REVIEW: Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart
While having tea with her mother’s school friend Carmel Lacy, Vanessa March learns that her husband Lewis, whom she believes to be in Stockholm on business and with whom she had a row before he left, appears in a newsreel story in Austria. Carmel, assuming Vanessa will be joining Lewis in Austria on their belated holiday, asks Vanessa to accompany her seventeen-year-old son Timothy, who wants to visit his divorced father in Vienna.
After seeking out the newsreel for herself, a stunned Vanessa sees that a cool and collected Lewis is indeed in Austria — with his arm around a pretty blonde girl. When she receives a telegram from Lewis postmarked from Stockholm, Vanessa immediately agrees to travel to Austria. But what exactly is going on there and will they all survive the danger that ensues?
I first read “Airs Above the Ground” ages ago when I was gorging myself on Mary Stewart’s gothic contemporary novels. At the time I had no idea what the title referred to, though I would understand a bit more about that by the book’s end, and the Iron Curtain still divided Eastern from Western Europe. Yes, it was that long ago when I read it. No, don’t ask me my age.
I didn’t pick up on it when I first read the book but it seems to me that it has a more “modern heroine” feel. True it starts out with Vanessa meeting with a “woman who lunches” and who also makes her marriage a social status thing however Vanessa is a trained vet and does practice. But then she still throws in that bit to Tim that “a man’s job is his life, and you’ve got to take it as it comes and try to be as loyal to it as he is..” Hmmmmm, okay so not totally modern.
Mary Stewart had only married off a few of her heroines and the two I recall as already married to the hero were both having issues and thus separated for a while as the action starts and builds. But here, as with many other Stewart heroines who end up in danger, the hero proves himself desperately in love with her and willing to go to any lengths to see to her safety. Stewart heroes are really a cut above any revenge minded or rakishly acting ones so often seen in romance.
The whole reason behind the skullduggery would no doubt be insignificant by today’s standards but back in the day, the reward for the criminal behavior would have been more worth the effort and the cover afforded by the means employed would probably have been hard for Interpol to catch on to and break.
After Vanessa’s wild flight from the villain, and the dust up at the castle with Tim, I couldn’t help but feel that the lengthy and elaborately described car chase scenes got a touch tiresome. As a means of estabilishing Lewis’s bona fides both to Vanessa and to Tim, it works brilliantly but it could have been a hair shorter in time frame. I did enjoy the levening of the final fight scene with the crockery lamentations.
Vanessa knows early on that “something isn’t right” about Lewis being in Austria but unlike some other Stewart books in which the heroine is the one to put two and two together, here Vanessa doesn’t catch onto what’s happening until after Lewis does. I did laugh at Vanessa’s thoughts about the Man World stuff that Vanessa catches in both Tim and Lewis’s tone as they discuss things with her. It’s definitely no “Mr. and Mrs Smith” here but that’s okay as Vanessa keeps herself alive when it counts and comes through magnificently in saving Tim. And it’s certainly better than “True Lies” as it’s more realistic and so much less OTT.
Heap coals of shame on my head but I’m with Tim – and for a short time, Vanessa before she feels guilty about it – regarding Lewis’s revenge at the Gasthaus. There’s something primative yet deeply satisfying about meting out immediate justice.
I have always adored Tim in this book and how he and Vanessa get along like a house on fire. He’s definitely not there merely as a prop. Rather he’s as integral to the plot as Vanessa and Lewis. Speaking of both of them, I love the veiled/ironic humor both Tim and Lewis engage in the morning after Lewis unknowingly blows his cover to Tim with Tim being fully aware of what Lewis was up to but Lewis, also making his own sly-ish comments, being completely unaware of Tim’s knowledge and therefore not knowing he’s being tweeked.
“Airs” is a trip to Austria, told with love and an eye to the stunning countryside though Vienna isn’t as vivid in my mind as the villages, valleys, forests, fields and mountains Vanessa and Tim drive by on their way. The story also manages to pack in information about the Lipizzaners. This was my first introduction to them but I could picture everything about their grace, strength, fluidity and intelligence. They’re so gorgeous to look at.
The scene in the grazing field with the butterflies is magical. I recently read an article, I thought on the BBC, about Austrian butterflies. Of course I can’t find it now…The magic continues as the Lipizanner’s music plays and I don’t know about anyone else but I always start crying by the end of Chapter Nine. Usually I’m not much for epilogues but this is what I was waiting for throughout the whole book. Perhaps I’m more sentimental in my older age but since I knew this was coming, it was what I wanted to get to once all the thrashing, bashing and fighting was done and the cold eyed professionals took over. It’s simply wonderful to read and imagine as an old pro finds his way back home where his name is above his stall and fresh straw waiting. B
~Jayne
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This is my favourite Mary Stewart after The Moonspinners, and it’s funny, I was just thinking about it just yesterday. My aunt had sent me a video of Friesian horses which made me think of the Lipizzanners which made me think of Airs and how I should find some time to reread it because I loved it so much. :) And you know, when I read Airs as a young teenager, Tim was one of my first book crushes. *LOL*
Thanks so much for reviewing this beloved book! I love it when someone goes back to the ‘classics’!
