![]() Georgia lives in New Orleans and hasn’t been home in a decade. Maisie’s chapters are told in the third person, which holds her at arm’s length more than the other two, and which fits her role in the novel-and in the family-as well. Georgia and their mother, Birdie, describe events in the first person, although Birdie’s observations-locked inside her brain-are more ephemeral than explicit. Two estranged sisters, Georgia and Maisie, plus their mother, who hasn’t spoken a word for years, narrate the action from a kaleidoscope of shifting points of view. Her eccentric and emotionally damaged characters are emerging from their dark shadows, finding their individual “flight patterns” as it were. As I read more of Flight Patterns, however, I realized White’s novel is just the opposite. ![]() ![]() “Southern Gothic.” It’s a term often used to describe William Faulkner’s novels or Flannery O’Connor’s short stories and involves eccentric characters, mysterious Southern settings where the past overshadows the present and darkened evil overtones of alienation and angst. When I was about a quarter of the way through reading Karen White’s novel, Flight Patterns, I decided I’d review it by borrowing a term used by an RT Book Reviews reviewer that’s quoted on Flight Patterns’ first page. Flight Patterns – Author Karen White turns Southern Gothic in a new and original direction. ![]()
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