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Mississippi Flyway

by Nel Rand

Mississippi Flyway Cover

ISBN13: 9781583482841
ISBN10: 1583482849
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In the lush literary tradition of such acclaimed Southern writers as Flannery O'Connor and Katherine Anne Porter comes an extraordinary tale of one woman's search to uncover a past full of haunting family secrets. Thirty-one-year-old Ellie Moon intends to use the summer of 1967 to regroup after her recent divorce. When her estranged father, Tiny, unexpectedly shows up at her Missouri home and asks her to go with him to New Orleans, Ellie seizes the chance to get away-and to maybe understand why her father abandoned his young family twenty years ago. Father and daughter follow the Mississippi River flyway from St. Louis to the Big Easy, dodging a crazed Kentucky sheriff hell-bent on catching Tiny and running into an eccentric cast of colorful characters. In the midst of late-night poker games, eating contests, and a near-drowning in the Mississippi River, Ellie's proximity to her father triggers blurred recollections of being dirty, of washing her hands again and again but never feeling clean. And when the images snap into focus, Ellie remembers the dark secrets she hid from herself since childhood.

"A compelling story told by natural storyteller. Author, Nel Rand, takes the reader on a gripping, haunting, and at times painfully rich voyage of self discovery in MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY. She peopled her story with characters that leap off the page and her prose has an opulent nuance that places the readers firmly in the scenes. Her evocative descriptive passages are excellent and serve to set the stage. This complex and emotional novel is beautifully published; with an eye-catching cover photograph and appealing covers. Rand's deft characterization, gift for natural dialogue and compellingstoryline will linger with the reader long after the final page. MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY is a tremendous story from a talented new comer."

--Judge's comment from Writer's Digest, 15th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards

Synopsis:

In the lush literary tradition of such acclaimed Southern writers as Flannery O'Connor and Katherine Anne Porter comes an extraordinary tale of one woman's search to uncover a past full of haunting family secrets. Thirty-one-year-old Ellie Moon intends to use the summer of 1967 to regroup after her recent divorce. When her estranged father, Tiny, unexpectedly shows up at her Missouri home and asks her to go with him to New Orleans, Ellie seizes the chance to get away-and to maybe understand why her father abandoned his young family twenty years ago. Father and daughter follow the Mississippi River flyway from St. Louis to the Big Easy, dodging a crazed Kentucky sheriff hell-bent on catching Tiny and running into an eccentric cast of colorful characters. In the midst of late-night poker games, eating contests, and a near-drowning in the Mississippi River, Ellie's proximity to her father triggers blurred recollections of being dirty, of washing her hands again and again but never feeling clean. And when the images snap into focus, Ellie remembers the dark secrets she hid from herself since childhood.

A compelling story told by natural storyteller. Author, Nel Rand, takes the reader on a gripping, haunting, and at times painfully rich voyage of self discovery in MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY. She peopled her story with characters that leap off the page and her prose has an opulent nuance that places the readers firmly in the scenes. Her evocative descriptive passages are excellent and serve to set the stage. This complex and emotional novel is beautifully published; with an eye-catching cover photograph and appealing covers. Rand's deft characterization, gift for natural dialogue and compellingstoryline will linger with the reader long after the final page. MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY is a tremendous story from a talented new comer.

--Judge's comment from Writer's Digest, 15th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
AuthorSWCapps, April 14, 2010 (view all comments by AuthorSWCapps)
Nel Rand's soaring prose transports the reader over time and space like the birds of her Mississippi Flyway. Her richly imagined characters--Ellie Moon, the brave protagonist who needs to confront her past, Tiny Moon, her vile-but-lovable father, and the despicable Sheriff Dover, one of the more evil antagonists in recent memory--crawl up inside you and latch on. With a voice that stirs echoes of the river itself, Rand weaves a flowing tale of hope, self-discovery, and forgiveness. This is one 'road trip' you can't afford to miss.
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barbarakayrich, March 24, 2010 (view all comments by barbarakayrich)
Pack Up. Jump In. Get Muddy.

