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Flyover Lives: A Memoir (2014)

by Diane Johnson(Favorite Author)

2.83 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0670016403 (ISBN13: 9780670016402)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: After reading a few pages of this book, I considered returning it to the library without continuing. Johnson was living in France at the time. She was describing a visit with friends staying in a big, beautiful Italian house that three couples had rented together. None of it seemed connected to the world I knew or or longed to know. Inexplicably, I stuck with "Flyover Lives" for a while longer and was soon glad I did. Johnson grew up in Illinois, and the "flyover lives" of the title was a pun on the term sometimes used to describe the American midwest--a place people fly over rather than endure on their way to the mountains, the coasts, or some more interesting place than they consider the wide, flat center of our country to be. The flyover lives, of course, were the... more lives of the women given so little space in our study of the historic development of our country. We know of the explorers, farmers, soldiers and cowboys, but what do we know of the lives of their women, particularly midwestern women?Family diaries and letters add to the oral history offered by the few relatives both alive and old enough to give Johnson historic family information. Some of the incidents described are quite dramatic. Imagine becoming ill while delivering a baby, and having no medical help available for days. Or having your husband leave in winter for a 30 mile trip and receiving no further word for months, while you're at home alone with no neighbors much closer than his destination. After exploring the lives of her predecessors, Johnson continues with her own fascinating life. After growing up in small midwester towns and cities, she went to a finishing school, married at 19 and had 4 children in short order. Unlike many women, however, that is only the beginning of her story. Eventually, she worked with movie producers on scripts she developed and wrote novels and nonfiction books. She lived abroad. She grew to know herself well.At the very end of her book, Johnson spills a detail about the initial visit with her friends in Italy that had initially so turned me off. Suddenly this detail makes Johnson herself, and the people she shared the house with for 24 hours, became fully human, imperfect, and people I could easily relate to.I strongly recommend this book!
review 2: Blah, I didn't know that this book was entirely different from what I had imagined. I thought it was about an air hostess and her experience, travels, etc. In fact, this book is about an AMERICAN living in France. How original ! Americans living in France and writing about France, as if they are experts or something like that. Her previous books include, " L'Affaire ", " LeDivorce " and " LeMarriage " - GIVE ME A BREAK HERE ! Pretensious American think they can write expertly on France and French living - how absurd. Better stick to writing about America ( home of the deep fried corn dog and Coca Cola ). less

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