@Evaine: Tim is a doll. I just adore their first scene together on the plane as they settle into their relationship for the rest of the book. Recently I watched a DVD on Netflix about the Lipizzaners and when they mentioned Neapolitano, I shouted “Airs Above the Ground!”
“Airs” is one of my favorites, and usually the first one I reach for when I need a Stewart fix. I like that Vanessa and Lewis loved each other and had a solid relationship. When they had a problem, they talked about it, had a little (closed door) make-up sex, and carried on.
It’s true that Vanessa gave up her career for marriage, but this book was written in the ’60’s, and that was still the norm. iirc, she practiced part-time (pro bono?) at a local clinic. Her choices have to be considered in light of the time in which they occurred. Just like you have to accept the technology of the time (a villain who stops during a chase to use a pay phone to call the boss for instructions.No texting while driving here.)
And Tim is definitely not a plot moppet. He’s a young man with different ideas about his future career than his socially ambitious mother. He thinks he can appeal to his father, only to find that dear old dad has other concerns, like a new life and a new young trophy wife. Plus he reads Nero Wolfe… a guy who’d rather be Archie Godwin than James Bond is my kind of guy.
Jayne
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I most recently re-read this book last year and, for the first time, really noticed the lack of tech (the bad guy’s pay phone call that you mentioned, among others). And, of course, the Cold War politics–so much has changed in the 50(!!) years since the book was published. The relationship between Lewis and Vanessa stills rings true however, and that’s why I re-read it.
I first read this when it originally came out–(I was a senior in high school, thus, I believe, making me older than dirt) and recognized the title reference right away. You might want to dig out the 1963 Disney film “Miracle of the White Stallions”. Like you, the epilogue always makes me cry.
Add me to the Tim fan club! As a teen I wanted to date him (*snork*). Later on I just wanted to cushion him from his parents.
This was my first Stewart, read at school when I was about 14 and I still adore it and the revenge Lewis takes appeals to my primitive side ;-) And yes, I tear up at the end too.
Oddly enough, I am right now in the middle of listening to this book. I’ve read it any number of times (starting when I was a teenager in the 70s), but this is the first time I’ve listened to it. I am thoroughly enjoying it again, and had forgotten just how much I love Tim in particular.
One of my favorites by Stewart. I remember the lovely friendship the heroine has with Tim vividly.
Great memories. Thanks for the review.
Oh, I’ve read this. It was in the 90s in a stack of reader digest books someone gave my mom. Ill have to do a re read now that I know the author and title. I would never have remembered. The part that stands out most clearly is the retribution Lewis handed out. I loved that moment so much, lol.
I am glad you all like this book. I am glad you can hear it on audio too. But what you cannot do is read it as an e-book. At least in the USA. It’s ridiculous that Stewart’s romances are not available as e-books, but they aren’t. How can we get this problem solved?
@RJ: I’ve been waiting for e-books in the US for years. My copies are nearly all first issue PB and falling apart from re-reads and age. I would dearly love to have them on my reader. And then there’s “Wind off the Small Isles” which I don’t think was ever published here.
I think they’re available in the US….
http://www.amazon.com/Airs-Above-Ground-Mary-Stewart-ebook/dp/B00GW4OZL8/ref=sr_1_14_twi_2_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1437951570&sr=8-14&keywords=Mary+Stewart
I’m in Canada, but this is .com, not .ca, so… maybe?
Lovely review. Captured the magic of the book :)
This is my favorite Mary Stewart book and you gave it a B.
@Evaine: Her ebooks are not available in the U.S. Not sure why but they’re not. They’ve been available for a long time now and it doesn’t look as if they will ever be available here but you never know.
@Keishon I guess Amazon.com shows me the prices because I’m in Canada then. That’s too bad. :(
I really would like to know too why her books are not available as ebooks in the US. It is damn inconvenient.
@Sandra: Not only are mine old, falling apart print books but they have tiny print too. Not a problem years ago, now a problem with my aging eyes.
@bev: LOL, I think my parents had that same Readers Digest book because that’s how I first read it too.
@Keishon: ::grin:: I knew that comment was coming.