How I acquired A Girl in Flight
As I was packing to leave the Frankfurt Book Fair–where I went immediately following the Knoxville-Asheville road trip–a lady I had spoken to on several occasions over the previous days pressed her book onto me. “Something to read on the plane.” The book was Girl in Flight, and the lady was Cat Buchanan. It’s a coming of age story that takes us from Cat’s own adoption by two socialites in the early 60s through the mid-1970s, several messy divorces, and shared custody that included travel from Los Angeles to New York City. It’s a story of growing up a privileged outsider who never quite fits in. It’s a story of parenting one’s parents through sex, drugs, and most of all, alcohol addiction.
As I read Cat’s story I saw many similarities to my own life, and while my parents didn’t enjoy the sort of social status Cat’s did, they had a similar need to see and be seen. They carried themselves as if they may have the opportunity to rub shoulders with someone famous at any moment. My parents weren’t actually very good with money, and neither were Cat’s. Another important similarity I saw was that Cat had a dear grandmother who acted as a kind of still point for her while the chaos that was her parents swirled around her. I had two grandmothers like that. There’s a lot to be said for a stalwart grandmother.
I come away from Cat’s story admiring her gift with language, and amused at her wry observations. She points out something I noticed growing up as an only child among adults–we learn to sound like adults at a young age, because that is who we know. This makes it awkward for us to socialize with children of our own age. My heart ached for her as she described the awkwardness of wearing braces. I knew that pain as well.
I recommend this book for lovers of memoir. It’s available in all the usual online places. But if I’m sending you to any of them, I always recommend bookshop.org.
It was published by Woodbridge Publishers, 2024. ISBN: 9781068514418
