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    The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel
    The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel
    The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel

    Written by Melissa DeCarlo

    Narrated by Johanna Parker

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From a bright new talent comes this debut novel about a young woman who travels for the first time to her mother’s hometown, and gets sucked into the mystery that changed her family forever

    Mattie Wallace has really screwed up this time. Broke and knocked up, she’s got all her worldly possessions crammed into six giant trash bags, and nowhere to go. Try as she might, Mattie can no longer deny that she really is turning into her mother, a broken alcoholic who never met a bad choice she didn’t make.

    When Mattie gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s never met, she jumps at this one last chance to turn things around. Leaving the Florida Panhandle, she drives eight hundred miles to her mother’s birthplace—the tiny town of Gandy, Oklahoma. There, she soon learns that her mother remains a local mystery—a happy, talented teenager who inexplicably skipped town thirty-five years ago with nothing but the clothes on her back. But the girl they describe bears little resemblance to the damaged woman Mattie knew, and before long it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother, and it happened here. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles she encounters. Giving up, however, isn’t an option. Uncovering what started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her own.

    Hilarious, gripping, and unexpectedly wise, The Art of Crash Landing is a poignant novel from an assured new voice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 8, 2015
    ISBN9780062416292
    Author

    Melissa DeCarlo

    Melissa DeCarlo was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and has worked as an artist, graphic designer, grant writer, and even (back when computers were the size of refrigerators) a computer programmer. The Art of Crash Landing is her first novel. Melissa now lives in East Texas with her husband and a motley crew of rescue animals.

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    Reviews for The Art of Crash Landing

    4/5

    20 ratings14 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Maddie, homeless and pregnant, returns to her moms hometown to claim an inheritance from her grandmother and uncovers secrets from the past. light, fluffy and funny!
    • 4/5
      Good book. Not everything was tired up neat and organized at the end. Liked the people. Unexpected events as well.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book. I like the sassy main character. The mystery she feels a need to fathom out about her mother’s life causes her to reflect on her own life and she becomes transformed.

      A well read audiobook. The voice captures the person flawlessly.

