the past, about family mysteries and the marvels of forgiveness, and all of it features a spunky heroine readers won’t be able to stop falling in love with.”
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You
CREDITS
Cover design by Joanne O’Neill
Cover image © by mishkom / Getty Images
COPYRIGHT
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE ART OF CRASH LANDING. Copyright © 2015 by Melissa DeCarlo. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeCarlo, Melissa.
The art of crash landing : a novel / Melissa DeCarlo.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-06-239054-7 (paperback) — ISBN 978-0-06-239055-4 (ebook) — ISBN 978-0-06-241685-8 (large print) 1. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. 2. Family secrets—Fiction. 3. Oklahoma—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
EPub Edition September 2015 ISBN 9780062390554
PS3604.E2372A37 2015
813'.6—dc23
2015010374
15 16 17 18 19 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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The Art of Crash Landing Page 34