The Art of Crash Landing (35 page)

                   
My parents, my brother, and my sister are all gone now. I'm the last one standing, the only one left to tell stories about my dad's naps in front of the television, my mom's paintings, my sister's sweet smile, my brother's struggles, and ultimately my own.

                   
Although the events and people in my book are certainly fictional, the themes—difficult family relationships, addiction, guilt, shame, redemption—have been as real in my life as my pet guinea pig and the sound of the oyster gravel in the trailer park popping under the tires of my dad's 1973 Buick LeSabre. So, has my life been nomadic? No. Chaotic? Sometimes. Messy? Yes, yes, and thank God, yes. Yours too, I'm betting.

Have You Read?

Melissa DeCarlo's Favorite Books

A blessed companion is a book—a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend . . . a book that, at a touch, pours its heart into your own.

—Douglas William Jerrold

S
O
,
HERE
'
S WHERE
I
GET
to introduce a few of my friends. There's no way to make a list of all my favorite books, but I can share a sampling. Some of these I've known for many years while others are more recent acquaintances. Yet, old friends or new, my heart is richer for having loved them.

Straight Man
, by Richard Russo (and while you're at it,
Nobody's Fool
). Russo is a master of the serious-funny novel, and as a bonus both of these books feature a main character who's a magnificent pain in the ass. Win-win!

The Jane Austen Book Club
or
Wit's End
or for that matter anything written by Karen Joy Fowler. Smart, funny with a soupçon of heartbreak. They hurt so good.

I love a good dysfunctional family novel, and
This Is Where I Leave You
, by Jonathan Tropper, and
The Family Fang
, by Kevin Wilson, both hit what I think is a perfect blend of humor and pathos. Eleanor Brown's
The Weird Sisters
is a fabulously entertaining take on sibling dynamics, and if you're in the mood for a darker (yet also very sharp) family drama, Jacquelyn Mitchard's
Deep End of the Ocean
is dynamite.

Angle of Repose
, by Wallace Stegner;
Boys Life
, by Robert McCammon;
American Gods
, by Neil Gaiman;
I Know This Much Is True
, by Wally Lamb: These four books have absolutely nothing in common other than how many times I've forced them upon friends, saying, “Trust me, you
have to
read this!”

I love funny mysteries like Susan Isaac's
Compromising Positions
and the Spellmans series, by Lisa Lutz. And for a literary mystery, you can't go wrong with
Duplicate Keys
, by Jane Smiley. Paranormal mystery fans might want to read
The Aura
by Carrie Bedford, and maybe
The Last Will of Moira Leahy
, by Therese Walsh, which is deliciously mysterious if perhaps not technically a mystery.

Maybe you like books with a little (noncliché, naturally) romance thrown in the mix. If so, I recommend
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
, by Helen Simonson or any novel by Ellen Sussman—from
French Lessons
to
A Wedding in Provence.

If you have a weakness for end-of-the-world postapocalyptic mayhem (and, oh, how I do!) you'll want to put
California
, by Edan Lepucki, and
Station Eleven
, by Emily St. John Mandel, on your must-read list.

Okay, I'm about out of space, but let me squeeze in three of my favorite memoirs:
Drinking: A Love Story
, by Caroline Knapp;
Here if You Need Me
, by Kate Braestrup; and
The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily Ever After
, by Melanie Gideon. I can't even tell you how much I enjoyed getting to know these women through their books.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
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.

“I fell in love with Mattie, the hero of
The Art of Crash Landing
, with all her sass, her snark, her badass ways. The best compliment I can give this talented new author? I wish I had written this novel. You nailed it, Melissa DeCarlo. And you deserve legions of very happy readers.”

       
—Ellen Sussman, author of
A Wedding in Provence
and
French Lessons

“Mattie describes herself as a natural disaster, and she may on to something. Accidentally pregnant and unemployed (too old and too smart for either), she's on the run from a past she doesn't really understand. In a few short months, she will figure out the riddle of her mother's death, learn that even the most powerful love doesn't always look pretty, and that sometimes there are very good reasons for very big secrets. Melissa DeCarlo's storytelling is strong and sure, genuinely moving, and genuinely funny. Like her unlikely heroine, she's a force to be reckoned with.”

       
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of
The Deep End of the Ocean

“
The Art of Crash Landing
is full of heart and sass. It's about forgiveness, self-understanding, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. Readers will root for DeCarlo's goofy, sharp-tongued heroine. . . . This is a sparkling, funny, and moving debut.”

       
—Edan Lepucki, author of
California

“Behind the smart-ass mouth of Mattie Wallace, our troubled protagonist, is a whole lot of heart, soul, and humor. Mattie's only assets are a stolen guitar strap, a nearly dead 1978 Chevy Malibu, and her wickedly acute observations, which keep the reader completely and totally hooked. You won't stop reading
The Art of Crash Landing
until all the great mysteries of Mattie's messed-up life have been unraveled by the ever-wise Mattie herself.”

       
—Jessica Anya Blau, author of
The Wonder Bread Summer

“A dazzling debut that truly soars, about figuring out the tug of the past, about family mysteries and the marvels of forgiveness, and all of it features a spunky heroine readers won't be able to stop falling in love with.”

       
—Caroline Leavitt,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Is This Tomorrow
and
Pictures of You

Cover design by Joanne O'Neill

Cover image © by mishkom / Getty Images

P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

THE ART OF CRASH LANDING
. Copyright © 2015 by Melissa DeCarlo. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

DeCarlo, Melissa.

The art of crash landing : a novel / Melissa DeCarlo.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-06-239054-7 (paperback) — ISBN 978-0-06-239055-4 (ebook) — ISBN 978-0-06-241685-8 (large print) 1. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. 2. Family secrets—Fiction. 3. Oklahoma—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

EPub Edition September 2015 ISBN 9780062390554

PS3604.E2372A37 2015

813'.6—dc23

2015010374

15  16  17  18  19     
OV
/
RRD
     10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

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