    • 5/5
      Oh, do you ever get that delicious little frisson of excitement when you read the first few chapters of a book and realize you've stumbled across what is going to be a really, really good read? Melissa DeCarlo's debut novel, The Art of Crash Landing is one of those books - I absolutely loved it!Mattie Wallace is 30 years old. And pregnant. And homeless. And broke. Screwing up her life is nothing new for Mattie. She's a bit (well maybe a bit more than a bit) of a train wreck. When she finds out that she has inherited her grandmother's house in Gandy, Oklahoma it's a bit of a surprise - Mattie had no idea she had a grandmother. Her alcoholic mother never mentioned where she grew up or that her own mother was alive. With nowhere else to go, Gandy is the the direction she steers her mother's old Malibu."There was a time when I believed my whole life stretched before me, rich with promise. Now? Not so much.But when she arrives in Gandy, no one really wants to talk about her mother. And the ones that do paint a very different picture from the mother Mattie grew up with.Where to start. First off, I really didn't like Mattie at all in the first few chapters. She's abrasive, manipulative and self serving. Or is that just a way to protect herself from hurt and disappointment? As the book progresses, there are glimpses into the Mattie beneath that exterior. And I found myself soundly in Mattie's corner, hoping she can find the promise in life again. "Sometimes my entire life has felt like one long exercise in lowering my expectations."Gandy is populated by a varied and eclectic cast of characters, many who are just as prickly as Mattie, yet oddly compelling. So many of them appealed to me - one was Fritter the librarian. (And as someone who works in a library, I found myself laughing out loud at some library scenes that were spot on) But I think that Queeg, Mattie's stepfather, is my favourite. His quiet, understated, unfaltering love for Mattie is moving.As Mattie continues to ask questions around town about her mother, the mystery deepens. What happened thirty five years ago to her mother? From the girl Gandy knew to the single woman who gave birth to Mattie? And as Mattie pursues answers, she also remembers her Mom - and the reader learns more about both women.DeCarlo kept me completely off balance as I read - I had no idea where the story was going to go and many of the character's revelations were so unexpected. Her plotting is fresh, original and just so darn good.The Art of Crash Landing is absolutely one of my favourite reads for 2015.
    • 5/5
      adult fiction (family drama, with secrets and mysteries, starring pregnant screw-up trying to put her life back together). I mostly read this one straight through, in two or three sittings.
    • 3/5
      I don’t know where to go with this book. I think I’m just too old for it. I’ve come across others like it, with similar types of plots and protagonists of the same ilk. I believe my problem lies in coming from a generation that doesn’t understand the mindset of the story teller.In this tale Mattie Wallace just kind of meanders through life without any purpose at all. Her upbringing was less than ideal and her current state of affairs is about as bad as it can be; she’s unmarried, pregnant, homeless and broke. Instead of trying to deal with any one of her problems she does what she always does – she runs away. She runs into more problems and yet still instead of trying to help herself she decides that she needs to figure out her dead mother’s problems instead.Mattie is impossible to like. It’s hard for me to stay involved and connected to a book with a main character so selfish and uncaring. She has maybe two moments in the book when she thinks of someone other than herself and it’s just hard to root for her. The only thing that kept me reading was the way Ms. DeCarlo spun her story. Her writing is worth reading but her protagonist needs to grow up.
    • 5/5
      The back of the book made this sound like a quick funny read, but it was way more than that. I can't believe this is the author's first book. Mattie, the main character and narrator of the story, is a complete F**kup, her own words. Most everything she says or does is the wrong thing to say or do, but she had plenty of coaching and mentoring from her alcoholic mother. Mattie learns that her grandmother has passed away (a grandmother she never knew she had), and without thinking anything through drives 13 hours from Florida, in a dying piece of crap car, to claim her inheritance. By showing up in Gandy Oklahoma, and by being Mattie she sets off a chain of events that reveal why her mother was the way she was and gives Mattie an opportunity for redemption. One of the best things about this book is that it is not trite or full of predictable outcomes. Mattie is a disaster and most things that she touches turn to some degree of shit. This was an outstanding book, revealing what living with an alcoholic can drive a person to do, and how cruel loved ones can be to each other. It is also at times laugh out loud funny, with a cast of characters who will make you smile.A top 10 book of the year.
    • 5/5
      With so much out there competing for our ever-dwindling attention span, a great first sentence is the key to grabbing the reader's eye. Melissa DeCarlo's debut novel The Art of Crash Landing has a doozy:"Twenty-seven minutes is, if anyone ever asks, exactly how long it takes to cram everything I own into six giant trash bags."I ask you, how can you not want to read the rest of this book?Mattie Wallace is thirty years old, pregnant, underemployed, drinks too much and now she is moving out of her soon-to-ex-boyfriend's home. She goes to her deceased mother's former boyfriend, a man she calls Queeg, for help.I loved the relationship between Queeg and Mattie. Mattie had a tough childhood, her mother was an alcoholic who moved around a lot and dated many men. They moved in with Queeg and although Mattie had her issues with him, he cares a great deal for her and she loves him too. He is the only solid thing in her life.Mattie discovers that her mother's mother has died and with nowhere else to go, Mattie takes