Were Holden Caulfield a Mixed-Blood Orphan...

books:

	• Flight: A Novel Sherman Alexie Grove Press, Black Cat, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 58 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Were Holden Caulfield a Mixed-Blood Orphan...

"Flight" seems more a novella than a novel, considering it reads fairly quickly. This may simply be a result of the fact that the style of the book makes it so difficult to set down.

Taking a cue from coming-of-age forerunners like J.D. Salinger or even Twain, Alexie's new novel features an automatically loveable narrator and protagonist--he is an ignorant teen spouting every semblance of an idea that comes into his head. Liking the character Zits might seem strange at first, considering the awful thoughts of his that come spilling onto the page, but his ignorance gives him a certain license to honesty that allows me as a reader to learn more about this character than I would were he written under a 3rd person narration.

The progression--or more accurately, temporal digression--of the plot is easy to miss at first. Fortunately, though, if you don't get it immediately after the first time-change, Alexie is kind enough to state explicitly that Zits is in fact traveling backwards in time.

"Flight" is full of gruesome and disturbing imagery, but the book isn't concerned with race or culture in the way one might immediately think. It features characters from across a variety of different cultures and backgrounds who exhibit an entire spectrum of moral human behavior. Alexie isn't trying to point a finger at any people or group, but rather at a thought pattern. So while this book may technically be classified under Native-American literature, it is really simply a book about humanity and the chaotic world in which that heterogenous group exists.

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I'm not as enthusastic as others about this

Poets are often wonderful writers of short fiction, but they don't always transition well to the novel. I think this, generally, applies to Sherman Alexie.

I've been a fan of his since the beginning, but the only novel of his I really cared for was Reservation Blues. I give him credit for experimenting with genre in Indian Killer, but even he admitted in an interview in the Writer that he wasn't that successful with it.

Flight is an interesting concept, and the happy ending is a nice twist, but to me it felt a bit "dashed off." In fact, unlike another reviewer, what I found most lacking was the depth and poetic language I have come to expect from Alexie.

What bothered me the most, though, was his inaccurate treatment of history. Because it came so early on, it almost ruined the entire reading experience for me. I hate to play the role of the white gal who out-Indians the Indians on their history, but there are some things that anyone who has read at least one book about Crazy Horse and/or The Little Bighorn would know. 1) LBH was not a trap set by the Indians for the cavalry. It was the Battle of the Rosebud, 8 days prior, where the Indians surprised Crook. At LBH it was the Indians who were taken by surprise. 2) Crazy Horse was not bayoneted in the belly, as was stated twice. Whether or not it was purely accident is controversial, but he partially fell back onto the bayonet which pierced his kidney. This may seem like nit picking to some, but if one is going to write about going back in time, it's a little sloppy not to get the details right,and I found it particularly disappointing from a writer of this caliber. I also wasn't too nuts about the depiction of Custer as the egotistical maniac who thought that LBH would launch him to the presidency, only because it was too simplistic and it's been done-to-death, but I can let that go in that this was not meant to be a history of Custer or LBH, but a novel.

In the world of publishing today, poetry and short story collections aren't big sellers . In order to get their collections published, writers are often pressured into promising a future novel, and I sense this may have been one of those. For that reason, I hope Flight sells loads of copies and Alexie can return to what he does best--poetry and short fiction.

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Seriously Fun Stuff

This book was a lot of fun and if you'd have told me the subject matter I probably would have passed. But Alexie does a fantastic job of making a teenage boy the narrator in various bodies in some pretty horrendous situations. But the simple, funny attitude and language of the narrator diffuses the harshness of the scenes.

I think this book is novel and bright and like nothing I've ever read. It is educational and mind-shifting while at the same time being totally accessible.

Take a moment before you act.

Thank goodness for the great tellers of stories that reconnect us to the honor of being sentient.

Alexie's new novel is a compassionate exploration of how a throw away life can still harbor a loving and forgiving soul.

Zits, the 15 year old shape shifter hero of Flight carries great sadness, shame, anger, and an education by television garnered living with 20 foster families in the nine years since his mother died of cancer into a moment that becomes an extended awareness of how connected we all are in our losses, our anger, and our assumptions of what is historically accurate and what may have been. Zits possibly becomes several people in and out of the "present", "future", and "past" - all in a moment that will change the course of that particular life. Whether this actually happens or whether it is his fantasy, the choices made by Zits within the shape he has been thrust into will forever affect his relationship with his own pivotol choice.

This book may be perceived as having a happy ending. It is happy in the sense that some lives are allowed to proceed with love, with hope. It is sad in allowing Zits and ultimately the reader to know how lucky we are to have that chance in a world where there are still so many throw away souls and where there is a self indulgent need by so many of us to manipulate others for gain or revenge.

I couldn't put this book down. I will always be grateful I took the time to sit down with it, and reconnect with the Mind of Alexie.

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another fantastic read from alexie!

i'll confess up front that i'm a sucker for sherman alexie--i think he's a fabulous storyteller and a remarkable voice of this generation. he's most certainly secured himself a place in the modern canon with his past work, but Flight is particularly special.

the main character has a brilliant voice, an uncanny intelligence and an endearing personality...all while being one of the best written teenagers I've read in a long time. It's a bold statement, but this character plays as the Holden Caulfield of this generation...and I can't wait to recommend this book to the teens I know--I think they'll devour it.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12

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