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The Way the Crow Flies

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 5,965 ratings · 690 reviews

The optimism of the early sixties, infused with the excitement of the space race and the menace of the Cold War, is filtered through the rich imagination of high-spirited, eight-year-old Madeleine, who welcomes her family's posting to a quiet Air Force base near the Canadian border. Secure in the love of her beautiful mother, she is unaware that her father, Jack, is caught...more

Paperback, 848 pages

Published August 31st 2004 by Harper Perennial (first published September 23rd 2003)

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Apr 15, 2008 Michael Hartford rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ann-Marie MacDonald’s The Way the Crow Flies follows the arc of classical comedy, though there’s very little funny about this novel. The first third presents an idyllic pastoral, a precious if insular community where fathers are good, mothers are beautiful, and children are safe. But the seeds of tragedy lurk among the flowers, and the middle section presents a nightmare that culminates in one child’s murder, another child’s victimization in a travesty of justice, and a father's terrible dilemma...more Ann-Marie MacDonald’s The Way the Crow Flies follows the arc of classical comedy, though there’s very little funny about this novel. The first third presents an idyllic pastoral, a precious if insular community where fathers are good, mothers are beautiful, and children are safe. But the seeds of tragedy lurk among the flowers, and the middle section presents a nightmare that culminates in one child’s murder, another child’s victimization in a travesty of justice, and a father's terrible dilemma as he tries to reconcile two values that threaten each other. The last section, the part that makes the novel a comedy, is about redemption and restoration, and the healing power of truth. Though the redemption is attenuated and incomplete, and some important wrongs cannot be set right, the conclusion is still an affirmation of the values nurtured in the first part of the novel.

For me, it is the first third that is most evocative. The Way the Crow Flies opens with the McCarthy family--father Jack, mother Mimi, twelve-year-old Mike, and nine-year-old- Madeleine--driving across Ontario to their new home, the Centralia Air Force Base outside London. Though this is the Canadian Air Force in 1962, MacDonald’s setting could have been my own childhood on U.S. Army bases ten years later. The new quarters freshly scrubbed of all traces of the last inhabitants, the wonderful anticipation of the moving van full of things that were kept in storage during an overseas posting, the fast and intense friendships formed by children and parents alike: these are parts of the “Army brat” experience so deeply instilled that we hardly think of them at all. MacDonald captures perfectly the odd tics of military culture (”max nix” is the military family shibboleth; whether you were stationed in Germany or not, you know this pidgin phrase), and the rootlessness that leads to nostalgia for people rather than place.

The strange contradiction of military life is the dark foreboding that hides beneath the security. On the one hand, at least in 1962's Centralia (and 1978’s Fort Leavenworth or 1981’s Wurzburg), safety and certainty can be taken for granted. The military base is a closed society with armed guards at every entrance; most mothers do not work outside the home, so there are always a hundred eyes on the street; and the temporariness of the quarters lends itself to an almost communal disregard for property, with everyone welcome in everyone's yard. There are no strangers on base.

But beneath this idyll is the knowledge that the whole enterprise rests on violence. In Centralia in 1962, there’s plenty to fear: the Cuban Missile Crisis strips away the veneer of peace, and the air raid sirens remind the complacent Centralians that they exist only because the world is a dangerous place. Jack is himself playing a part in a dangerous game, helping his old flight instructor Simon care for a rocket scientist, who may be a Nazi war criminal, until the scientist can be snuck over the border to the U.S. space program. More personal violence exists as well at Centralia, in the form of the pedophile teacher Mr. March who plays on the prim-and-proper ethos of the Air Force world to prey upon a group of girls who include Madeleine and Claire McCarroll, an American girl who is at Centralia in part because of Simon’s clandestine activities. Commissions and omissions intersect in a tangled web at Easter, leaving Claire horribly dead and Ricky Froelich, the boy everyone loves, accused of the crime.