off for Grandy, Oklahoma, where her mother grew up. Her grandmother has just passed away, and Mattie received a letter from a lawyer stating that she may have an inheritance.The tiny town of Grandy has an entire cast of interesting people, and the small-town feel shines through in this story. Mattie's car breaks down and she manages to find JJ, the town's mechanic who tells her it's going to be awhile and expensive to fix the car. He and Mattie clash right away.Next up is a visit to the lawyer's office where she meets Luke, a paralegal, who tells Mattie that settling the estate may take awhile. While she waits, she stays in her grandmother's home. She has no cash and no job, so Luke takes pity on her and convinces his aunt, the town librarian, to give Mattie a job.Mattie wants to find out why her mother just up and left her hometown when she was seventeen and never looked back. The woman people in town describe as her mother doesn't sound like the alcoholic, broken-down mother she knew. What happened in her past to make her this way?The Art of Crash Landing has terrific characters in a wonderfully real setting, DeCarlo has some great lines in the book, like Mattie saying that "Sometimes my entire life has felt like one long exercise in lowering expectations." And Luke tells her that "needing to change your life isn't enough. You have to want it too."Any book partially set in a library is sure to make me smile, and I laughed as Mattie goes to work on her first day "managing to achieve a reasonably arresting librarian--on-the-skids look" in her grandma's borrowed clothes. And her description of the group of middle-aged men who hang out at the library as "Grandy's intelligentsia" had me in stitches.The Art of Crash Landing reminded me of Joshilyn Jackson's Someone Else's Love Story (they even have similar covers) in its tone, humor and sassy protagonist. I highly recommend The Art of Crash Landing and I'd love to return to Grandy in the future to see how Mattie and company is doing. (Sequel please!)
    • 4/5
      Mattie is a bit of a mess. She just left her abusive musician boyfriend Nick and really has no backup plan. Her alcoholic mother Genie has been dead for years, and she eventually finds herself at her ex-stepfather Queeg's place (the only father she's ever known). While there she learns that her maternal grandmother Tilda (whom she never met) has died, and Tilda's estate attorneys have been attempting to contact Mattie (who has been reliably unavailable). With nothing else going for her and no goals in sight, Mattie hits the road and heads to Oklahoma with visions of inheritance in her eyes.Mattie's mother was always elusive and mysterious, but while in her mother's childhood hometown, Mattie begins to uncover her mother's past. Old high school classmates of her mother, distant relatives and old beaus all seem reluctant to share information about Genie. Luckily Mattie is able to unearth some clues on her own.I really liked Mattie. She's funny, she's smart (although she uses her intelligence to manipulate people), sarcastic and tough. She might be a little much to deal with in real life, but as a character in a book, I really like her! And I liked Queeg (a nickname Mattie gave him, after the character in The Caine Mutiny). He is really understanding and patient, although perhaps a bit of an enabler, but he is good for Mattie (although Mattie refers to him as being the most "uncool" person she knows). He has been the only stable thing in Mattie's life since she was thirteen.I also liked a lot of the other characters, but I don't want to get into detail about them and ruin the story for someone else (i.e. old classmate Karleen, paralegal Luke, angst-ridden Tawny. And the Winstons!)Mattie is fighting the ultimate battle against her self. She is becoming her mother. Will learning about her mother's childhood and what made her the way she was help Mattie to stave off the self-destruction that has always held her back in life?My final word: I enjoyed the writing. It was a playful and fast read with colorful characters. The author does a good job of building the story and providing well-developed characters. It is told first-person, with flashbacks providing insight into Mattie's past. The author succeeds in creating a severely flawed and screwed up character in Mattie, while she is able to keep her likable and sympathetic. The banter is fun, and counter-balanced with some deeply emotional and revealing moments. I really liked this story, and the author's writing style!
    • 4/5
      heard on audio book. This was a great story for helping to stay alert while driving. Mattie has one adventure after another. I do admit that after many hours I began to wish she would stop sabotaging herself. But I also really felt that with her upbringing she was doing the best she could, that keeping other people (and possible happiness) at bay she is avoiding possible hurt.While her unwed pregnancy is supposedly a theme, little mention is made of her awareness of it other than as a cause of nausea. We are more aware of the thread of single-motherhood over the generations of her family, and, indeed, trying to understand her dead mother is a major motivating factor for Mattie.
    • 3/5
      This book was written by a woman who lives here in Tyler, TX about 5 years ago. For some reason, I never read it when it first came out, so I grabbed the audiobook when it was offered on Chirp a couple of weeks ago. Although this story has been told many times before - a young woman with a messed-up life travels to get the inheritance she has been left by the grandmother she has never seen, and once there learns much about herself and where she is from - this is not a bad first novel. It's full of interesting characters and plenty of plot twists, and, of course, a heart-warming ending. An excellent beach read, or for a rainy weekend.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. I loved Mattie, the narrator. She was snarky and clever, and imperfect. There were times while reading that I laughed out loud. The characters felt real, and great, and there was so much heart in the story. The characters were complicated and flawed, and I love that.

