Amazon Drummer Boy Books Geezers' Literary Book Shop Category:  Drama Publisher: PublishAmerica ISBN-10:  1591290317 Type: Fiction Pages: 301 Copyright: Jan 1 2001 At thirty-six, Rachel Weyant finds her life going in every direction except one she can call her own. Her husband, George, is infatuated with his first wife, Madelaine, and her best friend, Annie, shows up with a mysterious six-month-old baby, insisting it’s her own newborn. Her only solace comes in the form of imaginary flights she takes with her first husband, Terry, who died in a small plane crash. Then she begins a new job teaching English literature classes at a penitentiary and meets Mitch, an inmate who promises to guide her not only through the dank corridors of the prison, but more importantly the labyrinth of her own life. Excerpt Aunt Didi was eating her way to love. She chose the five largest truffles Rachel offered and arranged them in a row on her plate alongside the double-sized slice of chocolate cake that was already half eaten. Then, as Rachel was about to pull the tray away, Aunt Didi stuck her hand back out and picked up two more, wrapping them in the paper napkin by her plate. The soft flesh under her chin bobbled when she laughed. "These will make the drive home more pleasant." Rachel listened to the plink of rain against the tin roof of the two-hundred-year-old Pennsylvania parish house she and her second husband, George, had moved into just a few months earlier. At least they were safe from flooding here, high on Blackburn Ridge. Sitting in the living room with her aunt, George’s daughter Meagan, her best friend Annie, and an as yet unnamed fourth guest she wasn't sure what to make of, Rachel allowed herself a glance out the side window during a long lull in the conversation and found her blue angel staring back.

Book Review Cafe
"Without Wings" by Carole Waterhouse
Published by America House
Copyright 2001
ISBN:1-59129-031-7
Rating: 4 Coffee Cups

Rachel Weyant is recently remarried to a man several years older than her. Her first husband Terry, died in a plane crash. She thinks of him all the time and finds her own way of escaping by flying away with him in her mind.
Her best friend Annie, talked her into taking a job in a men's prison teaching English Literature. She might have regretted this choice in the end, but this was a real learning experience for her.
There was one man named Mitch who really stood out in the class. Mitch seemed to take a liking to her, and allowed her to read his manuscripts. There were several, all varying in length and mental stability. Rachel took them for what they were, and even convinced herself that maybe she even liked Mitch and they could have a relationship somehow.
Annie is a different story. This woman makes the people at the prison seem tame. Rachel has been seeing Annie practically everyday and suddenly she shows up carrying a 6-month old baby. No explanation either, as if she gave birth to the baby herself. You find out later why she was taking care of him. Annie even goes so far as to leaving her husband, for no apparent reason, and leaves Rachel to fix the problem. You wonder who the real psychos are in this story.
Rachel's husband George, has his own way of dealing with her. Whenever he gets mad, he treats her like a child. Ignoring her, or scolding her. He even goes so far as inviting his ex-wife back into their home because he feels bad for her. At this point, Rachel could care less. Even when George and Madelaine get back together, it doesn't matter to Rachel anymore.
Rachel's life is heading nowhere. In the end she learns a very important lesson. And it takes Annie, George and Mitch to help her figure it out. Only those people didn't even know they were helping her.
Carole Waterhouse writes a fascinating story of one woman's journey through life. Everyone has their paths to choose and you don't know if Rachel has chosen the right ones. You learn her hopes and dreams and fears. She learns that the number one person in her life right now is herself, and she has to start taking care of that person. Very interesting story with many twists and turns!


Scribes World Reviews
Rating: 5 Stars

This is a rare gem of a book; a novel so compelling that it was impossible to put down. Ms. Waterhouse tells a masterful tale of a woman trapped by her own circumstances, drifting aimlessly, passively living life with occasional fantasies to escape the dull, passionless life she leads. The reader gets fully drawn into Rachel's world, and fully sympathizes with her plight. True, at times the reader wants to give her a good swift kick in the backside to get her to open her mouth or stand up for herself when she's being stomped on. But, still, it is just Rachel's vulnerability and refusal to stand up for herself that makes us want to take her under our wings and guide her journey.

The author of this novel is a very gifted storyteller in full control of her many impressive literary skills. She gives us a well-paced story that keeps the reader turning the pages and wondering what will become of her main character. A device the author employs expertly in the story allows us, along with Rachel, to read Mitch's story in installments, as he submits them to Rachel. This device builds tension into the story as a sort of story in a story. It's a way for us to get into Rachel's mind; slowly learning as does Rachel, about this man whom she believes desires her. We wonder, along with Rachel, if this seemingly sensitive prisoner is just a somewhat innocent victim of circumstances, and wonder just what kind of man he is. We're along for the ride as she willingly imagines the best about the inmate, wanting something better, reaching for any sort of sensitivity, love, and understanding, to enter her own world. The novel is also populated by a number of quirky, colorful but somehow familiar characters that enhance the story further.

