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We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Contemporary fiction

We Never Asked for Wings

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

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Quick take

Dramatic, nuanced and populated with characters who deserve your attention, Wings is a delightful meditation on the sorrows and consolations of family and the difficulty of outrunning the past.

Why I love it

What is it that makes us say "yes" as we start a new novel? Yes, I will give myself over to this imaginary world instead of abandoning it for the next book on my bedside stack? The language must appeal, the plot must invite, but for me the key is feeling that I'm in good hands: I need to trust the author not to veer into implausibility or bore me to tears. "This is your author speaking, we've reached cruising altitude and I would never let you crash."

We Never Asked for Wings delivers that "sit-back-and-enjoy" sensation right from the start — even as its main character, Letty, is introduced as someone who definitely shouldn't be in the driver's seat. The struggling single mom is headed for Mexico, a water bottle filled with tequila riding shotgun as she speeds south. Her parents, Maria Elena and Enrique, have been raising Letty's kids in the apartment they all share in rundown projects outside San Francisco, while Letty drinks and works in a bar. But now the parents have returned to their native village, and Letty's sure she can't make it without them. We're pretty sure, too: she's left Alex, 14, and Luna, 6, all alone as she makes this journey, abandoning them with a hastily-scribbled note.

What follows is a thoroughly engrossing coming-of-age tale. Unable to convince her parents to come back to California with her, Letty returns home alone to her kids and finally learns how to be a mom. She finagles Alex and Luna into better schools and begins to move up in the world, but the mistakes she's made exact a lasting toll.

Dramatic, nuanced and populated with characters who deserve your attention, Wings is a delightful meditation on the sorrows and consolations of family and the difficulty of outrunning the past. From the first sentence, I trusted Vanessa Diffenbaugh wholly — with her narrative and with my time. She is a capable pilot indeed.

Member ratings (39)

Contemporary fiction
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Contemporary fiction
View all
The Last Love Note
What Does It Feel Like?
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
The Wedding People
Honey
The Leftover Woman
The Same Bright Stars
Bye, Baby
Definitely Better Now
Swan Song
The Days I Loved You Most
The Connellys of County Down
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Jackpot Summer
Adelaide
I Might Be in Trouble
The Collected Regrets of Clover
Again and Again
Evil Eye
Black Cake
Maame
Romantic Comedy
Someone Else’s Shoes
Once There Were Wolves
We Are the Brennans
The Bad Muslim Discount
What Comes After
Olga Dies Dreaming
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
Monster in the Middle
Nine Perfect Strangers
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes
Honey Girl
In Every Mirror She's Black
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Sankofa
The Unsinkable Greta James
The Love of My Life
The Five-Star Weekend
A Home for the Holidays
The Wishing Game
Behold the Dreamers
The Mothers
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Little Fires Everywhere
The Music Shop
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
The Reckless Oath We Made
When We Were Vikings
The Girl with the Louding Voice
A Good Neighborhood
Big Summer
All Adults Here
Happy & You Know It
Friends and Strangers
The Comeback
True Story
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Troubles in Paradise
White Ivy
This Close to Okay
The Chicken Sisters
The Prophets
In a Book Club Far Away
The Other Black Girl
Apples Never Fall
A Quiet Life
We Are the Light
The Most Likely Club
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
The Hotel Nantucket