Natural Flights of the Human Mind Clare Morral

Natural Flights of the Human Mind is a novel set in the present day in the seaside town of Devon. It centers on two central character, Stracker a 50-something year old hermit, who lives in a lighthouse; and Imogen, a 40-something school caretaker. Both characters are initially described in ways that can only be termed unattractive, as they struggle to hide from their miserable pasts.

When Imogen inherits a cottage from her little known Godfather in Devon, she rushes to the seaside town to collect her bounty. Unfortunately, she finds the cottage in near ruins. Enter Stracker, who despite his refusal to speak to anyone in Devon for the last 25 years wanders into Imogen's yard and sees her struggling to fix the roof. They meet, annoy and offend one another, and move on. Stracker then inexplicably returns to her cottage during the week to make repairs for her unsolicited. As a reader, I'm already struggling. For the life of me, I cannot make the leap this character does in the opening 50 pages. He's been basically silent, keeping to a routine and obsessed with the number 78 (potentially the number of people he killed maybe accidentally) for 25 years until an unattractive, spiteful, rude woman unleashes her anger on him. It just doesn't seem quite right.

The two eventually become a kind of team, working on Imogen's little cottage and they eventually find a bi plane in the barn on the far end of the property. The site of which sends Stracker reeling. The mystery of the 78 slowly starts to unravel and the reader learns about the accident involving a small plane piloted by Stracker and a commuter train and why Stracker blames himself. Simultaneously, Imogen is working out her own demons, living down the memory of a husband who left one day (on the train) and never came back.

In the meantime, Stracker is exercising his demons by writing to the families of his victims in a vain and self-important attempt to "not let them be forgotten" as if. Several of the families figure out who he is, despite his ruse that he's a reporter, and they eventually come looking for him. At this point all plausibility, which was wanting from the start, completely breaks down. It's just completely unbelievable.

The writing of the book though, is beautiful. The prose are compelling, the dialogue (interior more so than shared) resonates in ways that makes the characters more compelling than they might be otherwise.