- Paperback: 265 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books Inc.; Ballantine Trade edition (1 Jan 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345419065
- ISBN-13: 978-0345419064
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.8 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product Description
Product Description
The Copeland family of Listre, North Carolina, goes back a long way. Each family member has a story to tell, and stories to be told about one another. Albert Copeland, the head of the family, writes it all down in the notebooks he started once to track the progress of the floatplanes he built, though they never did fly. Everything about the Copelands is in these books. And every one of them has his say. Funny and poignant, a family album of talk and tales, The Floatplane Notebooks shares the best-kept secrets of love, loss, and learning to let go.
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The dogs breathe in my face. Read the first page
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The dogs breathe in my face. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
The title refers to one of the character's notebooks which were supposed to record the technical details of the various attempts to get a homebuilt seaplane into the air. What the books were actually used for was to chronicle a family's history, and after that the connection with floatplanes is tenuous!
The novel recounts the thoughts of various family characters as well as the those of a virginia creeper plant the grows by the family home in Florida.
As soon as that made an entrance and started talking, I decided that this may have been a world familiar to Prince Charles, but was certainly well outside of my experience! The other main subject area is the family graveyard and its occupants, so you can see this is a real fun book!
If your specialist area of interest is Cajun family life from the end of WWII to after Vietnam, then this is just the book you have been waiting for!
The novel recounts the thoughts of various family characters as well as the those of a virginia creeper plant the grows by the family home in Florida.
As soon as that made an entrance and started talking, I decided that this may have been a world familiar to Prince Charles, but was certainly well outside of my experience! The other main subject area is the family graveyard and its occupants, so you can see this is a real fun book!
If your specialist area of interest is Cajun family life from the end of WWII to after Vietnam, then this is just the book you have been waiting for!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Southern Lit at its Best
4 Jun 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
"The Floatplane Notebooks" tells the story of the Copelands, a typical Southern family that gathers every year to clean up the family cemetery. Using the narrative structure of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" (a series of single-narrator chapters), the family experiences a devastating event that threatens to unravel the family fabric. In the end, all is well, and powerfully bittersweet.
The story has what is easily one if the funniest scenes I've ever read (regarding a well and a flashlight), and the way the story is resolved at the end is truly touching (the careful reader will see that the two scenes are closely related). Another notable feature is the observations of one of the book's main characters - a wisteria vine. This may seem strange, unless the reader realizes that the vine is essentially the theme of the story, for it represents death (a ubiquitous theme in all great Southern literature). The Copeland family could easily solve the problem of cleaning the family graveyard by just killing the wisteria vine. But, if they do, they then have no real reason to gather every year. This is a family that is united by and finds strength in death.
This is a truly unique and great story, though not appropriate for younger readers. Skilled readers will find much to appreciate. "The Floatplane Notebooks" is Southern Lit at its very best. READ THIS BOOK.
The story has what is easily one if the funniest scenes I've ever read (regarding a well and a flashlight), and the way the story is resolved at the end is truly touching (the careful reader will see that the two scenes are closely related). Another notable feature is the observations of one of the book's main characters - a wisteria vine. This may seem strange, unless the reader realizes that the vine is essentially the theme of the story, for it represents death (a ubiquitous theme in all great Southern literature). The Copeland family could easily solve the problem of cleaning the family graveyard by just killing the wisteria vine. But, if they do, they then have no real reason to gather every year. This is a family that is united by and finds strength in death.
This is a truly unique and great story, though not appropriate for younger readers. Skilled readers will find much to appreciate. "The Floatplane Notebooks" is Southern Lit at its very best. READ THIS BOOK.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A moving story with memorable characters.
27 Mar 1998
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This was one of the few Edgerton books that I had not read. It is an enjoyable story with a bit more sadness than the typical humorous Edgerton tale. The characters are still quirky southerners. The play against brothers reminded me of Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall - I even pictured Meridith as Brad Pitt (the movie version). The use of all the different narrative voices was creative ( especially the vine) Thinking back I can't believe so many stories were woven together so effectively. I'll remember this story always.-It's one of those.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
My All-Time Favorite
5 Sep 2003
Format:Library Binding
This is absolutely my favorite book, I truly wish it was my family he was writing about.
Edgerton is by far the best Southern author writing today.
Edgerton is by far the best Southern author writing today.
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