UNCW grad's complex, compelling novel 'Planes' set partly in town much like Wilmington
Author Peter C. Baker earned his master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. And "Planes," his debut novel, released May 31, appears to be set, in part, in a Southern town very much like Wilmington.
"Planes" is a complex tale, mixing the political with the personal. On one level, it's a version of the old trope about how the beat of a butterfly's wings could start a hurricane or an earthquake on the other side of the globe.
Baker's central characters are two very different women.
Amira, formerly Maria, is a 32-year-old boutique clerk in Rome. She converted to Islam when she married Ayoub, a gentle immigrant from Morocco.
As the novel opens, however, Ayoub is not around. Apparently, after an ill-advised trip to Pakistan, he was picked up in the War on Terror (the time is the early 2000s) and whisked to a prison back in Morocco. He's not convicted or even charged with anything, just held on suspicion.
Amira hears of him only through his American lawyer (who speaks bad Italian) and through rare, heavily censored letters. As she waits for his return, Amira lives a kind of half-life.
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The other protagonist is Mel (short for Melanie) Kinston. Once a campus activist who marched on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, Mel has settled into middle age. Now she sells real estate in "Springwater," a conservative beach town. She exercises the remains of her social conscience on the school board, where she tries to push decidedly moderate policies past intransigent Republicans.
Perhaps it's boredom. Perhaps it's frustration at an inauthentic life. Perhaps it's the empty desk, now that her only son is off at college. Whatever the reason, Mel has slipped into a heated affair with Bradley, a khaki-pants Republican lawyer and fellow school board member.
Then Mel hears from some of her old Chapel Hill friends. It seems that a charter airline out at the Springwater airport is really a front for the CIA, kind of a descendant of the Vietnam-era Air America.
The airline specializes in "extraordinary rendition," flying suspects like Ayoub to detention facilities in Third World countries, the kinds of countries where there are no pettifogging rules against torture.
The president of this CIA front, at least on paper, is none other than Bradley. What to do?
Meanwhile, Ayoub finally shows up back in Rome, but he's not the same. Shrunken, barely able to move or eat, he's suffering from post-traumatic stress. As far as Amira is concerned, he's there but not there.
Baker, who writes for The New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, The Guardian and other publications, spins these two tales seamlessly and seductively, compelling the reader to go on.
As Mel tries to rally a protest, she discovers that most of her Springwater friends are unconcerned. The airlines' employees have been good corporate citizens and big spenders. Most locals actually approve of what Bradley is doing.
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Baker writes vividly. His descriptions of Rome recall fellow UNCW alum Nicola DeRobertis-Theye's recent novel, "The Vietri Project."
Book clubs, I suspect, will have spirited arguments about how well Baker resolves his ending. Readers, however, will enjoy the flight to that final destination.
BOOK REVIEW
'PLANES: A NOVEL'
By Peter C. Baker
Knopf, $27
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Planes by UNCW grad Peter C. Baker set in town much like Wilmington NC