Twenty years later, Madeleine is a successful comedian, part of the “Canadian invasion”, poised to make her big breakthrough. But she is also scarred and troubled, and begins therapy when she suffers panic attacks. Over the course of her therapy, she begins to see the tangle of lies that led to Claire’s murder, and tries to set things right. Too much time has passed, though: Mr. March is dead, Ricky has been paroled under a new identity, her father is near death, and her Centralia friends scattered at the end of the events of 1963. But though some mysteries are left unsolved and some crimes remain unpunished, Madeleine repairs what she can and finds peace with the rest.

The novel's last section feels like an extended postscript rather than natural continuation of the story, and is by far the weakest section. Some of the threads, particularly in the last chapter, are tied up a bit too easily, and though there is a terrible twist that exonerates Mr. March (while implicating him on a deeper, darker level), even that seems somewhat gratuitous. It would almost have been a better novel if it had ended at Ricky’s trial, leaving only dark hints of the truth. But the redemption is still satisfying, particularly Madeleine's reconciliation with Mimi and Jack's final admission of his role in the events (though he is spared the full brunt of the horrors of that long-ago spring).

Despite its flaws, though, The Way the Crow Flies is a powerful novel. MacDonald recreates a lost time and place and makes it real through the thoughts and actions of compelling characters. The novel creates a very tactile and haunting world, and its rich language and tight control of setting and plot masterfully marries the pastoral with the thriller; it's a dense and remarkable novel, both difficult and enjoyable, and is sure to color the reader’s perspective long after the last page is turned.(less)

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Dec 03, 2007 Gizmology rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

I really loved this book and had to read her previous novel, _Fall On Your Knees_, the minute I finished _The Way the Crow Flies_. One thing that struck me about her writing was the fact that in both books, I came to a place fairly soon in each (maybe a third of the way through?) where she related an event that had me literally sobbing and choking with sadness and anger, and then -- after I blew my nose -- furious at McDonald herself as the author! Both times I felt like putting the book down (n...more

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Nov 26, 2007 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Adults who appreciate good writing even when the subject matter might be tough to get through

Wow! What a read! I was fascinated by this book. From start to finish, I was captivated by the rich descriptions and character development. Although the subject matter became distasteful at times, I felt I owed it to myself to finish the story, which I am so glad I did. Like real life, the story is unsettling; unresolved; gritty. The way the author intertwined the lives of each character was masterful and often unexpected. I "read" this book on audiocassette which was performed by the author her...more

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Aug 30, 2007 Kieran rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone interested in a Cold-War mystery with a Feminist Twist

Overall, I have to say I enjoyed this novel. I read this 800+ page tome by Canadian author and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald in about a week of a vacation in Mexico. The mystery was engrossing and she crafted an intricate page-turner of a story. The parallel themes of the hypocritical political maneuvers of the US and Canada after WWII and the hypocrisy of 1950s suburban life were interesting and, at times, very realistic. She covered a number of historical events that are not often discussed a...more

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Mar 07, 2008 Arryn rated it 3 of 5 stars

What I liked about this book: vivid and well-rounded characters(!), references to pop culture, dialogue in French, intrigue, deception, loyalty, a storybook marriage, historical references, beautiful descriptions of time and place(!), the denouement that left me feeling emotionally exhausted

What I didn't like: some strong language, disturbing scenes of child molestation, the chapters where Madeleine is an adult

I couldn't recommend this book without reservation. However, after plodding through th...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was SO good! A very tragic, but wonderful story of a family and the events that damage them, the secrets that they keep. But the book was so nostalgic, bringing back sweet memories from my childhood. Very enjoyable.

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Aug 02, 2011 Solveig C.B. added it

WOW. Just picked this off the shelf without much consideration and I was completely taken by surprise. Hard book to review as it was such a disturbing subject. I certainly recommend it, but definitely had to limit my reading at times to be able to digest what I was taking in. However, became so close to the main character that I did not want to let go.

Found some parts unneccessarily lengthy. Especially fed up with the road and street references that were continuously repeated.