In short, Without Wings is an excellent, compelling story. It's a book that I highly recommend without hesitation to readers looking for a compassionate story about a woman trapped by her own circumstances but with a heart seeking to soar and find a life for herself -- a life full of passion, laughter, and love.



The Compulsive Reader
Rachel Weyant has real problems. Her English classes at a local prison, the only teaching job she can get, aren't going so well, her husband has invited his crazy ex-wife Mad-Mad-Mad Madeleine and their wild daughter to live with them and her friend Annie keeps getting her into difficult and dangerous situations. Carole Waterhouse's debut novel Without Wings follows Rachel as the certainties in her life begin to rapidly crumble. The book takes Rachel's point of view, and while she certainly gets treated badly by almost everyone in her life, and plays the typical doormat role, her story never becomes too pathetic. This is partly accomplished by Waterhouse's strong writing, which takes the reader under Rachel's skin, and allows us to perceive her ongoing observations, detachment from herself and unerring sense of hope even as her entire world proves illusory. Despite her ongoing oppression and moments where she seems off balance, Rachel is believable, and a strong, sympathetic character - as he herself puts it, the straight man in the absurd comedy of her life. Her self-deprecation coupled with the way she never takes herself very seriously makes the reader identify with her:

"She tried to remember if there had been anything in her life, ever , that she had felt strongly about, The only thing that came to mind were the arguments she had with her father when she was five years old and believed, truly believed, still did even now, that he was wrong about telling her she wasn't allowed to start a turtle farm like her friend Jane." (124)

Next to her outgoing and adolescent-like friend Annie, who seems to use Rachel solely as a means for gaining a few minor thrills at Rachel's expense, Rachel is an understated and deep character, whose desire to find something of meaning in her empty life is poignant.

Waterhouse creates a secondary narrative through the story written by the prisoner "Mitch," a work-in-progress which Rachel agrees to look at. Although Mitch's story is not a pleasant one, and it is highly coloured by Rachel's fantasies, it also provides an interesting parallel to Rachel's story. Both Mitch's narrator and Rachel initially think of themselves as passive "victims of fate," and at least in the early parts of Rachel's story, don't suspect that they are in control of the decisions which have created their stories. Both of them get into trouble through their desire to please someone else, and to project some kind of figure of themselves which has little to do with the actual character. Mitch's narrator doesn't have any scope for change though - he is trapped and simply peters out by the end of Without Wings while Rachel begins to understand something about her life and self.

Another thing which makes this story work so well is its humour, which provides a good counterbalance to Rachel's serious pathos. Annie introduces her to Dennis, a man whose house is "gothic dragon" and who collects road construction cones, drives a fake hearse ("a real hearse was too expensive") and who makes false teeth for a living. Her mother has moved in with a full scale cowboy complete with fake accent and quarter covered cowboy hat who plays the lottery for a living and Madeleine, who bursts into tears constantly and wears billowing outrageous colours produces exploding dumplings. The characters are hysterical and excessive, as are Rachel's family, from her Aunty Amanda who keeps writing to her about relatives she doesn't know and their physical complaints to her Aunt Didi who is trying to gain weight to attract her former husband back from the oversized model he ran away with. Well, as Rachel's mother tells her, no one is perfect. Rachel's pain however, is very real, and underneath the facades of control, zaniness and power, there is a sense that these are real people, with serious insecurities. This is part of Rachel's journey as she begins to pull apart these stories while trying to find something hard and permanent in her own life.

Annie is simply more conservative than anyone else. The prisoners who once made her cry with their mocking become no more than "a bunch of worn men wearing the clothes of the dead." (212) Mitch is simply a trapped loser, in no position to "promise anything." George is a man whose whole life revolves around having a "perfectly-laundered crisp white handkerchief in his pocket." (286) and Megan is simply a scared kid looking for a way out of her dysfunctional family: "The shadowed eyes, the tense of her muscles - all were signs of her first understanding that there are deeper pains than scraped knees and broken toys." (288) Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz Rachel finds out that none of the wondrous people around her are as they appear - none of the situations real, and that she is the strong one, with what she needs "already there inside her."

The balance between the seriousness of Rachel's story coupled with the humorous farce taking place around her makes for an engaging and surprisingly thought-provoking read. As one would expect of a creative writing instructor, Waterhouse has created a tight, fast paced plot, with enough suspense points to keep the reader involved and interested throughout the book. Rachel's journey is one which, despite the often silly scenerios she becomes involved in, will probably strike a chord in most readers. It is the characterisation which drives this novel though, with enough balance so that even the bad guys seem sad and understandable n their own way once their appearance of strength is stripped away, and in the end, everyone is powerless. Everyone except Rachel, who, finally rid of the life she has been living - homeless, friendless and husbandless, perhaps finds some kind of way out of the morass.