Richard MacMurray, a cable news talking head, is paid handsomely to pontificate on the issues of the moment. On New Year's Day he is scheduled to be a guest on a prominent morning talk show. As he awaits the broadcast, the network interrupts with news that a jet airliner has crashed in Dallas and that everyone aboard has perished.
Within an hour, amateur videotape surfaces of the plane's last moments, transforming the crash into a living image: familiar, constant, and horrifying. Richard learns that his sister, Mary Beth, was aboard the doomed flight, leaving behind her six-year-old son, Gabriel. Richard is the boy's only living relative. When he is given an opportunity to bring Gabriel home, it may be that the loss of his sister will provide him with the second chapter he never knew he wanted.
In this powerful debut, Steve Kistulentz captures the sprawl of contemporary America -- its culture, its values, the workaday existence of its people -- with kaleidoscopic sweep and controlled intensity. Yet within the expansive scope of Panorama lies an intimate portrait of human loss rendered with precision, humanity, and humor.
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Panorama Flight 503 Salt Lake City to Dallas lifts off on a gorgeously clear New Year's Day morning--a day on the calendar traditionally marked for optimism, reflection, and new beginnings. With new beginnings, however, come endings, and this powerful debut novel concerns itself with both. Flight 503 never makes it to Dallas, crashing violently and exploding into flames after a mechanical malfunction renders the pilots helpless. Set the year before 9/11, the story follows the impact of this tragic event on a single family. Kistulentz, who has published two books of poetry (The Luckless Age and Little Black Daydream) tells the tale beautifully. At the center is single mom Mary Beth, who is aboard the flight, leaving behind six-year-old son Gabriel and brother Richard, who will take custody of the child. This is a work about contingencies and asymmetrical events in every day life--events that are beyond our control. It is also a deeply moving meditation on the nature of family and home and a celebration of our redeeming capacity for optimism in the face of tragedy, hardship, and loss. Enthusiastically recommended for fans of literary fiction.
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Patrick Sullivan, Library Journal