Flying (Flying: A Trilogy) by Eric Kraft

Flying (Flying: A Trilogy) Reviews

• 
  Jenny T

  This is the fictional biography of Peter Leroy, the "Birdboy of Babbington", a teenager who flew from Long Island to New Mexico in a homemade winged motorcycle in the 1950s. Well, almost flew. And really, it's the journey that makes the story, not the arrival.
  
  Told from the point of view of Peter as an older man as he reads his "memoirs" to his wife on a road trip, this was a beautiful, chucklesome story of hope and adventure. Peter's wife Albertine is a wonderful character in her own right, and theirs is one of my favorite literary relationships ever. Took me awhile to get through this one, but it certainly wasn't one to rush.
• 
  Karen Rudloff

  Overall good story but way too wordy. Can easily skip 100s of pages and not lose your place in the story.
• 
  Alan

  I had previously read four of Eric Kraft's books and enjoyed them very much. But this latest installment in the imaginary memoirs of Peter Leroy was a major disappointment. It was like spending many hours trapped on a transcontinental railroad sitting next to a boring, self-absorbed, self-indulgent traveling companion who will not SHUT UP.
  Previously entries in this series have been charming, whimsical and sweetly innocent. But now we're weighed down by our protagonist's (and author's) delusions of grandeur. I lost count of the references to Proust and Kafka. Leroy (Kraft) seems to have drunk the kool aid and come to the conclusion that he is a literary personage of real importance, and as such, every one of his tiresome observations suddenly takes on cosmic importance. He's not and they don't.
  The slight tale concerns how Peter pedals a bike with wings that's supposed to fly but does not across Amerika (in the Kafkaeque sense because this country bears no resemblance to the real America).
  Interspersed with this, the present-day Peter, even more loquacious than he was a youth, accompanied by his wife Albertine (how Proustian) recreate the trip in an electric car.
  Along the way, he has various and sundry picaresque experiences -- but more often he just drones on about anything that enters his head.
  This is a very sad development and I take no pleasure in writing these words. As long as he didn't take himself too seriously, Kraft was a delight and a treasure. But in this book he and his hero have both become pretentious bores.
• 
  Harlan

  Flying is a novel in three parts and two eras, a high-school aged boy from Long Island on his cross-country adventure via aerocycle, and the middle-aged man with his wife retracing his path. The first part, Taking Off, was brilliant, insightful, and hilarious, with thoughts on nostalgia, small towns, and fame. Kraft's writing here was clever, with great anecdotes, and thoughtful ideas. But after this first 175 pages, the novel starts to drag. The anecdotes become heavy-handed and long-winded, the plot starts to feel flat, and the reader just wishes the book were 200 pages shorter. Or maybe 300 pages shorter. Fortunately, the last section of the novel, with the protagonist in New Mexico, winds up the novel on an amusing note about the teenage years for geeky kids. [return][return]This novel felt like it should have been split up. There were too many ideas, themes, and most of all, too many words for one book. A heavier hand by the editor would have been valuable as well. Still, for readers with time on their hands and the willingness to slog through some excess prose, the best parts of this novel are well worth it.
• 
  Kathleen Maher

  I read this book as a participant in Ed Champion's roundtable discussions before it was released. It's funny and fantastical. Fantasy is not a genre I appreciate and when I say it's fantastical, please don't assume the three short, interconnecting novels told by narrator Peter Leroy fit the genre. The quixotic adventure plays with a number of 20th century fantasies, skews the era's pieties, and is laugh out loud funny.
  Ingenuity, timing, drawing, pop culture, high culture: he makes his way through time and space in one happy tale after another, and many of his imagined machines and fads and communal enthusiasms seem prescient even when they're playing with recent history.
  
  (I've mentioned this before, but if anyone's reading my reviews here, it probably bears repeating: As a mostly unpublished writer who finds writing a daredevil act, I put up reviews here if I found the book an astonishing artistic achievement: hence, the preponderance of five stars.)
• 
  Rachel

  A very slow - and frustrating - start. Honestly, if I weren't reading this for a book club, I'm not sure how diligently I would have pushed through the first part. Once I got through the longer rambling sections of philosophy and pertinence, a plot finally caught the ignition and took flight; I was a much happier reader then. The middle & last part of this book bumped it from a 2 to a 3. I greatly enjoyed "On the Wing" and "Flying Home," though the narrator's paranoia about the "flyguys" seems somehow ironic...and annoying irrational. Other than that, though, a pleasant read. I would recommend it, though with the caution that the first part is slow...that's okay. The rest of it is worth it.
• 
  Janet

  Surreal and deeply funny take on the great American road trip novel. I couldn't stop laughing. I love the structure of interweaving Peter's teenage "flight" to New Mexico with his present day road trip with Albertine. Both stories dovetail nicely and the ending still manages to surprise. Peter and Albertine are wonderfully developed -- you start to feel like you know them. Great fun to read.
  
  
  
  Now to go out in search of the BCB (Big Cheap Breakfast) :-)
• 
  Gil

  Here it is at last, in a bizarre paperback from Picador. Mini dust jacket with book flaps, which is the totality of the outside binding, and untrimmed edges. Ah, but it is finally in my hot little hands. I have loved every Peter Leroy book so far, and I know already this will be excellent (okay, I read excerpts).
• 
  Kevin Hodgson

  I read about this one in Newsweek. I like the plot idea but the dialogue seems a bit stilted so far. Not so much that I won't read it on the airplane to California next week.
• 
  Bre

  Most boring book I've ever read!
• 
  Paul

  Part of a series. This is a fantasy that I felt was a lot of fun. Made me seek out more by this author, but this is among his best. Also try Herb and Lorna.