In the coming-of-age novel THE AERONAUTS’ DAUGHTER, Aurora Dawn Merryweather (the only child of a balloonist couple) grows up on her parents’ balloon farm in 19th-century Mohawk Valley, New York. Trained to be an aeronaut from an early age, Aurora comes face-to-face with the world’s dim view of women and aeronauts. Will Nolan, an ex-policy shop boy and juvenile convict, is taken in by the Merryweathers as an apprentice. On the farm, Will is trained to become an expert aeronaut. Harboring resentment over his impoverished past, Will fails to express his affection for Aurora, whom he has admired ever since he first set eyes on her.
Author Geraldine Burrows creates a consistently intriguing plot with engrossing characters. They're all well-developed, complementing one another while reflecting the norms of the depicted era. Charlotte’s quick thinking is translated through her calm and calculated maneuvering of challenging balloon flights, and her strong will is shown when she doesn’t shy away from standing her ground (as is evident in her debate with Mr. Dennings about the future of aeronautics). Aurora, being a teenager, is completely smitten with Mr. Dennings. Her one-sided encounters with him reveal her consistently terrible taste in men and provide the contrast needed for her to grow out of teenage naiveté.
The male characters (including Will) are portrayed as mainly prejudiced against women, which aligns with the prevailing attitudes of the era. Some sequences are beautifully written. For example, the sermon in which Brother Samson declares balloonists as "Flying Devils" is an apt rendition of religious manipulation. When he "cocked his handsome head in an attitude of listening, as if he heard something no one else could" and "gazed up as if he were watching a Flying Devil that no one else could see circling in for a landing," Aurora looks up, too, but sees "absolutely nothing except the tent ceiling."
The prose is grounded in action-driven imagery, yet the settings are rather vague. Will’s neighborhood, “The Satan’s Circle,” is best described as “an area of Manhattan that the coppers called the tenderloin because it offered rich bribes, payoffs, and kickbacks.” The book doesn’t have any major structural weaknesses; the well-paced narrative makes it hard to put down, but there are minor plot inconsistencies. For example, the earlier chapters imply that Wunny Gunderson may have lost his fingers to rattraps, though he is later said to have been "born fingerless." Some characters, such as Sam Strange and Wunny Gunderson, are interesting and have detailed introductions, but are not explored to the reader's satisfaction. On top of that, the ending completes their individual arcs and yet fails to provide a satisfactory resolution to Will and Aurora’s story.
Though it's not flawless, THE AERONAUTS’ DAUGHTER is still a well-paced example of historical fiction.
In THE AERONAUTS’ DAUGHTER, Geraldine Burrows creates layered and exceptionally well-developed characters against the backdrop of the ballooning industry of late 19th-century New York.
~ Maria Zafar for IndieReader