Book Review: "Love in Mid Air" by Kim Wright

Title: Love in Mid Air

Author: Kim Wright

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN, PUB Date: 9780446540445, March 29, 2010

Reviewed by: Irene Yeates for Author Exposure

As an unmistakable respite from the contemporary fiction that I typically read, I optimistically chose Kim Wright’s debut novel, Love in Mid Air. I completely immersed myself in a surprisingly interesting cache of characters unconstrained in their lucid display of similar and diverse views of love, marriage, friendship, and infidelity. Their suburban lifestyle not only suggests privilege, but also ambiguity with respect to some of the mores that ordinarily unite or divide such a community.

Elyse Bearden’s life might appear quite appealing to the vast majority of women who would relish a lovely home replete with the comforts and financial security that her husband Phil, a dentist, provides. Though secure in her social surroundings and a loving mother to her daughter Tory, Elyse’s personal discontent propels her into an unexpected, yet welcome opportunity. Aboard an airplane, she meets Gerry who is also married with a family, but sharing similar restlessness within the routine confines of his daily life. Before long, Elyse and Gerry become involved in an extramarital affair. Gerry’s apparent affluence provides the rather sufficient means to travel hither and yon, thus affording both those highly desirable, yet unrealistic elements of anonymity and mystery.

“…I didn’t start calling my marriage a failure all at once. At first, I tried…There’s just the tiniest bit of hypocrisy around the whole issue--everyone agrees you should Work on Your Marriage, but if you’re ever caught actually Working on Your Marriage, you look ridiculous. And the only thing worse than being unhappily married is being ridiculous…” (50-51)

Kim Wright’s insightful portrayal of Elyse’s tangible “angst” is vividly authentic. She uses her instinctive ability to quickly tug the reader through the pages to discover how this circuitous plot will expose the unfaithful wife, affect the requisite resentful friend, possibly enlighten the painfully clueless husband, and reveal the unavoidable dichotomy that marriage often engenders. We also examine some of the indefinable aspects that husbands and wives judge as happiness and hindrance within the often inflexible framework of marriage. With considerable wit and zesty humorous episodes to divert us, we commiserate and share the immeasurable fluctuations through the characters’ life experiences, expectations, and personal introspections. While the primary focus is on Elyse, it would not be the impressive narrative it is without her circle of friends and their husbands, especially her closest friend Kelly.

“When I was a teenager my grandmother used to tell me, ‘You marry the man, you marry the life,’ and it seems to me logical, perfectly ordinary karma, that the reverse is also true. If I leave this man then I must leave this life…” (181).

Elyse’s ultimate journey clearly reminds us that often a woman’s primary quest for fulfillment, self-indulgence, or that intangible “what if" outside the context of family, has the power to leave a path of destruction in its wake. For those who define infidelity as an unacceptable moral or selfish choice, this may not be a desirable read. Personally, I believe such decisions and their consequences belong to the person who makes and lives with them, and I do not profess to judge. In this vein, Kim Wright is remarkable in expressing the characters’ various points of view without meandering prose, compelling behavioral excuses, or blameless justifications. As readers, we are encouraged to draw our own conclusions which tend to rely upon our own mores, life experiences, and personal values. Love in Mid Air may not be a book for everyone, but it definitely is one that captures you from beginning to end.