At the ripe age of seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is facing what’s supposed to be her final move. After a minor car accident—one that ends with a priest confiscating her driver’s license and snipping it into pieces—her children decide it’s time for her to relocate to Vista View, a retirement community in Austin, Texas. Pepper has plenty of reasons to resist, chief among them the fact that her ex-husband (and father of her children) already lives there. Still, she chooses not to fight it. It’s easier this way.
As she settles in, Pepper begrudgingly begins to make connections. To her surprise, she finds a sense of community, and even more unexpectedly, the possibility of romance. At seventy-seven, she didn’t think she’d feel giddy about a man again, but life clearly has other plans.
And those plans are just getting started.
Pepper begins to feel unwell—exhausted, nauseated, and increasingly forgetful. At first, she blames the food, but no one else seems affected. As her symptoms worsen, her family braces for the worst: dementia, cancer, something irreversible. But after a battery of tests, the diagnosis is something no one could have predicted.
At seventy-seven years old, Pepper Mills is pregnant.
Enormous Wings takes its title from Gabriel García Márquez’s short story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, a tale in which a literal angel is treated as a spectacle rather than something sacred. It’s fitting, then, that Laurie Frankel draws a similar thread in her own work. Here, magical realism becomes a lens through which Frankel explores aging, mortality, bodily autonomy, and motherhood.
These are weighty themes, but Frankel balances them with a sense of humor that often veers into the absurd, giving the novel an energy that keeps it from becoming too heavy. The premise is undeniably far-fetched, though I found myself accepting Frankel’s logic without much resistance. Ultimately, the premise isn’t really the point. It’s the vehicle that drives the story’s deeper questions and commentary.
And yes, the messaging can feel overt at times. Subtle, this novel is not. But that feels intentional. It's all part of the broader fable Frankel is crafting. For me, that boldness worked. Pepper Mills’s story is one that lingers, using its unusual premise to shine a sharp, often satirical light on the realities of aging, autonomy, and even the absurdities of modern politics. For all its boldness, Enormous Wings is a story with a lot of heart—one that left me thinking, laughing, and happy to have read it.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 36)
That is NOT where I thought this story was going. lol Pregnant? Oh even at my age, I would have a melt down.
ReplyDeleteIt makes things interesting to say the least!
DeleteWhat an absurd concept! Definitely adding to my TBR, XD
ReplyDeleteI think you'll love it! I certainly did!
DeleteWow! I love the GGM reference, by the way. It makes a lot of sense. And no problem if the story isn't subtle - it's what we need right now. Awesome review!
ReplyDeleteRight? I thought it was such an apt comparison.
DeletePregnant at 77??! No thank you
ReplyDeleteIt causes quite the stir at the assisted living facility haha.
DeleteTalk about needing to suspend disbelief! ;D
ReplyDeleteRight?!
DeleteThere was a story of a senior citizen outside the US who was pregnant. I forget when it was, but stuff like that leaves a mark.
ReplyDeleteThe situation in an of itself isn't exactly outside the realm of the possible. Though this story takes it much further.
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