Crane Spreads Wings

Effie Crackalbee (a.k.a. Jane Croy), the loving, daring, and generous protagonist of Crane Spreads Wings, is a self-proclaimed T'ai Chi warrior who practices the ancient movements that center her spirit even as she sets out to re-create her life on the west coast. When we meet her, she is Jane Croy, and she has run away from Alan, her husband of one month, because, as she says, he has misrepresented himself. He's is not writing the novel he promised to work on as she works on her Phd. thesis. Nevertheless, within hours, still on the east coast, she, too, is misrepresenting herself. When she runs into Gled Saltonstall, the bearish single father of an adorable little boy, she becomes Effie Crackalbee -- indeed her given name -- and signs on as the boy's nanny for the summer, neglecting to mention that she is married. When it turns out that Alan and Gled share the same summer community, Effie's lie of omission begins to take on enormous dimension:, to another marriage, a pregnancy, the west coast, from thesis writing to bird watching. This moving and vastly entertaining novel envolves three loving families in Effie's bigamy. At heart this is a book about family love -- from the most conventional to the most bizarre. By the end of her sometimes dizzying journey of discovery, Effie will have found her balance, creating a new life not only for herself but also for all those she loves -- and who love her.


Genre: Literary Fiction