The Flying Circus

May 25, 2015
If the only flying circus you know is Monty Python’s, then Crandall’s nostalgic recreation of the heyday of the barnstorming stunt pilots who crisscrossed the U.S. in the 1920s will come as an entertaining surprise. Gil Gilroy, a former WWI flyer, Cora Haviland, a penniless heiress, and Henry Schuler, a teenage orphan fleeing a crime back in his native Indiana, crash into one another—quite literally—at a rural crossroads and eventually transform themselves into an act, traveling from town to town, with Gus doing stunts in his Curtiss Jenny biplane, Cora doing stunts on her motorcycle, and Henry acting as their mechanic. The only thing they have in common is a past they are all trying to escape. Things go along fine until Henry sees Gus and Cora kissing and is blindsided with jealousy. The three of them up the ante and join an actual flying show of aero-acrobats, in which Cora becomes a wing-walker, constantly trying to devise more and more dangerous stunts to attract larger crowds to the show. Cora eventually graduates to air racer, but the combined secrets from their past threaten to destroy their future together. All too often, the drama in the skies is overshadowed by the melodrama on the ground. Despite this, Gil, Cora, and Henry make for a sturdy romantic trio, and this old-fashioned novel plays like a refreshed mash-up of William Faulkner’s Pylon and the 1970s Robert Redford vehicle The Great Waldo Pepper.

July 1, 2015

"Disaster lived by its own rules. Most times it crept up from behind, wiping out everything with a single blow, a bully and a coward. Lightning strikes." So begins Crandall's sophomore effort (after Whistling Past the Graveyard), a story centered on 1920s barnstorming pilots in the Midwest. Henry is the son of German immigrants, a reviled status in the years following World War I. On the run from his hometown, he seems unable to escape the guilt and shame of the shocking accusations that dog him. In his wanderings, Henry joins up with Gil, a war pilot who performs death-defying stunts around the country as a coping mechanism for his own survival struggles. Cora is from an established family and looking for adventure, having barely escaped an arranged marriage to another aristocrat. Beautiful and charming, she could prove the undoing of either man as the three fly closer to a disaster of their own making. VERDICT Though the subject matter of barnstorming is unusual and provides an arena for the author to explore the characters' interior landscapes, those emotional journeys are less than compelling. In spite of an exciting setting, the plot may not be fast paced enough to keep readers turning the pages. Crandall's acclaimed debut is a better choice for readers, with its emphasis of the civil rights movement and gothic coming-of-age themes.--Julia M. Reffner, Midlothian, VA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2015
Picaresque tour of mid-America in the aftermath of the Great War, bringing together a fugitive, a jaded flier, an escapee former heiress-and a very cute puppy. Henry Jefferson, nee Schuler, the orphaned son of German immigrants, is on the run after being accused-rightly or wrongly we won't learn until the end-of murdering a young woman in Indiana. Making for Chicago, Henry runs into Gil, a former Army reconnaissance pilot with a past, and his Jenny biplane. A talented mechanic, Henry offers his services to Gil, who's reluctant to accept until his loner status is further threatened by Cora, who's fleeing her mother's plans for her, specifically marriage into wealth to restore her ruined family fortune. Mostly at the behest of Cora, a self-taught stunt motorcyclist, the trio forms the Mercury's Daredevils barnstorming act, named after an adorable stray mutt Cora teaches to do doggy tricks. As they make the circuit around rural Illinois, they encounter criminal elements linked to the illicit booze trade and narrowly escape gangsters, the Klan, and, especially crucial in Henry's case, the law. When they cross the Mississippi, however, the amateurishness of their act-mostly featuring motorcycle versus airplane races-stands in stark contrast to the magnificence of Hoffmann's Flying Circus, which features four airplanes in much better condition than Gil's rattletrap and not just former reconnaissance pilots, but former fighting aces. Cora joins Hoffman's, followed with reluctance by Henry and Gil after the Jenny is destroyed by a twister. Longueurs ensue as we wait to discover whether Henry really is a criminal, to what extent Gil's guilt is justified, and whether some vulnerability lurks beneath Cora's spunkily gorgeous tomboy exterior. The verisimilitude of the language suffers, as too much modern parlance, e.g. "repressed emotions," "what's not to like," etc., jostles against expressions like "the bee's knees" and "the cat's pajamas." The technical challenges of early aviation are described with far more coherence and confidence. An engaging road saga that hits some potholes-or air pockets-along the way.

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June 1, 2015
Eighteen-year-old Henry Schuler Jefferson is on the run from the scene of a horrible crime when he comes upon an impromptu race between a pilot and a motorcyclist. The chance meeting leads to the formation of an unlikely trio: Henry, who has more than one reason to hide his past; the pilot, a haunted WWI veteran; and the motorcyclist, a young woman breaking free from the ties of her moneyed upbringing. Together they barnstorm across the Midwest performing stunts in this 1920s-era novel, under the constant threat that their fragile group could disband. Though he knows how to cajole a crowd and tinker with an engine, Henry struggles with his own anger and fear of discovery. Crandall excels both at capturing the meaning behind a glance and at describing the mechanics behind the trio's daring acrobatics. Through their romantic entanglements and attempts to chase the horizon between dreams and reality, the members of the Flying Circus prove that sometimes the biggest risk you can take is with your heart. Historical fiction with appeal to both romance and adventure fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)