Heavier Than Air: Stories

Reading Nona Caspers is more than simply exploring the world of one writer's view of the world from the vantage of raw countryside of Minnesota. Reading Nona Caspers is a discovery of a writer with particularly well-honed gifts of creating unforgettable characters who become etched on our minds in the same way the great American writers of the past (and present) have entered our perception of what this country is all about. Caspers writes with a fluid style that wastes no words but describes nature and those animals that fly, crawl and walk this strange territory of rural Minnesota - and the rest of this country - in both harmony and dissonance. She manages to enter realms of thought and situations other writers avoid, and from these peculiar places she creates characters both strange and sad, some who border on decisions edging on ostracism and some who have already entered a plane misunderstood by friends and family. The lead story, 'Country Girls', is one of the more realistic examinations of a young girl's discovery of same sex love with all the peripheral highs and lows that confrontation presents. In 'Wide Like An Eagle's Wings' we meet a young girl obsessed with the JFK campaign for presidency while coping with the a deeply moving, succinct account of a personal tragedy of death. Characters such as the sad Mr. Hellerman who is hospitalized as one unable to cope with the dwindling losses of his family land inheritance and hopeless future of his farm mix with other children and stunted adults who face changes in their lives that seem to force them into precarious places. Not a book of sad or dreary tales, this, but one that is unafraid to make us think about the weightier subjects of life while entertaining us with some equally finely tuned comedy. Nona Caspers is a brilliant writer who has found the fabric of American fiction that she drapes and sculpts and molds as well as any of her fine colleagues whose names are household words. Reading HEAVIER THAN AIR is a tasty prelude to what is most assuredly going to be a fine career for a gifted writer. Very Highly Recommended! Grady Harp, June 08

This book reminds me of Dorothy Parker. She wrote of New York. Caspers writes of the Midwest. This is real classic writing. As a lover of all things classic like Sinclare Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald and their stories of the part of the country they knew, Nona Caspers is a writer of the Midwest and its unique culture and people. They are real and funny and warm. Caspers goes deep and looks at things as they really are. Put this wonderful book on your night stand. Read it and enjoy it. You'll treasure it. Highly recommended. -Susanna K. Hutcheson

Read this collection! These stories rich and deeply satisfying and moving--I read straight through and then read some of the stories again (Country Girls, The Fifth Season, Wide Like an Eagle's Wings). This book is for everyone who loves stories and great characters! We rarely experience rural people with such complexity and compassion--a farmer, Mr. Lawrence Hellerman--you'll LOVE him and the way he looks at the world as he's trying to recover from a breakdown in a hospital. And the girl who collects cow bones and falls in love with a farm girl, and the woman who invites her mother to visit her in San Francisco after a break up with her girlfriend and then loses the mother in the park. You will love these people and you will witness the generosity of great writing. The San Francisco Chronicle said the stories rev up Willa Cather's lesbian undertones with Denis Jonson's (Jesus Son) deadpan plains rowdiness" -- and that the artistry rewards rereading: "simplicity this precise takes time, talent and considerable cultivation." And it was on the Editor's Choice list (underneath the Bestsellers Feb. 25 2007) in the New York Times Book Review! BUY THE BOOK OR GO TO THE LIBRARY-- BUT READ IT.

I loved this book. Caspers captures the essence of growing up in a rural setting where the spaciousness warps time and the boredom becomes mind expanding; riding the border between neglect and freeedom. Her prose is witty and intelligent, but yet humble and downright home cooked. A triumph of mind and spirit...Cheers!

Nona Caspers' writing is full and lush and ethereal. The characters come alive and yet simultaneously exist in some sort of magical world. Each story is so full of feeling and emotion and beauty. I only put this book down to make it last longer. Loved it.