How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly
Connie May Fowler
Grand Central, Apr 2 2010, $23.99
ISBN: 9780446540681

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is the transcendent story of a young woman who, in a twenty-four hour period, journeys through startling moments of self-discovery that lead her to a courageous and life-altering decision.

Clarissa realizes that after little more than six years her marriage is a sham and she needs to get out, however independence is not her strong suit.  There is however an unseen family living in her home, which includes a strong ghost woman Olga, who will inspire Clarissa to help find a way to assert herself.  The ghost family has their own reason for lingering around the homestead, and that story is perhaps more engaging than Clarissa's.

This isn't a book I'd have normally picked up without doing a review, but I found the writing witty and a little bit winsome as well.  The character Clarissa is also an author suffering from writer's block, so it's quite amusing that Connie May Fowler was able to write a tale, woven around an author who can't seem to find the words to tell a story.  The book is reft with images that leave you feeling steeped outside reality, worm hunting, trash drop offs, and a dwarf carnival are just a few.  The story comes round about when Clarissa finally overcomes her writer's block and starts her book.

When rating fiction books where the contents may be offensive I like to inform of it with a movie type rating.  This book is for mature readers, containing language, violence and sexual themes.

How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is available April 2, 2010 at Amazon.com.

“I wrote this review while participating in a Hachette Book Group campaign and received an e-book sample to facilitate my candid review."