I also found that t...more

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Feb 27, 2009 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was an amazing book. It is very tragic. The theme and material were hard for me to get through. I had to slow down at times to recover from the tragedy, but I am glad I stuck to it. I also had a hard time "getting into" the book. I was not fond of her style and was not drawn to all the military life details that fill the first part of the book. But, I fell in love with this McCarthy family and I just had to soldier on. Of course her style ending up charming my socks off once I got going.
It...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Jodi Goldbeck rated it 5 of 5 stars

Madeleine is a funny, vivacious 10-year old living with her brother (Mike) and their parents in the 60s on a Canadian air force base. About half-way through the book, a little girl (Claire) is murdered. Ricky is accused of the murder as he is the last one seen with Claire. Jack knows Ricky didn't commit the murder but can't come forward because of his own secrets. The book follows Madeleine into her 30s where she begins remembering her past.

This was a tremendous book. It was 804 pages long but I...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Sarah B. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Someone looking for a great summer novel

Recommended to Sarah by: Jordan

Shelves: my-collection

I had chosen another novel to bring with me on my 10-day vacation this year, but disappointingly I was done with it by the end of the flight to Calgary (admittedly having skipped 50 pages in the middle). I asked my friend in Calgary for a loaner, telling her I was looking for something she could recommend, preferably Canadian since it's harder to come by Canadian novels at home. She handed me this one, saying it is like a mystery novel but "sad, but really good" which turns out to be a perfect d...more I had chosen another novel to bring with me on my 10-day vacation this year, but disappointingly I was done with it by the end of the flight to Calgary (admittedly having skipped 50 pages in the middle). I asked my friend in Calgary for a loaner, telling her I was looking for something she could recommend, preferably Canadian since it's harder to come by Canadian novels at home. She handed me this one, saying it is like a mystery novel but "sad, but really good" which turns out to be a perfect description of this book.

I fell into it immediately (vacation reading is great that way), fell in love with the main character, and couldn't put it down. I was so pulled-in that when bad things started happening, I had a strong emotional reaction, and I realized that I really wanted the book to go on for the next 600 pages without changing. But I am grateful to MacDonald, first for the gift creating characters I cared about so much, and then for having the bravery to take them on their full path. This is one of those books that leaves me in awe of the great gulf between talented writers and the talent-less (like myself). Here is an example of MacDonald's prose:

When you look closely, however, you can see that they all have the thing in their eye. The result of an accident or a gift. Perhaps God dropped each of them on the head before they were born. Light seems to reflect at an odd angle from their irises -- the visible effect, possibly, of information that, having entered the brain obliquely, exits the eye at a corresponding tilt. Something, at some point, smote or stroked them. Each lives in genial terror of being found out and exposed as a fraud. Each his fuelled by a combustible blend of exuberance and self-loathing, informed by a mix of savvy and gullibility. None was cool in high school. Denizens of the great in-between of belonging and not belonging; dwellers in the cracks of sidewalks; stateless citizens of the world; strangers among us, familiar to all. Comedians. These are Madeleine's people. [p. 609 of the paperback]

In addition to loving this book for its characters and plot, I loved all the references to things from my childhood, like Nana Mouskouri glasses and Wink soda. It made me feel even more at home while being at home. I'll be looking out for more by this author.(less)

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Jul 16, 2012 Jayne rated it 4 of 5 stars

“The Way The Crow Flies” is not as straightforward as one might anticipate from the title. Rather, it twists expectations on its unflinching journey through the demon-haunted world of little girls, a domain that has never been as innocent or violence-free as our cultural delusion would have it. In this evocative second novel by the acclaimed Canadian author of “Fall On Your Knees,” there are few direct routes.

The crow flies a triangle around its nest atop a rusting air raid siren on a Cold War...more “The Way The Crow Flies” is not as straightforward as one might anticipate from the title. Rather, it twists expectations on its unflinching journey through the demon-haunted world of little girls, a domain that has never been as innocent or violence-free as our cultural delusion would have it. In this evocative second novel by the acclaimed Canadian author of “Fall On Your Knees,” there are few direct routes.