“Bottom soil is the richest sewing ground,” says Ellie Moon, a 31-year-old woman, recently divorced, whose grieving is interrupted by the sudden appearance of her long-lost father Tiny. An enormous man with a voracious appetite for great cigars, bar-b-que and high stakes poker games, Tiny whisks Ellie off on a picaresque road trip from St. Louis to New Orleans.

Tiny abandoned his family when Ellie was still a girl. Ellie hopes to find out why. Together, they ramble down the great Mississippi via gambling halls, hidden moonshine stills, illegal eating contests and the magnolia draped home of the nicest ex-hooker turned retired suburban angel named Ludine. Amidst the smell of “Wild Root Creme Oil” and illegal Havanas, Ludine hosts $100,000 poker fests and counts backyard birds in her kitchen. She believes kindness and having fun and keeping things light are all that’s required of us in this life. But Ellie’s life, like the Main Street of her old hometown Cairo, Illinois, is “currently in a stagnant drift.”

As sidekick in her father’s dangerous flight from poker game to poker game, with an angry bent-hearted sheriff chasing them, Ellie confronts the forgotten demons from her past. She does this in the company of her selfish, life-gulping, repentant father. And Tiny gives his daughter a gift at last--an infusion of life lived hard and wild. In “Mississippi Flyway,” you will meet a few wild-flying women and delve into the muddy hearts of men who live for gambling. It’s a Southern tale, after all. Pack up, jump in. Nel Rand is your steady guide.

The greatest fascination for me as reader was the life of big-stakes gamblers. We all long for complete immersion in something we love, and Rand paints the sweaty long gambling scenes with real understanding. These men took me out of my world and offered another in its place. Sites, sounds, smells, attitudes--their non-traditional lives made sense to this rather traditional woman. "Mississippi Flyway" holds moments of genuine grace. I really look forward to Rand's next novel!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781583482841
Author:
Rand, Nel
Publisher:
iUniverse Star
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Suspense
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2007
Publication Date:
20071031
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Language:
English
Pages:
288
Dimensions:
9.00x6.00x.65 in. .94 lbs.
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Related Aisles

Mississippi Flyway Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$4.95 In Stock
Product details 288 pages iUniverse Star - English 9781583482841 Reviews:
"Synopsis" by , In the lush literary tradition of such acclaimed Southern writers as Flannery O'Connor and Katherine Anne Porter comes an extraordinary tale of one woman's search to uncover a past full of haunting family secrets. Thirty-one-year-old Ellie Moon intends to use the summer of 1967 to regroup after her recent divorce. When her estranged father, Tiny, unexpectedly shows up at her Missouri home and asks her to go with him to New Orleans, Ellie seizes the chance to get away-and to maybe understand why her father abandoned his young family twenty years ago. Father and daughter follow the Mississippi River flyway from St. Louis to the Big Easy, dodging a crazed Kentucky sheriff hell-bent on catching Tiny and running into an eccentric cast of colorful characters. In the midst of late-night poker games, eating contests, and a near-drowning in the Mississippi River, Ellie's proximity to her father triggers blurred recollections of being dirty, of washing her hands again and again but never feeling clean. And when the images snap into focus, Ellie remembers the dark secrets she hid from herself since childhood.

A compelling story told by natural storyteller. Author, Nel Rand, takes the reader on a gripping, haunting, and at times painfully rich voyage of self discovery in MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY. She peopled her story with characters that leap off the page and her prose has an opulent nuance that places the readers firmly in the scenes. Her evocative descriptive passages are excellent and serve to set the stage. This complex and emotional novel is beautifully published; with an eye-catching cover photograph and appealing covers. Rand's deft characterization, gift for natural dialogue and compellingstoryline will linger with the reader long after the final page. MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY is a tremendous story from a talented new comer.

--Judge's comment from Writer's Digest, 15th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards
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