Above the Clouds: A Reunion of Father and Son

In 1970, newly rich and famous from the success of Jonathan Livingston Seagull , Richard Bach, Jonathan Bach's father, left his wife, Bette, and their six children when Jonathan was two. ``Jonny,'' who was named after the improbable bird, here tells about life in the fractured family after his father's ``daddy-part died,'' as Bette put it. The boy grew up thinking dads were ``redundant'' and was content working with his mother, a pilot who sold airplane rides at fields in New England. After his mother married a draconian taskmaster, Jonny clung closer still to Bethany, his younger sister and best friend. But when Jonny was 16, he was at the wheel during a car crash that injured him--and killed Bethany. His father and his second wife, Leslie, seemed to ignore the tragedy, deepening Jonny's resentment and sense of abandonment. Yet readers will sense the coming rapprochement. Swayed by Richard and Leslie's side of the story, Jonny now lives near them in Seattle, far from his mother in Vermont. His writing debut is promising if naive and too long, unfortunately showing the influence of his father, who supplies a gushy afterword. (May)