The crow flies a triangle around its nest atop a rusting air raid siren on a Cold War air force base in southern Ontario. Its domain encompasses a few square miles of field, stream, and military family houses, where a microcosm of domestic and political drama plays out before 8-year old Madeleine McCarthy. This gem of a child character is true to her time and her place. Her thoughts and observations are limited to those things a child finds comprehensible; all things beyond her reasoning are simply walled off. Ms. MacDonald’s spare, beautiful language and avoidance of sentimental illusions breed a purity of perspective too often absent in adult portrayals of children.

The McCarthy family has just returned from a base in West Germany, gladly leaving behind the new-built ‘Wall of Shame’ in Berlin. They settle efficiently into their new home and re-establish their social round. This is the norm for military families: move, make new friends, and then repeat the process in a year or two. Attachments are immediate but always temporary. Only the surroundings endure. Independent of geography, the sameness of air base architecture underlines the family’s internal unity within its ordered demi-world while emphasizing its social and emotional distance from settled, civilian towns and villages.

Other inhabitants take form, their tortures and tender moments observed by Madeleine and her parents. Mysteries multiply with the falling leaves. Mysteries for Madeleine: Who will occupy the last empty house on their street? Who will be her new best friend? Why does the nice teacher have a number tattooed on his arm? How does the creepy teacher compel his female students with candy? Mysteries for her mother: How does drab neighbour Karen manage five children and a job? Do other officers’ wives hide from their husbands the icky old clothes they wear for housework? Will she have another baby? Mysteries for Daddy: Who is the defecting Soviet rocket scientist he will babysit? Will President Kennedy’s blockade of Cuba succeed? Will Prime Minister Diefenbaker put Canada on military alert? Will the Russians drop the Bomb?

Time is fluid, portrayed as a child sees it: drifting onward with a marvelous spaciousness, punctuated by the highs and lows of Madeleine’s childish existence. As the year turns and the snow falls, however, the simmering pot of the Cold War unsettles the base. Skating and socializing and homework are a thin patina of normalcy laid upon a frightening underbelly of nuclear brinksmanship and deadly espionage. The school’s nuclear duck-and-cover drill is subverted to something personally shaming and creepingly evil. Madeleine’s growing emotional isolation is misread by parents preoccupied with wider concerns. Their misguided reassurances compound problems they don’t know exist. The reader watches disaster honing in on a target area, guessing and second-guessing the point of impact although, inevitably, praying for a ‘miss’ on one character must fate the destruction of another.

A child dies. A crow, braver than his fellows, steals her name from the charm bracelet on her delicate, dead wrist. A nuclear winter of suspicion, arrest, and trial dissolves the artificial unity of family and community. Lies are told, truths omitted, spies protected, and a terrible burden of testimony falls on shoulders too young. In typical military fashion, the families transfer out to other identical air bases, to other standard-issue houses and other interchangeable schools. Their internal damage merits merely a fresh coat of paint to hide the cracks as they carry the fallout of their secrets away with them.

But crows are scavengers. They eat death and treasure its tangible reminders. They hold in their nest atop the air raid siren the collective memory of the devastating events in their small kingdom. Fragments of memory fly out at intervals to disturb the adult Madeleine, drawing her back to the peeling paint of her childhood. The soul-wounds and enduring mysteries of her solitary year on the now-closed air base are exposed. People have died and moved and lost themselves. Resolutions are messy and incomplete. Parents tumble from shadowy pedestals. As the Berlin Wall comes down, the only homecoming possible for a Cold War military child is to find those few key survivors who shared with her that year when the Bomb did not actually fall and yet changed all their lives forever.

Compelling as the overall tale is, there are places where the book slips. Both parents’ inner monologues reflect too readily both the stereotypes of the 1950’s and the one-dimensional parental images carried by their young daughter. They seem not complete people. After the gradual, horrifying buildup of the trial, the switch to Madeleine’s adult self seems rudely abrupt. Hoping for reassurance about the wrongly-accused boy, we don’t much care if Madeleine has turned out gay; her adult lifestyle neither adds to nor subtracts from the story. This may be deliberate on the author’s part, a way to emphasize how Madeleine’s family’s next move deprived them all of the opportunity for truth. For the reader still emotionally bound to the fate of other characters, the brief gloss over the intervening years detracts.

