![]() ![]() Genie died two years ago, and her life was just as chaotic as Mattie’s. How does someone end up failing at adulthood? As far as Mattie is concerned, it’s all her mother’s fault. She’ll lie to try to get herself out of a jam. She’ll take things that don’t belong to her because she’s broke. She’s not going to be around to help her stepfather deal with his cancer diagnosis. And DeCarlo, in her first-person narration, takes care to ensure that Mattie is aware of her shortcomings. She is a far cry from the women’s fiction heroines whose biggest problems are cheating rich husbands and spoiled teenage children. In her debut novel The Art of Crash Landing, her heroine, Matilda “Mattie” Wallace, is thirty years old, pregnant with an unwanted child, and fleeing a deadbeat boyfriend with only a few dollars to her name, six garbage bags of belongings and her dead mother’s 1978 Chevy Malibu. And then there are those who wonder what could have happened to this person to make responsible adulthood so out of reach.Īuthor Melissa DeCarlo is probably in that last group. Some of us recognize ourselves in their suffering and say, “There, but for the grace of G-d, go I.” Others are sure that this walking disaster’s own behavior is to blame for their circumstances. It could be a friend, family member, or the woman in the parking lot always asking for bus fare because her wallet just got stolen. ![]() We all know someone who just can’t seem to get his life together. ![]()
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