      I also liked the little bit of mystery in the story. The mystery definitely wasn't the main focus, but it was interesting, and it took the story in an unexpected direction.

      I really enjoyed this, and am so glad I picked it up!
    • 5/5
      "When you're ass deep in lemons, you start looking for a shovel, not a pitcher and a cup of sugar."Thirty year old Mattie Wallace is homeless, jobless and pregnant, so an inheritance from the grandmother she never met is an unexpected life line. With her worldly belongings crammed into six plastic trash bags, Mattie drives from the Florida panhandle where she grew up with her alcoholic single mother, to small town Gandy, Oklahoma. Stranded in town when her 1978 Chevy Malibu gives out, Mattie settles into her grandmothers house while waiting for probate to clear, and curious, begins to ask questions about her mother the locals are reluctant to answer. Determined to learn why her mother fled her comfortable life, Mattie sets out to solve the mystery of her mother's past, and perhaps forge a new path for herself.The Art of Crash Landing by debut author Melissa DeCarlo is a hilarious, audacious and surprisingly poignant story about loss, regret, secrets and forgiveness."I have ninja skills when it comes to screwing things up. It's like a superpower only lamer."Mattie is a bold character; snarky, foul mouthed and irresponsible, her former stepfather, whom she affectionately calls Queeg (as in Captain Queeg from The Caine Mutiny), compares her to a natural disaster. She has a history of dating deadbeats, drinking too much, and doing the wrong thing. Damaged by her difficult childhood, Mattie knows she is a mess, but feels destined to repeat her mother's mistakes. I loved her irreverent attitude, and snarky wit, she is smarter than she gives herself credit for, and I really enjoyed the growth of character over the course of the novel. Solving the mystery of her mothers childhood is what lets Mattie reconcile with her past and begin to change the course of her future."I don't know what she's thinking, but I'm thinking about how fluid the border is between crazy and interesting, and hard it is to decide who belongs where."Mattie is both helped, and hindered, by a cast of several quirky characters. Queeg, Mattie's stepfather who remains in Florida, is the most endearing. Then there is Luke, the paraplegic lawyer; Tawny, the teenage wannabe bad ass; Mattie's mothers former best friend Karleen, librarian 'Aunt' Fritter, JJ and the doggie Winstons."We are all more than the worst thing we have done"I laughed often, entertained by the witty banter, eccentric characters and occasionally absurd situations in The Art of Crash Landing, but I was also intrigued by the mystery surrounding Mattie's mother's past, and touched by Mattie's struggle to escape her mother's shadow."Sometimes well begun never has a chance to finish, and every once in a while, a bad beginning turns out okay."DeCarlo's style is similar to that of Cathy Lamb, an author I adore, and I'm looking forward to more from her. The Art of Crash Landing is a great read I'm happy to recommend.
    • 4/5
      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5. I definitely enjoyed this book. Immensely, actually. It was, at times, messy, vulgar, chaotic, and the reader finds themselves wanting to yell at people for their poor choices...or at themselves for the same. In a few words? It’s life. It’s understanding. It’s unearthing secrets. It’s regret. It’s closure. It’s pain. It’s beautiful. Mattie is a character who will stay with me for a long time to come. And I’m grateful for that.