These minor flaws are not enough to spoil the journey through a book that, in addition to beautiful storytelling, induces byways of thought about childhood, parenthood, and militarism with a few scattered, simply phrased philosophical observations. “The Way The Crow Flies” is a flight from the illusory 1950’s innocence of children through the dark hinterlands of sexual abuse and patriotic secrets to healing, love, and standup comedy. It is a passionately felt and beautifully written ‘Lord of the Flies’ for girls. (less)

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Nov 03, 2011 Mike Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

[Warning: this is a long review, but this complex book merits it.]

This is a long, thoughtful, and multi-layered novel. It was recommended to me as a good depiction of life growing up on Canadian military bases, as I did. And it is. It centres around 8-year-old Madeleine McCarthy, who's on her fourth move in 1962, and her father Jack McCarthy, a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) officer. The early part of the story is about how the McCarthys, including Madeleine's Acadian mother Mimi and her older...more [Warning: this is a long review, but this complex book merits it.]

This is a long, thoughtful, and multi-layered novel. It was recommended to me as a good depiction of life growing up on Canadian military bases, as I did. And it is. It centres around 8-year-old Madeleine McCarthy, who's on her fourth move in 1962, and her father Jack McCarthy, a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) officer. The early part of the story is about how the McCarthys, including Madeleine's Acadian mother Mimi and her older brother Mike, settle into their new home at RCAF Station Centralia, in central Ontario. Author MacDonald captures very well what it's like moving all the time, setting up in yet another military-supplied house. I've been there and done that and I'll attest to the accuracy. She explains the lifestyle better than I could.

MacDonald writes that when you move all the time, you're not from anywhere that you can locate on a map; you're from a series of events. You define yourself by stories -- what she calls "remember-whens" -- not by home towns. And stories are what I think this book is really about. We tell stories to ourselves to make sense of our pasts. We tell stories to each other. We tell stories at a community or cultural level to make sense of our world. And often, we only know part of anyone else's story.

In addition, we sometimes lie to each other, and even to ourselves, to hide unpleasant truths. Stories and lies drive this novel. Madeleine tells lies to protect her parents from knowing how things are in her Grade 4 class. Jack tells lies to protect the secrecy of a military-intelligence operation he's involved in. And society tells itself lies, or at least omits part of history, to justify actions that are at best unethical and at worst criminal. Throw in post-war World War II optimism and Cold War paranoia, and almost every character in this story is deceived by someone about something. Only the reader knows what's going on, and even we can't be totally sure we have the whole story.

Near the half-way mark, all these stories and lies run against the murder of a child, which is announced on the first page, but not fully recounted until much later. The murder is highly reminiscent of the Stephen Truscott case, which MacDonald acknowledges. Jack and Madeleine both have information that is pertinent. One of them must decide whether to lie, and the other must decide whether to tell the truth. Their decisions have consequences that they must both live with. Nearly 20 years later, the story picks up with Madeleine and Jack having to confront and relive the decisions they made then, and update their stories.

The novel is very well-written, with every word carefully chosen. The whole story is told in the present tense, which gives it an immediacy that makes it very compelling. It is, in short, a page-turner. It is very long, however; over 720 pages. Occasional flashbacks and flash-forwards are also in the present tense, which can be a bit confusing, but it's generally easy to adjust. The first portion, dealing with life on the RCAF station, is slow-moving but still engrossing. The pace picks up with the murder trial and its aftermath. This is a sad, disturbing tale. While there are moments of childhood joy and silliness, the events are, on the whole, demoralizing. This is not a feel-good story, but there are one or two deeply moving scenes that remind us what the real point is: it's all about love.(less)

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Oct 20, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Overall I enjoyed this one. Although at times I was pulling my hair out wishing the author would 'get on with it'. MacDonald has a slight tendency to self-indulge in minutiae. Sometimes it

worked, yet other times I was ready to curse her and bang my IPad on the table. "Come on, get on wtih it". It really adds nothing to the story for me to be re-assured of the type of tobacco a Nazi rocket scientist prefers. Not at all!

