LANDING IN MY PRESENT
by
Mary Clark
Biography / Aviation / Historical / WWII
Biography / Aviation / Historical / WWII
Number of Pages: 218
Scroll down for the giveaway!
Mary Walker Clark barely knew her father. When he died, he left not only the obvious void every teen would experience, but took with him scores of Indiana Jones-style tales about flying the Hump, a treacherous series of US missions that transported supplies over the Himalayas to China during World War II.
It would take a chance interview with a pilot who had flown with her father in the war to launch a series of extraordinary journeys—into a shrouded past and halfway around the globe to India and China—for Clark to finally come to know the father whose absence had haunted her for decades.
Landing in My Present chronicles the adventures of a daughter who chose to pry open a painful past while enlarging her view of an adventurous father long thought lost.
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When Kristine the Book Siren posted the sign-up for LANDING
IN MY PRESENT by Mary Clark in our blogger group, I knew I had to jump at the
chance to read and review this book.
You see, I’ve got a lot in common with this author. No, we do not know each other, and, no, we
are not even in the same generation (technically-kinda-sorta), but we do have a
great deal in common.
I tell y’all all about it.
But first things first. Yeah, I might give one or two
spoilers.
DON’T GET USED TO IT, THO, YO!
What immediately struck me about Clark’s story was her now
almost desperate need to know her father. Not that she didn’t know him, but he’d
died due to an accident at work when the author was at the pivotal age of 16.
You know…those angsty years when we are more self-centered and interested in
our friends and swooning over love interests.
That is the point at which my heart shattered. In fact, I
will confess that I had to read this book in short segments, because of all the
feels.
You see, I was a true Daddy’s Girl, the baby of the family,
and I adored my Daddy like he hung the moon. Speaking of the moon … My Daddy,
like Clark’s own father, was a work-a-holic, like most men in The Greatest Generation.
So most of the time when my Daddy was just getting home from work, it was at
the end of the graveyard shift, when the world was dark and quiet. When the
only things awake were night creatures and the jewels and gems strewn across
the sky, scattered around the moon.
He’d always awake me when he’d get in, still in his work
clothes, and whisper, “Belle Buttons, wanna take a walk with Daddy?” I’d
scramble out of bed, slip on shoes (still in my PJs), and Daddy and I would
walk the woods and pasture without a flashlight, using only moon and starlight
to guide our steps. He taught me the magic of the night. He’d stop and whisper,
“Let’s listen to the nightlife for a while.” And we’d stand, hand-in-hand,
listening to the creatures of the night singing their songs to the twinkling
sky above.
I learned the constellations by name, Orion is still my
favorite, the Little Dipper coming in second, and he taught me to appreciate
how the silvery moonlight dripped from the edges of the tree leaves against the
canvas of the velvety night sky.
Daddy was magic. At that young age, and even now at my not
so young age, he was, and will always be, a giant in my eyes. Though he was
relatively small in stature. Indeed, it had been such a shocking blow when he
succumbed to a hospital infection at the young age of 81 that it truly nearly
crushed me.
Seventeen years later, I still speak to him every day.
And I listen to the nightlife as it sings to the night sky
every night.
Thank you, God, that I had my Daddy until I was 35 years
old and that he'd lived long enough to teach that same magic to my daughter.
My heart ached for Clark as I read how she’d not had the
time to truly know her father. But I was immediately swept up in intriguing the
story of how she’d pieced together the giant mystery of her father’s past life
in the military.
Clark’s search for the story of her father’s untold part in
the Army Air Corp during WWII is so tangible that I felt as if I were right
there with her, helping her put the evidence together. Her style of toggling betwixt the present and
her childhood pulls the reader deeper into the story until the reader feels
personally invested in finding out the truth and getting to know her father.
Well, it hit me deeply in my heart, because, as I stated
earlier. Clark and I have a lot in common,
though we are (kinda-sorta) not in the same generation. You see, my Daddy had
also been in the Army Air Corp during WWII doing armed reconnaissance in the
South Pacific, stationed on New Guinea. My uncle, Daddy’s older brother, coincidentally
served in Africa (where Clark discovers her father had also served) and later
on the beaches of Normandy.
Daddy was also a photographer for the Army Air Corps, and we
have many of his original photographs from the war. Many of the ones you see in
books of the South Pacific were taken by him and his group.
Is Clark’s father in some of those photos? I have to wonder,
I wish I knew!
 |
| This is my Daddy before the war. He'd enlisted at the age of 17, before Pearl Harbor. |
Isn’t it odd that I, a GenXer has so much in common with a
Baby Boomer? Actually, I’m kinda in a gen all my own, since Daddy was 21 years
older than my mother. *Le Gasp*! (Yes,
it was both of their first and only marriage.) Indeed, I have so much in common with Clark that I wasn't even surprised to discover that she had majored in History just like moi!
But I, once again, digress…
Clark has taken me on a long drive into her past, and in
doing so has turned my gaze backwards, too. The difference betwixt mine and
Clarks’ stories is that Daddy told us all about the war. It was ingrained in
us. In fact, I frequently did school reports about Daddy’s war service and took
his pictures to school for presentations. It truly struck me in my
heart that Clark had to really work to search for clues about her father’s
personality, military service, and what he’d been like in his younger years.
Y’all, I can see this book being turned into a Netflix
original movie. There are so many bits and pieces of the puzzle that Clark
unearths, and along that way, she gets to know her father who’d
died all those years ago. I'm pretty sure she may have used a bit of magic of her own!
And that’s why I grant
LANDING IN MY PRESENT
By
Mary Clark
5 Fabulous Flying Brooms!
Mary Walker Clark is a retired attorney turned travel writer who loves taking readers with her to worldwide destinations. She has been traveling independently and internationally for over fifty years. Her essays may be found in the Paris News, at her blog, "Mary Clark, Traveler," and her podcasts at KETR 88.9, an NPR affiliate. Clark is an award-winning member of the North American Travel Journalists Association and a contributor to Still Me, … After All These Years, 24 Writers Reflect on Aging.
In 2016, Clark traveled to India and China to follow her father's WWII footsteps when he was a Hump pilot flying over the Himalayas. Her journey to connect with him fifty years after his death is told in her book, Landing in My Present.
Clark is a fifth generation Texan living in Paris, Texas.
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THREE WINNERS
FIRST WINNER: $25 Amazon card
SECOND WINNER: Signed copy of Landing in My Present
THIRD WINNER: $15 Amazon card.
July 21-July 31, 2020
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Love the parallels and connections you made with this book. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteBelle, Your review was as unusual and personal as my book. I loved the flow and we do indeed share a lot despite the age difference. Your description of nights with your father is absolutely beautiful and I'm sure you've been told that you need to write about moments like those. It's the only way to truly hold on to them through generations. Please let me know when you do write your story. And, I loved the suggestion of a Netflix series. It made me smile. Thank you again for a delightful review. All the best. Mary
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