How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly
Connie May Fowler, 2010
Grand Central Publishing
278 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780446540681
Summary
How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly is the transcendent story of a young woman who, in a twenty-four hour period, journeys through startling moments of self-discovery that lead her to a courageous and life-altering decision. (From the publisher).
Author Bio
• Birth—Janury 3, 1958
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.A., University of Tampa; M.A., University of
Kansas
• Awards—Southern Book Critics Circle Award; League of
American Pen Women - Frances Buck Award; Chataqua
South Literary Award
• Currently—lives in the state of Florida, USA
Connie May Fowler is an essayist, screenwriter, and novelist. She is the author of several novels, including How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly; The Problem with Murmur Lee; and a memoir, When Katie Wakes. In 1996, she published Before Women Had Wings, which became a paperback bestseller and was made into a successful Oprah Winfrey Presents movie.
She founded the Connie May Fowler Women With Wings Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding women and children in need. (From the publisher.)
More
Connie May Fowler is an American novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter, and poet. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) from University of Tampa and a Masters of Arts (English Literature with an Emphasis in Creative Writing) from University of Kansas where she studied with the novelist Carolyn Doty
Her semi-autobiographical novel, Before Women had Wings, received the 1996 Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Francis Buck Award (League of American Pen Women). She adapted the novel for Oprah Winfrey and the subsequent Emmy-winning film starred Winfrey, Ellen Barkin, Julia Stiles, and Tina Majorino.
Remembering Blue received the Chautauqua South Literary Award. Three of her novels were Dublin International Literary Award nominees.
Her other novels include Sugar Cage; River of Hidden Dreams; The Problem with Murmur Lee (Redbook’s premier book club selection); and How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly. Her memoir, When Katie Wakes, explores her family’s generational cycle of domestic violence. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages.
Fowler’s essays, touch on a wide range of topics such as family history, Sumo wrestling, popular culture, music, sex, and food. They have been published in a variety of publications including the New York Times, The Times, Japan Times, International Herald Tribune, Oxford American, Best Life, and Forum.
Her work has been characterized as southern fiction with a post-modern sensibility. It often melds magical realism with the harsh realities of poverty. It generally focuses on working class people of various racial backgrounds.
She has been cited in sources such as Advancing Sisterhood?: Interracial Friendships in Contemporary Southern Fiction; and Race Mixing: Southern Fiction Since the Sixties. She is considered part of a "fourth generation" of American writers—black and white—that explodes old notions of race, segregation, and interpersonal racial relationships.
Extras
• In 2007, Fowler performed at New York City’s The Player's Club with actresses Kathleen Chalfont, Penny Fuller, and others in a performance based on The Other Woman, an anthology that includes Fowler’s essay “The Uterine Blues.” In 2003, Fowler performed in a charity benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues with Jane Fonda and Rosie Perez.
• Fowler has held numerous jobs including bartender, caterer, nurse, television producer, TV show host, antique dealer, and construction worker.
• From 1997-2003 she directed the Connie May Fowler Women Wings Foundation, an organization that served at risk women and children. From 2003–2007, she was the Irving Bacheller Professor of Creative Writing at Rollins College and directed their author series “Winter With the Writers.”
• Fowler, a life-long resident of Florida, has set all of her books, thus far, in that state. ("More" and "Extras" from Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
In this gloomy novel, Fowler (Before Women Had Wings) presents a day in the life of writer Clarissa Burden, stuck in a loveless marriage and preoccupied with a joyless childhood. Memories of a cruel mother aren't the only things haunting Clarissa; a number of ghosts, including the 19th-century biracial family who had lived in Clarissa's Florida home, also weave themselves into Clarissa's story. Plagued by writer's block and suspicious of her photographer husband (and the nude models he employs), Clarissa leaves home for a day filled with spooky cemeteries, near-death experiences, life-altering conversations, exhilaration, and frustration. The plot tends to meander, incorporating not just incorporeal spirits but occasional jaunts into the minds of Florida's animals; still, Fowler produces some singularly memorable characters. By the time Clarissa stands up to her husband, readers will have suffered mightily through a sweltering Florida solstice, listening to the heroine's witty, sometimes whiney, internal monologue, and wishing for some real action. Fortunately, Fowler delivers on that wish, bringing together all her characters—dead, alive, and imagined—for an explosive conclusion
Publishers Weekly
In the little town called Hope, FL, it's the summer solstice, not only the longest but the hottest day of the year. On this day, Clarissa Burden's life changes irrevocably. Supporting a brutal husband who makes no living sketching and wooing frolicking female nudes and who deeply resents her successful career as a novelist, Clarissa needs release. Badly. Unbeknownst to her, there are ghosts living in her rambling home who need a release of their own. For all parties, enough is enough, and during this solstice day's long hours, things change forever. In this novel by best-selling author Fowler (The Problem with Murmur Lee) past and present lives collide in magical and violent ways with surprising, liberating, and redeeming results. The colorful characters include an almost-angel, carnival dwarves, and anthropomorphic animals, and the result is folksy and sophisticated, and humorous yet at times grave and appalling, with the sins of the past clearly depicted. Verdict: A seductive and thoroughly satisfying read. —Jyna Scheeren, NYPL
Library Journal
Florida novelist Clarissa Burden is suffering from writer’s block...her mind is blank.... Fowler blurs the line between the written and the writer as we witness Clarissa’s brave discovery that the real truth is often the most risky tale to tell. —Annie Bostrom
Booklist
Book Club Discussion Questions
1. How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly opens with vivid descriptions of the weather and wildlife of Hope, Florida: “this swampy southern outpost,” “the humidity-laden situation,” “its sundry wildlife…all steeling themselves against the inevitable onslaught of the day’s hellish heat” (1). How do the climate and geography of Hope affect the story? Could the events that take place have happened anywhere else in the country? In the world?