There were other instances but I'll refrain from extrapolating at the risk of...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Stacey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This one took a while to read, obviously due to the length, but also because I was dreading what I knew was coming. It was one of those books that's just so sad...It makes me wonder how many secrets people carry with them and how the smallest lie can change everything. Also, I like her writing style, the way she switches perspectives, and the look into a life of an air force family.

"If you move around all your life, you can't find where you come from on a map. All those places where you lived ar...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars

The multi-talented MacDonald is back again in top form with an 800 plus page monster of a novel which, despite its girth never drags and avoids being ponderous. I can see a novel such as this being a failure in the hands of a less competent writer, but MacDonald pulls it off brilliantly.

The novel opens with a single hook: The birds saw the murder. After that we are immediately transported back in time to an era that is so realistically evoked I could literally smell and taste each and every mino...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Nate's Bookgroup rated it 3 of 5 stars

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

This book was way too long and I think the editor knew it. The very first page is the description of a scene in which a murder is foretold. The next 350 pages of the book is the meandering build up to the murder scene. Ann-Marie MacDonald leads the reader through rooms involving child molestation, international spydom, elementary school quarrels, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Nazi refugees. And written like this, I admit it sounds interesting. But all of those topics a...more SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

This book was way too long and I think the editor knew it. The very first page is the description of a scene in which a murder is foretold. The next 350 pages of the book is the meandering build up to the murder scene. Ann-Marie MacDonald leads the reader through rooms involving child molestation, international spydom, elementary school quarrels, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Nazi refugees. And written like this, I admit it sounds interesting. But all of those topics are told through the eyes of a 9 year old who doesn't quite understand.

Interspersed through the narrative are occasional jumps to the murder scene, in which the reader gets time to formulate a motive and suspect. The author is very skilled at leading the reader along the wrong path. Too skilled, I'd say, because if this weren't my book group book I would have stopped reading it about 500 pages in thinking that I knew the who/what/where/when. I think the editor felt the same way, otherwise the murder narratives wouldn't be necessary. The plot would just propel you through the evidence of the case.

After the murder was revealed (I was right about who got killed, by the way, thus adding to my "I can see right through this plot" feeling I had), the plot was more solid and focused. I flew through pp. 350 - 600, really really good stuff. Then in the six hundreds somewhere you hit a chapter that reintroduced Madeleine, the lead character, as an adult. You learn of her hinted at lesbianism and the outcome of her parent's marraige after moving from Centralia, Ontario. She's screwed up, she's leaving her girlfriend for another woman. Honestly, I didn't need all this explication.

Round about p. 725, McDonald starts to reapply the circumstantial evidence of the case and the reader learns their assumed culprit had a solid alibi. You read the main characters findings of the case after she starts researching evidence about 30 years after the incident had taken place and find out the true story of that murderous night. Very well done. I was completely wrong about thinking I knew the mystery at p. 200. The clues planted all along the way that the obvious suspect was not the killer are perfectly fitting in hindsight. Really beautifully told, I just wish I hadn't had to wade through 400 pages of red herrings to find out I was wrong. (less)

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Sep 04, 2009 Shannon rated it 5 of 5 stars

(deep breath) Wow.

#1: writing was really amazing
#2: spot on insight into children's world from child's point of view, along with ability to communicate from child's perspective; if you are a woman, you know that girl, and you may find you were that girl
#3: So many interesting layers; I appreciated the Canadian insecurity, both inward focused (everybody thinks we're lame - and we kind of agree), and outwardly focused (look at what we've done to gain respect, and why don't we have it yet?) I also...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

WOW. This book started a little slowly for me - in fact I once started it and put it down, so I had to start it all over again.

But I was pretty quickly sucked into the story and the time period. The cold war. The race to space. The Cuban Missile crisis. Life on a military base for a highly intelligent and irrepressible pre-teen girl during this very poignant time period. I could see, smell, feel, and taste the sights and sounds of this book, so well crafted is it.

