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    Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel
    Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel
    Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel
    Ebook471 pages7 hours

    Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel

    By Clare Morrall

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Peter Straker lives in a converted lighthouse on the Devon coast with a fine view of the sea, two cats, and no neighbors. That's just the way he likes it. He speaks to no one except in his dreams, where he converses with some of the seventy-eight people he believes he killed nearly a quarter-century earlier -- though he can't quite remember how it happened. But Straker's carefully preserved solitude is about to be invaded by Imogen Doody, a prickly and unapproachable school caretaker with a painful history herself. Against his will -- and hers -- Straker soon finds himself helping Imogen repair the run-down cottage she's inherited. There are forces gathering, however, as the twenty-fifth anniversary of Straker's crime approaches, and they're intent upon disturbing his precarious peace.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateApr 2, 2010
    ISBN9780062008688
    Natural Flights of the Human Mind: A Novel
    Author

    Clare Morrall

    Clare Morrall's first novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. She is a music teacher with two grown children. She lives in Birmingham, England.

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    Reviews for Natural Flights of the Human Mind

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Natural Flights of the Human Mind introduces two damaged, mysterious characters in a seaside village on the English coast. The first is Peter Straker, a misfit who lives in an abandoned lighthouse that each day grows closer to falling into the turbulent sea. Despite having no job, Straker lives a regimented life governed by numbers and routine. Creeping in around the edges of his carefully managed, solitary life are the voices of the 78. The 78 are the victims of a mysterious accident Straker believes himself to have caused.Imogen Doody is a school caretaker determined to live life on her own terms after a young marriage that ended in disaster. Fortified by a powerful anger that gives her the control over her surroundings that she desperately craves, she's willingly walled off from any human companionships, fending of all advances from her family and would-be friends with her prickly attitude. Fatefully, she comes into some abandoned property from her long lost godfather. As she struggles to restore the abandoned cottage, Doody crosses paths with the mysterious Straker, and the two make a connection that sets in motion a series of extraordinary events that neither could have anticipated that sets them both on the path to destruction...or redemption.This books is definitely a slow burn, carefully drawing out the often unlikeable but all-too-sympathetic main characters, peeling off the layers of their stories little by little, revealing their damaging histories, unpacking the troubled pasts that led them to their solitary, broken lives. The seaside village where the two collide, despite its beauty, is rendered starkly, a place of exile for Straker who hopes the whipping coastal winds will one day be powerful enough to sweep him and his lighthouse away. If you're the sort of person who's ever wondered what the life of somebody foolishly or even unwittingly responsible for tragedy would be like, Natural Flights of the Human mind is a compelling glimpse into that psyche. I never expected this one to be a page turner, but I found myself rushing toward the finish desperate to see if the troubled characters Morall had brought me to care for would find redemption. Flights is a haunting and beautiful story of perils of inadequacy and guilt and the power of love and forgiveness.
    • 4/5
      I really like Clare Morrall's work. She seems to have a a special connection with troubled people. I understand her description of how the same issues can keep going around and around in your head at a conscious level, and also how events in your life can have a long term effect at an unconscious level. Some people (such as me) are more affected by this than others. In relation to the impact on relationships, the question arises as to whether there is something you can do or say in a relationship that might stop this perpetual grinding and wearing away at your soul. In this book the possibility of forgiveness is raised but there is also a recognition that some people are just not ready or able to offer forgiveness. What happens to the wrong-doer in that case is not clear. The reason this book doesn't score a 5 for me is that a few too many of the situations and events are just too unlikely and coincidental, such that the element of realism is degraded.
    • 4/5
      I, like other reviewers, got this book because I loved Astonishing Splashes of Colour. And, like them, I wasn't disappointed.This is an introspective story of two people who both live soliary lives. Both are struggling to deal with guilt: Pete was responsible for a train accident in which 78 people were killed, and Imogen Doody believes she is responsible for her sister's suicide. Both are also dealing with living profoundly alone -- partly by choice, but not entirely. When the meet in middle age, they are drawn to each other, yet unable (at first) to let their guards down. Clare Morrall is a very good writer who is able to explore deep themes with perception and grace, without sacrificing a good story to do so.
    • 5/5

      I got this to read because I'd likes Morrall's first book Astonishing Splashes of Colour a lot. I didn't have a clue what it was about and didn't read the back cover or the flyleaf or the reviews or anything like that. I just started reading and let the story slowly unfold. And it was great that way.

      So I'm not going to say anything about the story, except that it's got a lighthouse in it which you can infer from the picture on the cover, and lighthouses are always a good thing, aren't they? The story comes together piece by piece and is fabulously told. You don't need a synopsis, just go and start reading it.

    • 4/5
      This was a very satisfying read. The portrayal of the characters is like a portrayal of emotions; Doody primarily represented by anger and Straker by guilt. Very well done! I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the Devon coast and nature, but all in all Morrall is good at describing just about anything: surroundings, characters, emotions, internal struggles, interaction. Doody's anger, for example, was so tangible it filled me with awe.
    • 5/5
      Having read another book by Clare Morrall I was looking forward to reading this and wasn't disappointed. As with 'Astonishing Splashes of Colour' she writes very rounded characters who are misfits in society but she writes about them with warmth and humour that draw you into their stories. It is an interesting exploration into where responsibilty for our actions lies and the parental influences which lead us to crossroads/decisions in our lives. The only slight quibble is about the role of coincidence in the plot which calls you to suspend your disbelief about just how many links there can be between 2 complete strangers! That being said I forgive the author because it is a beautifully told tale.
    • 5/5
      A strange yet compelling story of familial rejection, the effects of guilt, and redemptive power of human relationships.
    • 3/5
      Natural Flights tells the story of two lonely people, both social misfits. Peter Straker lives in a lighthouse on the edge of a crumbling cliff. His dreams are haunted by the voices of the 78 victims of an accident he caused almost 25 years previously, and can only cope with life by adhering rigidly to a self-imposed timetable. His mission is to find out as much as he can about his victims so that they won't be forgotten.Imogen Doody, a school caretaker who inherits a run-down cottage in the same village, has also lived with guilt for much of her life - her sister committed suicide and she suspects that it may be her fault. She also nurses the deep sorrow of her husband's disappearance not long after their marriage, and copes by turning her formidable temper on everyone she encounters.Where the book works best is in exploring the whole question of how it's possible to live with guilt, and be forgiven for an act which causes the death of others when (of course) nothing in the past can be changed.I liked the main protagonist and enjoyed the slow unfolding of an unlikely love story. What kept me reading was that I was rooting for this awkward and unlovely middle-aged couple to find a way out of their pain and end up happy together in Doody's little cottage. (I am a romantic at heart, actually.)But honestly, so much else in this book is a mess. There are just too many totally unbelievable coincidences. One or two you can swallow (after all real life throws some unbelievable stuff at us) but here there was just too much improbabilty to swallow. I feel there are way too many plot strands as the novelist attempts to fill in the background. Most seriously of all, most of the minor characters don't lift off the page and the dialogue is sometimes very flat. The pacing sometimes seemed wrong - particularly in the great rush of events towards the end.Would I recommend it? Yes, for a lightweight, effortless read, and for the issues it raises. But not for its literary merit.

    Book preview

    Natural Flights of the Human Mind - Clare Morrall

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