Flight: A Novel by Sherman Alexie
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Book Reviews of Flight: A Novel
Book Review: A fun and sentimental--but extremely short-- ride
Summary: 3 Stars
FLIGHT boasts a blend of brilliant ideas as our young narrator, Zits, sturggles to find his real self while keeping his tough front intact to protect himself from the world. While he floats from foster home to jail back to other foster homes, he pines for his beloved but deceased mother and the father he never knew but who gave him his black hair and pimples.
After he lands in jail after fleeing another home, he meets a young man who "takes him under his wing" so to speak and teaches him how to control his hate into something more creative: a la killing those who fit under the regime of belonging to a religion, system, or public function in a bank. While Zits guns people down, he is shot and dies... or does he?
What happens afterward is a bizarre yet educational trip through time, when he lands in the body of a hardened FBI agent who hates American Indians, a young American Indian boy during the battle of Little Bighorn, a white solider who tracks down a band of Native Americans with the purpose to slaughter them, a pilot who trained a radical while in the throes of a loveless affair, and even his own father. Through these trips he experiences greed, death, extreme hate and extreme love. As Zits witnesses a bit more of each of these, he realizes that the world has its bad times, but the tiny moments of hope are the ones that make it worthwhile.
Written in the voice of a wounded yet intelligent fifteen year old, FLIGHT packs a mean punch when it comes to putting history and people into life. There are a few instances of teenage jargon (Zits hides behind "Whatever" and says "okay" with almost every sentence when he's trying to be sarcastic) which tend to irritate this reviewer, yet I forgive him during his lapses into different times because he's learning so much.
The reason behind three stars is that this unique coming-of-age story is really short, so it wraps Zits' pain up too neatly. He can't possibly learn compassion and hope that fast. I suppose he only got a taste of it and the rest it up to him. But where's the real resolution? Also, some of the time travel sequences are not as compellion because they are so short. I wanted to see more of the Red River and Little Bighorn sequences, and more of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. But the most poignant scene was when Zits was Gus, the tracker who led the army to the band of Native Americans, and he helped a young soldier save a little native boy. That part brought on a few tears.
But please don't skip this book because it's so short. It's a wonderful look into the face of a young boy's world and what he takes from it.
Book Review: Flight is soaring with good humor...
Summary: 5 Stars
I would suggest anyone that works with Native Americans or is an Native American read this book...what candor, what fun, what insight that there is only two tribes...Alexie says it like it is for society as a whole.Book Review: Despite some turbulence, it is well worth the flight.
Summary: 4 Stars
Sherman Alexie's Flight reminds us all that we seek love and need love. The novel's protagonist, "Zits" is a wayward teenager who is victimized by the foster-care system and as a result wrestles with shame, alienation and self. Zits draws the reader in as he narrates this tale with a matter-of-fact tone and a sardonic sense of humor that only a teenager of his circumstance could own. After another one of Zit's attempts at running away, the altruistic Officer Dave catches him; Officer Dave is Zits only true friend. In describing Dave, Zits claims, "the wounded always recognize the wounded. We can smell each other." These open wounds are the catalysts that turn a routine visit to kid jail into something more sinister; it is on this visit, that the susceptible Zits comes under the spell of another Juvenile Delinquent named "Justice" and decides to become his brother in arms. While faced with a critical decision, initiated by the charismatic Justice, Zits's conscience soars-literally. We find our selves taken along for the ride as Zits snatches bodies and thrusts us into a series of alternate consciousness. We become an FBI agent, an Indian boy, an Indian tracker, an adulterous man caught with his paramour and even Zits's own father. Aside from gripping action, all this body snatching serves a purpose; these characters act as vehicles for Zits to come to terms with his dubious and heart breaking past. If you want to know whether or not Zits follows Justice's flawed and mad reasoning to his own death, read this novel! Although getting to the destination is riddled with turbulence, it is well worth the flight.
Book Review: A typical boy in an untypical world...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is how Alexie brings us in! He introduces us to a character that we are already familiar with no matter how old we are - the typical troubled, "bad boy" teen. Through the first few chapters, we begin with an, "Ah, I know this boy" attitude. Then, his "typical" bad boy life changes. He goes places none of us have before. But, we still want to follow him because we "know" him, or at least someone like him. On the surface, the entire novel seems like a young teenage boy and his unexpected journeys through time. However, we can look so much deeper than that. It seems, through his time travel, Zits is making commentary on real world and societal issues and is not afraid to say it. In the beggining, he uses the teenage language and laid back "I don't care" attitude to introduce concepts of murder, culture, citizenship, identity, friendship, etc. We may almost pass him off as a troubled teen with an attitude problem. However, his extreme detail and analysis of his time travel proves to us that in every time and place in the world there are major contradictions between what we are told/taught and what actually happens and how people actually feel.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I do feel that adolescents might have trouble with it. As a college student reading it for school, I had trouble stopping to jot down notes or putting the book down. In the begining, when I would leave the book, I felt like I had no idea what was going on. I could make new predictions every other chapter as to if this person really was Zits, if it was a dream, time travels, a nightmare, etc. and sometimes my predictions were way off. Just when I thought I knew what was happening I realized I didn't. Although predicting and repredicting was fun for me, I think it may cause the "anti-reading" adolescent student trouble. I enjoy being confused and I enjoy every twist and turn, but I'm not sure a majority of adolescents would. However, because of the literary beauty, terrific writing, great story and underlying commentary, I believe trying to get adolescents to read this novel is definitely worth a shot!
Book Review: Alexie Does It
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been reading Alexie's work lately and reading FLIGHT has lead me to be even more enthusiastic about his writing. His words suck you into the emotion of the main character, Zits, and takes you with him on his journey to find his identity as a foster, 21st century Indian boy. As a pre-service English teacher, I thought of how this book would be responded to in a high school classroom. Despite some of the provocative language (which really is a minute factor) used in certain situations, this is a great text to expose to high school students with its ability to raise topics for discussion and controversial issues that expand further than just adolescent identity.
A big aspect of FLIGHT is the idea of the 21st century Indian which has been a talked about issue recently. There are so may subjects and controversies packed into Alexie's book that it's possible to find a deeper meaning within each one of his words. I highly recommend this text to any high school student or adult.