2. Recalling what she once thought of as a heroic move, Clarissa considers the way Iggy left his family and South Africa because of their different feelings about race. She did not ask, 'If a man walks away from his mother because he seriously disagrees with her politics, how deep is his allegiance to a wife?’” (6). Do you agree that one’s relationship with family can be an indicator of one’s relationship with a spouse? Why or why not?
3. A fly that is in love with Clarissa plays an important role in this story. We are also introduced to other insects and animals living in Clarissa’s home, truck, and other spaces around her that she doesn’t even know about. How does knowing about these creatures affect your perception of Clarissa, if at all? Would the story be different without them?
4. “Jane was, unknowingly, ticking off the list of the most asked, most useless questions thrown at writers” (43). Is it fair that Clarissa thinks of her interviewer’s questions this way? What questions would you want to ask a writer you admire? What questions would you want an interviewer to ask you?
5. Clarissa is described as not having much confidence or independence at the beginning of the book: “uncharacteristically courageous” (59), “Despite all that she had accomplished in her life, she was not a woman accustomed to doing things on her own” (62). How does Clarissa change as the day progresses? What was it about this one day that was so special?
6. “What was love if not an idea—abstract as wind, concrete as rain—an invisible homily so powerful that it propelled even the meekest souls to hold dear what they feared most?” (64). Do you agree that love drives you toward what you “fear most?” Why or why not? Have you experienced love that made you feel this way? What would the fly in the story think about this notion?
7. What is the significance of all the trash that piled up in Clarissa’s truck, and why is she so determined to get rid of it by herself on this day?
8. Why does Clarissa go to the cemetery, and in what way did it affect her? Do you think she is aware of the ghosts there, particularly the children who pull her out of the mud?
9. Clarissa realizes "...her marriage hung by a single tendril spun of stubbornness and fear" (115). What is she being stubborn about, and what is she fearful of? How does Iggy fit into this fragile arrangement?
10. Clarissa is harassed by the boys at the Treetop General Store, but Miss Lossie seems to get rid of them without a problem. "Surprised at their compliance, Clarissa wondered why she had commanded such little respect from the two-pint punks” (122). What is it about Miss Lossie that Clarissa doesn’t possess? How do Miss Lossie and Chester aid Clarissa in her spiritual journey?
11. How do the stories about the worm gruntin’ stob fit into the larger picture of Clarissa’s new life? Why do Chester and Miss Lossie regard worm gruntin’ so highly, and what does Clarissa take away from that devotion?
12. How do Clarissa’s perceptions and desires shift as she rides Chester’s motorcycle? “Hurtling down the highway on two wheels, she felt death’s presence...Duende...the Spanish notion of a creative force antithetical to the muse—a death dancer spinning a flamenco composed of carnality, sadness, and passion” (144-5). How does this awakening relate to the rest of her lessons of the day?
13. Despite all the excitement of buying a flashy new car, Clarissa notices the understated details of car salesman Raul:
Raul’s fingers resumed their dance. They were graceful fingers, tanned, and still bore the calluses of a man who used his hands to make a living. Clarissa wondered how long he had worked at the car lot and if he missed whatever it was that earned him those calluses. Maybe he understood the secrets of oak and pine, citrus and tomatoes, drywall and nails (152).
How could Clarissa spend so much time considering the back story of another when her own life is changing so wildly? Do you think that the mind of a writer naturally imagines the histories of those she encounters?
14. Iggy’s ire over the new car doesn’t surprise Clarissa, but she realizes, "Her life—all of its molehills and detours—she realized, was an enormous annoyance to him” (168). What kept her from having this awareness during their seven years of marriage? What gives Clarissa the strength to do something about her problems now?
15. "What good was hope if it remained nebulous? Hope was one of those abstractions, like love; for it to be meaningful, it had to be hitched to something real" (179). If this is true and it’s also true that love drives a person to what they fear most, what does hope motivate a person to do? According to Clarissa, how are the two similar and how are they different? What’s your opinion?
16. Compare Iggy and Adams. How do they perceive Clarissa, how do they treat her? In what ways does she respond to each of them?
17. Clarissa taught Adams that writing is scary and painful and dangerous, and now he has to re-explain that lesson back to her. What made Clarissa forget this essential part of her craft? How does she turn her writer’s block around?
18. Do you agree that Olga’s story is the one that Clarissa should focus on for her new book, as Adams says? Why or why not?
19. “She'd woken up that morning naive. And now she was not. Now the world was a different place. And Iggy was going to have to catch up” (236). Do you think it’s possible to turn a life around in one day? Have you ever had an epitome similar to Clarissa’s, whether it was about a relationship, a job, or another major life decision?
20. How do Larry Dibble/Lawrence Butler and the Villada-Archer family function in Clarissa’s alteration? Do you believe that spirits of the past can influence the present?
21. What do you think will happen next to Clarissa Burden?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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