The characters are so thoroughly...more

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Oct 02, 2009 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-reads

I read this when it first came out, but am rereading for a book club. It's interesting to reread it in the wake of having seen a couple of seasons of "Mad Men," which is set around the same time. Having not read it for so long was like reading it for the first time, as I recalled only the big picture of the novel. MacDonald deftly interweaves the various plot strands -- Madeleine's story in 1962-63, Jack's story in the same time frame, the thread about Dora, and the thread about Claire. The narr...more

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Jul 26, 2009 Alan Marchant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

straight at the heart

The Way the Crow Flies is a big, big novel and the author's literary genius shines from every page.

I was drawn into the book by Ms. MacDonald's transparent, vernacular prose style, reminiscent of Ken Kesey or Stephen King at their best, and her gorgeously poetic scenery. But it was the sensitive characterizations that hooked me. Night after night as I read the book, my dreams were infiltrated by concern for the members of the McCarthy and Froelich families.

It would be easy t...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow. What a great book! Loved the characters particularly young Madeleine and her dad, Jack (I think I envied their relationship) and the Froelichs across the street, but truly all the characters in the book were expertly crafted. What's most admirable is that the author manages to weave seriously heavy topics without making this book depressing or dark -- it's remarkable.

The story takes me places that I was not expecting. It certainly starts off a bit light-hearted and carefree, introducing us...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Carolyn Gerk rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Way the Crow Flies is not, in my opinion, a 'murder mystery, spy thriller' as is printed on the back of the novel. Yes, there is a murder, a mystery and cold war spy drama, but the most memorable moments, and the majority of the novel, is made up of a coming of age tale and a reflection on morality and lost innocence.
The novel begins with a taste of 'the murder'. Then proceeds to set the scene for a hundred and fifty pages, with no inkling of any murder to come, I kind of forgot what the bo...more

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Jul 15, 2010 Yumi rated it 4 of 5 stars

depicted is the culture and conflicts of families living in the the married quarters of a canadian airbase during the time of post war optimism and through the cold war. i thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and its many characters. her almost traditional linear narrative style reminds me of margaret attwood ('cats eye' especially), which is a refreshing change from the recent trend of multiple narrators and other cheap tricks to keep readers interested ('page turner!'). the story revolves mainly aro...more

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Apr 05, 2013 kingshearte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, cdn-books-worth-reading, fiction

This book kicked my ass. It took me a while to get into it, but once things started happening, I found it very compelling, as well as utterly devastating. I don't think it's revealing too much to say that Mr. March, mentioned in the blurb? He was sexually abusing several of the girls in his class. The very idea of that alone is enough to be upsetting, but MacDonald presents it in a way that is just heartbreaking: the perspective of one of the abused children. First there's the fear and the feeli...more This book kicked my ass. It took me a while to get into it, but once things started happening, I found it very compelling, as well as utterly devastating. I don't think it's revealing too much to say that Mr. March, mentioned in the blurb? He was sexually abusing several of the girls in his class. The very idea of that alone is enough to be upsetting, but MacDonald presents it in a way that is just heartbreaking: the perspective of one of the abused children. First there's the fear and the feeling that you're in trouble when you're asked to stay after class. Then there's the confusion over just what exactly is happening at these times, and what it could possibly have to do with the reason you're ostensibly in trouble. Then there's the growing realization of what's going on. And then, perhaps most devastating of all, is the ongoing unwillingness to tell anyone about what's happening, because you know that it's bad and you're sure that if you tell, you'll get in trouble for participating in something this bad. I genuinely wanted to cry throughout much of the middle section of this book, when I didn't want to just rage against the world for allowing this kind of thing to happen.

Because while this may be fiction, the fact of the matter is that right now, this is happening to someone. More than one someone. Countless little kids are going through exactly what the kids in this book did, and that is just so far from acceptable that I don't have the words for it, and I found reading this part of the book very difficult.

