How long do you hold on to hope?
Danica Greene has always hated flying, so it was almost laughable that the boy of her dreams was a pilot. She married him anyway and together, she and Etsell settled into a life where love really did seem to conquer all. Danica is firmly rooted on the ground in Blackhawk, the small town in northern Iowa where they grew up, and the wide slashes of sky that stretch endlessly across the prairie seem more than enough for Etsell.
But when the opportunity to spend three weeks in Alaska helping a pilot friend presents itself, Etsell accepts and their idyllic world is turned upside down. It’s his dream, he reveals, and Danica knows that she can’t stand in the way. Ell is on his last flight before heading home when his plane mysteriously vanishes shortly after takeoff, leaving Danica in a free fall. Etsell is gone, but what exactly does gone mean? Is she a widow? An abandoned wife? Or will Etsell find his way home to her?
Danica is forced to search for the truth in her marriage and treks to Alaska to grapple with the unanswerable questions about her husband’s mysterious disappearance. But when she learns that Ell wasn’t flying alone and that a woman is missing, too, the bits and pieces of the careful life that she had constructed for them in Iowa take to the wind. A story of love and loss, and ultimately starting over, Far From Here explores the dynamics of intimacy and the potentially devastating consequences of the little white lies we tell the ones we love.
Howard Books; Original edition (February 7, 2012)
Judy’s Review ~
I love to fly. Ever since I flew on a plane for the first time when I was 27, I have wanted to go everywhere by plane. The feeling of soaring above the clouds and the beautiful views of sunrises and sunsets have been such amazing experiences for me. It’s funny to think that I am afraid of heights, yet I enjoy flying so much.
That’s why I couldn’t identify with the main character of this book, Far From Here, when it tells of how she is petrified of flying and doesn’t want anything to do with her husband’s airplanes or his dream of being a bush pilot in the wilds of Alaska.
After her husband, Etsell, goes on a trip to Alaska, Danica Greene receives a phone call telling her that her husband is missing. His plane disappears shortly after takeoff when he is on his last flight before going back home. For weeks, Danica doesn’t know whether she is a widow or a wife abandoned by her husband. Dani eventually learns that Etsell was not alone when he left the Alaskan airport. A woman had been with him and has also vanished.
The rest of the book is about how Dani struggles with the idea that her husband may have been unfaithful to her. The more she learns about what happened in the Alaskan wilderness, the more she must come to grips with who she really is and what she is going to do with the rest of her life.
The book also portrays her family as highly disfunctional, which adds a lot of color to the tale. I love her mother, even though I would probably want to strangle her even more than Dani does. And her sisters are women you just love to hate, yet at the same time I felt much pity for the whole bunch.
I enjoyed the book, but I felt like it had a weak ending. I would have liked to have a little more detail about what happened to Dani, her family, and her neighbor.
(reprinted with persmission)
