Flight

By: Sherman Alexie

Narrated by: Adam Beach

Flight is the hilarious and tragic story of an orphaned Indian boy - "Zits" - who travels back and forth through time in a charged search for his true identity. With powerful, swift prose, Flight follows the troubled teenager as he learns that violence is not the answer.

The journey begins as he's about to commit a massive act of violence. At the moment of decision, he finds himself shot back through time to awaken in the body of an FBI agent during the civil-rights era. It's only the first stop. He continues through time to inhabit the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Bighorn and then rides with an 1800s Indian tracker before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today.

During these furious travels, his refrain is: "Who's to judge?" and "I don't understand humans." When he returns to his own life, he is transformed by all he's seen.

©2007 Sherman Alexie (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Captivating...one quickly surrenders to Zits' voice, which elegantly mixes free-floating young adult cynicism with a charged, idiosyncratic view of American history. Alexie plunges the book into bracing depths." ( Publishers Weekly)

meh.

This was a decent listen, but nothing stellar. Having recently listened to Life of Pi (and having not read the description of Flight very closely), I was expecting Indian from India, but the protagonist is Native American - a fact that matters both too much and too little to the story.

Zits is an intriguing and complex character, but I found it hard to suspend my disbelief on a number of levels. First, despite his Indian dad disappearing at his birth and being raised by an Irish-American mother and then the foster system, he somehow has a deep connection to the Indian side of his heritage. Then, despite having no reason to trust anyone he trusts someone completely in the space of about 12 hours. And then he starts traveling through time, which leads to some great stories, but he knows an awful lot about history for any kid, never mind one who was out of school as much as in it.

In this book, the far-fetched part is not the time travel, it's the character of the protagonist. If you can get past that, it's an interesting coming-of-age story about Indian history, foster care, responsibility, and the thin lines between right and wrong and good and evil.

Extremely Heartwarming

I love Sherman Alexie's "The Absokutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian", so when this was on sale it was a no-brainer. It is a very touching coming-of-age type story with a uniqur, body-swapping, time-traveling angle that was completely absorbing. It was very hard to stop listening once I got going. Adam Beach's narration was a perfect interpretation of Alexie's work.

P.S. For anyone that likes to listen at a slightly accelerated speed, I found 1.60× to be just right. You won't loose any of the nuance of Beach's performance, and, if anything, it adds to Zit's emotional state at times to have it set at a quicker pace.

Decent for a free listen.

Darkly heartwarming tale from the perspective of an orphaned Native American adolescent (Zits) as he struggles with navigating his teenage years with no stable home life and mountains of personal and generational trauma to unpack. Vaguely reminiscent of Chuck Pahlaunik's style of obscene magical realism, but not executed as well. It's gruesome and emotionally heavy, but also packed with life lessons that are presented very basically, spelled out deliberately, as if to a young child. Overall, it just missed the mark for me. I couldn't get a clear read on what genre it was trying to be, and it fell short on whatever it was attempting. Not bad for a quick, free download, but I am glad I didn't spend actual money on it.

Heartbreaking, heartwarming, and humorous

A well told story written by a man that deeply understands that we are all more than one thing; more than just good or bad. Alexie dives into the trauma of nations, generations, and that of one lost boy to tell us that there can be hope and healing. Adam Beech's narration adds to the authenticity of this beautiful tale. This is storytelling. Thank you, Alexie.

Wow...powerful

Please give this book a chance, don't get hung up early on with how violent it is. It really does redeemed itself and is a very powerful story in the end.

Might be a little bit much for young teens. But older teens and adults will get a lot out of the story.