Of course, there was also a whole other maelstrom of related-but-not events and circumstances going on, which lead us into the last part of the book, where, as I believe she did in Fall on Your Knees as well, MacDonald takes us back to those pivotal events and tells us how things really happened, and the truth is kind of even more awful than what you thought happened.

It takes skill to write the way MacDonald does, to deliberately telegraph almost everything but still have it be riveting. There are very few huge dramatic twists in this book; you see almost everything coming, even if sometimes you revise your expectations as you go along. But that doesn't make it dull. At times it reminded me of reading Of Mice and Men, where I knew exactly where things were going, and dreaded turning every page, even as I was inexorably drawn to do so. Same kind of idea here. The dread of knowing how things were going to go and being unable to do anything to stop it was extremely effective in this book.

I think she's also very good at presenting you with the situation and giving you no reason to question it, only to turn it all on its head later — without actually rewriting history, so to speak. The clues were there, and if you chose to look beyond what seems like the clear solution, you could have figured that part out too. She'd probably make a good mystery writer.

Ultimately, it was one of those books that I can't say I enjoyed, as such, but I can say that it was a good read. Just not if you're looking for something uplifting.(less)

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Apr 25, 2010 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a read; I was captivated for all 700 plus pages (the first 75 pages were a slight challenge to get through, but then almost like a line was cast; I was hooked). This is a gritty, unresolved epic novel that revolves around a military family post WWII that has relocated to Canada from Germany. The political maneuvers of the US and Canada, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the fate of Nazi refugees were well documented and explored, but the heart of this book is seen through the eyes of 9 year old...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 militar...more

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Feb 03, 2009 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book took a while to hook me. The writing was good, but the beginning does drag with lengthy descriptions prior to any major plot developments. I stayed with it, though.

I recommend the book largely because it portrayed a father's dilemma between his duty to country and his duty to humanity in a way that was emotionally wrenching. His and his daughter's inability to speak freely about certain events (for very different reasons) changed the outcome of a murder investigation in a way that caus...more

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Oct 06, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

So, so weighty. At critical junctures the experience is like bathing in astringent. Only, the astringent seeps in and soaks one's soul.

MacDonald's first work, Fall on Your Knees, is a remarkable feat and remains one of my favorite six or seven novels of all time. This isn't quite that, but it remains one of the thirty or forty most significant books I've ever read. It is difficult to read, more so than that first book---not in the sense that Finnegan's Wake is difficult, say, or the Gilgamesh,...more

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Apr 21, 2008 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a beautifully written, but emotionally challenging book. The author has a real gift for bringing to life characters, time, and place. Her protagonists are impressively complex and the plot is very compelling--- my only complaint is the novel's dark heart --and that is just a personal bias for more upbeat tales.

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Feb 23, 2011 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, fiction

"The birds saw the murder. Down below in the new grass, the tiny white bell-heads of the lily of the valley. It was a sunny day. Twig-crackling, early spring stirrings, spring soil smell. April. A stream through the nearby woods, so refreshing to the ear - it would be dry by the end of summer, but for now it rippled through the shade. High in the branches of an elm, that is where the birds were, perched among the many buds set to pleat like fresh hankies."

From the first sentence, the author ha...more

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About Ann-Marie MacDonald

Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian playwright, novelist, actor and broadcast journalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. The daughter of a member of Canada's military, she was born at an air force base near Baden-Baden, West Germany.

MacDonald won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for her first novel, Fall on Your Knees, which was also named to Oprah Winfrey's Book Club.

She received the Governor General'...more

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Quotes from The Way the Crow Flies

“There are some stories you can't hear enough. They are the same every time you hear them. But you are not. That's one reliable way of understanding time.” — 19 people liked it

“Afterwards, in bed with a book, the spell of television feels remote compared to the journey into the page. To be in a book. To slip into the crease where two pages meet, to live in the place where your eyes alight upon the words to ignite a world of smoke and peril, colour and serene delight. That is a journey no one can end with the change of a channel. Enduring magic.” — 5 people liked it

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