Love in Mid Air

by Kim Wright and Kim Wright

Book Overview

A chance encounter with a stranger on an airplane sends Elyse Bearden into an emotional tailspin. Suddenly Elyse is willing to risk everything: her safe but stale marriage, her seemingly perfect life in an affluent Southern suburb, and her position in the community. She finds herself cutting through all the instincts that say "no" and instead lets "yes" happen.

As Elyse embarks on a risky affair, her longtime friend Kelly and the other women...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446540439
• ISBN13: 9780446540438
• Release Date: July 2011
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful debut novel!

Marriage is complicated. And Kim Wright writes about it beautifully in her debut novel LOVE IN MID AIR. Elyse Bearden's marriage is already in trouble when she meets a handsome stranger on her flight home from Arizona. Her husband, a doting father to their young daughter but inattentive husband, has been communicating with her via post-it not for far too long and seems content with having sex in the kiss-less "X" position once a week. So it's not surprising when she starts a torrid affair with the man she met in row 29 to try to recapture the excitement she feels is sorely missing from her marriage and her life in general. As some of her closest friends begin to realize that their seemingly harmless weekly banter about unhappy marriages has gone to a whole new level for Elyse, it stirs up emotions in each one of them that they'd rather not deal with. Because it's one thing to be unhappy, but it's a whole other thing to actually do something about it. Wright does a beautiful job questioning whether a marriage can only be successful if both parties embrace mediocrity and asks what truly defines happiness-and do parents even have a right to try to find it? While the premise of LOVE IN MID AIR may sound familiar, what makes it so compelling is Wright's subtle yet intense writing, which may make the reader both uncomfortable and intrigued at the same time. Wright navigates Elyse's everyday life and relationships with her church book club with such authenticity that you'll be thinking about these characters long after you've finished. A must read for any wife or mother, Wright's genius commentary is not to be missed.

She's Not Saying Its Wrong... nor Right

Okay. Let's get right into it, down to it and just stay in there a while. Kim Wright wastes no time getting to the meat of her book. The good stuff starts on page one. She beats around the bush about absolutely nothing. Elyse is married to Phil but meets married Gerry on an airplane ride back home. Obviously a lot is missing in her heart because an affair begins immediately. Elyse could BE content, she just simply isn't. Opportunity presents itself and she follows. Her affair effects her feelings towards her life and her husband and the events that follow just figure into what is going to be the outcome and the casualties of Elyse's actions. The presentation of the betrayals, seduction and adultery keep the necessary guilt and shame somehow couched. I liked the relationship Elyse shared with her high school best friend, Kelly through their adulthood, through each woman's marriage. They promise to even die together in old age. I admired the way Elyse related to her peers in her community of priviledged suburbanites who attend church and lunches together: cooly, observantly, boldly, no apologies necessary. Kim Wright created a very intriguing character and sees her through in a way that inspires readers to keep thinking about what her future will be like. That effortless resonation makes this a great and memorable book. You'll love it.

A DYNAMITE DEBUT - HEARTBREAKING, TRUE, FUNNY

Top of the charts for this debut novel! Kim Wright has crafted a funny, true, heartbreaking look at modern marriage. Is leaving wedlock a route to happiness or must one stay? In LOVE IN MID AIR we read, " In real life, women stay. Women stay better than they do anything else." Elyse Bearden is at the airport on her way home from a Phoenix pottery show. She's feeling good because she won a prize and sold several pieces. She's probably not looking her best as she has burrito juice on her shirt and her hair is awry because she washed it in a drinking fountain. But, apparently she looks really, really good to Gerry, an investment banker, who is seated next to her on the plane. In a matter of minutes they're sharing confidences. After landing he pulls her into a Traveler's Chapel of the Dallas airport and kisses her - "one of those kisses that gives you the feeling that you're falling, that the elevator floor has dropped out from under you..." This is how it began, an affair that would cause Elyse to reevaluate her present life and what she wants for the future. She lives with her husband, Phil, and young daughter, Tory, in a comfortable North Carolina community. Elyse has a host of friends, primarily Kelly, the wealthy one in their book club. She and Kelly have been close for years. At home again after that earth moving kiss Elyse is absorbed in the minutia of her daily life - cookies for the church sale, baseball practice for Tory, outings with their friends, finding time for making her pots and marketing them. However, her overriding feeling is one of discontent; she is unsettled, unhappy. Phil is remote, distant, seemingly unable to understand who she is. Needless to say their sex life is less than satisfactory for her; it is a perfunctory ritual. And, she cannot forget Gerry who though also married is just a phone call away - she dials his number. That is a decision that not only alters Elyse's life but also the lives of her friends as they reexamine their own personal relationships. Each is on the brink of 40 - what will the future hold? Could they, should they make changes? Kim Wright has penned a witty, wise, and wonderful story of love in all its ramifications. Her observations are newly minted, shedding light in formerly dusty corners. LOVE IN MID AIR is a dynamite debut! - Gail Cooke

A thought provoking read on every level!

Marriage like life always provides as much stability as it does rocky, unstable travels. You have to decide at some point is it worth getting in the car or even starting the engine anymore. Do you want what you have or is something out there calling your name begging for you to make a change. What do you really want if what you have is not fulfilling even your basic need to exist? The main question you ask yourself is where do I fit into this life and when exactly does it start to become about me and my dreams and not everyone around me. These are exactly the questions that Elyse Bearden is asking herself and at the same time she is challenging herself to see if she should stay in the marriage she does not want and is she brave enough to venture out alone. But not quite alone it seems after she meets a man by coincidence on a flight that makes her start to want more than what she presently has. Elyse has a stable marriage with Phil who is not a man with vices just a man she no longer loves and truly wonders if she ever did. Was he always this complacent, this set in his ways, refusing to fight for their marriage? Not sure if it is the new man with the affair looming that has her stirred up or just that she is not fulfilled any longer Elyse ventures into dangerous waters by starting a relationship with this man she met on a plane and trying to see if there is another life available for her. Phil is trying to keep what he has so she agrees to counseling but nothing works and the further into the affair she goes the more she withdraws from the marriage. Elyse has a daughter to think about and she truly does not want to hurt Phil but there may be too many broken pieces that can't be fixed ever. This book brings out the basic question I will guarantee you every woman as she faces 40 asks herself - is this all there is for me in life? You start to question who you are, why you are living in this house with a man you are not sure you love anymore and if there is more just being a wife and mother. It is not about finding another man in your life to replace the one you have but more about finding the you again that was lost for so long in the life you are living. Sometimes you can ride it out and you are able to find a place for everything to stay as it is and you become not the passenger anymore but the one that drives the vehicle but that is not always true and does not always work out. Elyse takes this ride and knows with a clear head that some things and friends will not go with her when she stops but in the end she will be okay because she discovered the most important person in life who needed to be cared for and that was Elyse. Ms. Wright has touched on so much in this book and written it with such clarity that every woman will at some point in the book feel that they have told her a secret she has now revealed in this book. Despite the path Elyse took to find herself it was worth the trouble to get there and you feel every pain o

You've never heard it like this!

Really, how could it be possible to tell the story of bored housewives with troubled marriages in a new way? Kim Wright astonishes with honesty and wit. She says so many things that we've all thought and could never find the words to express. A stirring read that will keep you talking and ruminating for days. Bravo!