Seriously well-written: This isn't just a story, this is literature. Wonderful imagery - it leaves you feeling like you really did just travel through the Deep South in the '30's. Definitely an odyssey style tale.

That said, I find I didn't really care for the story. I was expecting more adventure and magic in the form of the wing walking. This was more of hard scrabble struggles during WWI, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. And a bit too gritty for my taste, almost gloomy, and not seldomly bordering on vulgar. (Doesn't pass the "recommend to Mom" test.)

Highly recommended for wonderful prose and historical accuracy. Cautioned for mood and sexuality. ( )

Taylor Brown is one of my favorite authors. His "Gods of Howl Mountain" and "River of Kings" were masterful. He can spin a phrase better than most, and write so vividly that you feel like you are there. Unfortunately, this particular book just did not do it for me. While the writing is, as always, outstanding, I just could not maintain interest in the plot. I made it through, but it was a struggle. I have found this before with Brown's books. His "Pride of Eden" was another book that I had difficulty engaging with. But....I will continue to read anything he puts out, on the chance that it rises to the level of the two previously mentioned books. And, in his defense, is it not better to have an author branch out to completely different type plots, than to write the same old book, over and over again, with just a few plot differences? I think so! ( )

As a participant in a book group focusing on southern literature, I am probably one of the few members who do not have a deep, abiding passion for the works of William Faulkner. Lord knows I’ve tried. I’ve read Collected Stories of William Faulkner, and he collected a lot of them and a couple of his novels (I won’t say which since this review isn’t about Faulkner’s books) and determined that Uncle Billy will never be my favorite author. That said, I do understand that, with all his run-on sentences and rampant abuse of pronouns, he was able to put his finger on the pulse of Americans in his time and place with unparalleled precision. He also loved flying.

But this isn’t a review of a Faulkner book. It’s a review of a book by an author whose books I find a lot more enjoyable. Taylor Brown has published five novels and a short story collection, all set in the American South. He also loves flying.

Wingwalkers is really two stories in one, weaving their way relentlessly to a common end like planes in a dogfight, alternating focus from one chapter to the next in a way that would have made Melville proud. First is the largely biographical story of Faulkner and his three brothers’ fascination with flight, starting from 1908 when a Balloonitic crashed into their father’s chicken coop.

The rest of the book tells the story of Zeno Marigold, a Great War flying ace, and his wing-walking wife, Della, aka the Daring Devilette, and their Scottish terrier Sark, who travel about the South in a battered biplane hoping to scrounge enough cash to buy gas to make it to the next town. It’s not a glorious life, but it does give them a sense of freedom and a bird’s-eye view of America during the Great Depression. If you have read Faulkner's stories, these characters may seem familiar. Either the story Honor is based on them or Wingwalkers is based on the story Honor. I’d like to think it’s the former but who can be sure?

Brown’s prose gets better with each book and his fascination with flight shines through on every page as the followingdescription of the barnstorming craze demonstrates.

"They came storming across the country in the wake of the Armistice, a swarm of mayflies hatched in the aerodromes of France, featherlight fliers buzzing from field to field, town to town, looping and barreling in brainless mania , flying into trees and lakes and fields of cotton and corn, slamming into farmhouses and clocktowers, exploding before the heat-flared faces of the crowds. They died by fire, as they had in the war, or were ripped asunder in the violence of impact, goggled ex-aces who could find no way down from the high of combat save this. They traded enemy guns for hail and downpour, lightning and the crushing winds of anvil-shaped clouds. They died in legion, short-lived, while the cities roared, and when the country crashed, they flew only lower, faster, to draw their pennies from the crowds."

Bottom line: While not every book Brown has written hits it out of the park, enough do to keep me coming back. Wingwalkers takes its readers on a journey back to a challenging time in our country’s history and does it marvelously. I highly recommend this book.

*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
*5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
*4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
*3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered great or memorable.
*2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
*1 Star – The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. ( )