Against gravity

Growing up in a dreary hamlet along the Hudson River in upstate New York, Gwyn Stickley, nicknamed "Stick," is determined to escape from her seemingly static yet volatile world. Obsessed with her rail-thin body and estranged from her parents and her self-destructive peers, Stick feels trapped in a world where nothing ever seems to happen. As she soon finds out, even small towns can hide disturbing secrets. She begins to look at her surroundings with fresh eyes when her friend JoAnn becomes pregnant, and is dependent on Stick to both hide and resolve her "dilemma." Suddenly, Stick sees new divisions emerge between old friends and neighbors, and even between her father and mother, whose troubles have roots in mysterious relationships established long ago. Learning to master her body and her emotions through dancing, Stick eventually flees to Manhattan in search of a career on Broadway. Although gifted, she ultimately finds that her gift should assert itself not just in control over the steps but also through passion. With this discovery, she finally returns home, where surprising new demands assert themselves. Stick prematurely takes on adult responsibilities by caring for her father after a gruesome fall. The legacy of JoAnn's pregnancy and a startling revelation about her mother's past force Stick to assume an unexpected family role. These new responsibilities, however, also free her to express her need for sex and intimacy, and she finally learns to accept the uncontrollable nature of love and pain. . With bold precision, Lucy Ferriss paints the numbing routine of lives that appear stagnant but are fraught with violent change. Against Gravity poignantly illustrates a world where flight is a continual yearning and gravity an unconditional force.