From the author of the national bestseller Painted Horses, a novel set during the Age of Aviation, in which a young tinkerer and an aspiring pilot building their own airplane unexpectedly come into possession of a rare Lindbergh flight watch owned by a bank robber whose fellow criminals want it back.
Brooks has a light, humorous touch with characters of all ages; his storytelling is taut and suspenseful, and he deftly balances Houston, Annelise, and Yak’s soaring achievements with pursuit by a gang of murdering thieves ... I highly recommend Cloudmaker.
A sweeping yet personal coming-of-age story. Following Painted Horses, Malcolm Brooks again offers engaging, resolute characters and evocative descriptions of the country and the era ... Worldly Annalise and whip-smart but sheltered Huck share respect, affection, a goal of getting in the air and a commitment to following Amelia Earhart's progress.
This book is like a road trip vacation. There’s an ultimate destination, but instead of zooming along the highway and getting there in a day, the story takes the scenic route in a leisurely voyage of discovery along backroads and byways. Thus, if you’re in a hurry to get from point A to point B, this is the wrong novel for you. It starts out briskly enough, with the lead character test-flying a homebuilt glider in the middle of the night. But after that crash landing, things slow down and start drifting away from the aviation story promised by the cover and jacket ...That’s probably because it’s a literary style of novel: long and lush, conveyed in masterful prose that captures time, place, and conflicting cultures. Character motivation and backstory are deeply explored. It concentrates on the layers and complexities of people and life, with all their surprises and pain, inching toward goals by way of sidetracks and backslides, with the characters learning hard but profound lessons in the process ... By the time you arrive, you’ve gone through a coming-of-age novel rich in Americana. Whether you’re enthralled or exhausted by the journey will, of course, depend on your taste in fiction.
