Reviews: (by author)

(2 Reviews)

Rita Murphy. Night Flying. New York: Delacorte, 2000. 129 pp. ISBN 0-385-32748-X. $14.95.

Winner of the Delacorte Press prize for a First Young Adult Novel.

The premise for this remarkable first novel is the creation of a utopia of women: an isolated family community with three generations living happily together, miraculously free from necessity to earn their daily bread thanks to an inheritance - ironically enough from a male ancestor. The main bond that keeps these women together is a family secret: all the Hansen women can fly. The way it is presented in the novel it seems, however, a curse more than a gift. The young women are not allowed to develop any outside relationships; and the rules imposed on the young protagonist and narrator, Georgia, are both grim and meaningless. As in any novel of adolescence, the protagonist must liberate herself from the oppression, in this case from her grandmother. She is also eventually initiated into the secret of her own origin, as the woman she has believed to be her mother appears to be her aunt.

Together with an authentic and intense narrative voice, the metaphor of flying makes this novel unique. It can be interpreted as creativity or broader still, as human integrity. It is seldom that one reads such a powerful description of a young woman's way into adulthood.

Reviewed by Maria Nikolajeva

 

Murphy, Rita. Harmony. New York: Random House, 2002. $5.99. ISBN 0-440-22923-5. 129 pp. 

Felix and Nettie Mae's lives are drastically changed one day when a falling star collides with the roof of their chicken coop.   As a result from the collision, there is a baby girl left lying next to the star.   Felix and Nettie Mae decide to take this beautiful baby girl in and raise her to become "Harmony."   Harmony's entrance into our world has left her to be treated differently by the people of her community.   Around Harmony's fifteenth birthday, she discovers that she has the power to move objects, read people's minds, and change the energy around her.   In the end, Harmony uses her powers to save the endangered land around her mountain home and becomes the heroine of the story.   Harmony comes to realize that her greatest difficulty will not be to accept her powers, but to overcome the later death of Nettie Mae.   This tragedy in her life makes her see that she needs to utilize her powers to help others.

Rita Murphy takes the reader through this enchanting story and develops her characters in such ways that you feel as if they are real.   Harmony is an intricate character and a strong example of a leading female character.   This is a quick read that keeps you interested from start to finish.   The opening prologue mystically introduces the reader with a myth about Polaris, the North Star and ends with Harmony's relevance to this myth.   This is a great read guaranteed to keep the interest of adolescents.  

Recommended
Whitney Kuroyama, June 2004

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