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MWSA Review
Kathleen M. Rodgers writes about a close-knit family of women bonded together by loss and grief, an act of violence from years past, and a code of silence to protect one of their own. The Flying Cutterbucks is a tapestry masterfully woven with colorful, quirky characters and a riveting plot.
The eldest daughter, Trudy returns to Pardon, New Mexico, in 2016 after a failed marriage and career as a flight attendant. As she sifts through her mother’s cluttered home, Trudy relives the events of her fighter pilot father who is MIA from Vietnam, her little brother who did not survive cancer, the stillbirth of a precious daughter, and the escape from an abusive relationship. It is the 2016 election and one candidate brings back old family secrets of violence haunting three women. The media records a candidate outrageously admitting to grabbing women’s private parts which remind Aunt Star, Trudy, and Georgia of a nightmarish encounter with cousin Dub, a pervert of the worse kind. Until now, the horrible event is a hazy memory for Trudy but she seeks to find the truth.
Throughout the novel, Trudy hears her father’s voice in the form of pilot radio calls during times of stressful indecision. Rogers integrates memories of military family life throughout the story honoring the MIA fighter pilot’s wife and daughters.
As they stand together, the Cutterbuck women unearth the truth of what happened one night many years ago. We read about the burden they carry and the strength it takes to face it. Together the loving daughters help their mother sift through the memories and mementos of a father missing in action somewhere over Vietnam. One day a phone call from the government results in his return home and the closing of a chapter in their lives.
Kathleen M. Rodgers is a gifted writer who ties up all the loose ends in an entertaining, complicated novel.
Review by Nancy Panko (March 2021)
Author's Synopsis
Decades ago, Trudy, Georgia, and Aunt Star formed a code of silence to protect each other from an abusive man who terrorized their family. One act of solidarity long ago lives with them still. With the election of a president who brags about groping women without their consent, old wounds and deep secrets come alive again, forcing hard truths to be told and even harder truths to be left to the dead.
On the outskirts of Pardon, New Mexico, Trudy returns to her mother, Jewel, to navigate an old house filled with haunting mementos of her father who went missing in action over North Vietnam. As she helps her mother sift through the memories and finally lay her father to rest, Trudy will do her own soul searching to say goodbye to the dead, and find her way along with the other women in her family, and through the next election.
ISBN/ASIN: 978-1948018784, B087JBHD4Q
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 296