Fling!

By: Lily Iona MacKenzie

Narrated by: Anna Crowe

Is it possible to come of age at 60 or 90? Is it ever too late to fulfill your dreams? When 90-year-old Bubbles receives a letter from Mexico City asking her to pick up her mother's ashes, lost there 70 years earlier and only now surfacing, she hatches a plan. A woman with a mission, Bubbles convinces her hippie daughter Feather to accompany her on the quest. Both women have recently shed husbands, and have a secondary agenda: they'd like a little action. And they get it.

Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles' odyssey. The two women head south from Canada to Mexico, where Bubbles' long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their hilarious antics. In Mexico, where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother, and Bubbles' quest for her mother's ashes - and a new man - increases her zest for life. Unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she's immortal. She doesn't hold back in any way, eating heartily and lusting after strangers, exulting in her youthful spirit. Has Bubbles discovered a fountain of youth that everyone can drink from?

©2015 Lily Iona MacKenzie (P)2016 Lily Iona MacKenzie

It wasn't for me, narration was just okay

This is the story of Bubbles, a ninety-year-old Scottish living in Canada, who one day receives a letter from Mexico to pick up her mother’s ashes, dead seventy years ago. Bubbles recruits Feather, he daughter, and together the take a trip to Mexico, where incredible things are awaiting them.

This book is full of hilarious and sad moments at once. It shows how two different and strong women have much more in common than they thought. I was quickly hooked to the story, and enjoyed the background stories of both, but after a while it got a bit confusing and the supernatural factor was a bit too much for me. It felt like inspired by ‘100 years of solitude’, but what worked for me in the other one, did not in this.

I had issues finding Bubble’s vitality realistic, but my opinion may just be colored by my poor experience. When ghosts started to appear in the story, I suddenly started having issues connecting to the story and finding the dialogs kind of forced.

After reading great reviews of this book I feel bad because I was not able to get it, but I think part of it was due to the narration. Anna Crowe’s narration was just okay, and definitely not good enough for me. All characters sounded exactly the same, and this made the book quite confusing at times, since we have mother and daughter talking to each other and reliving parts of their past. I think playing with accents would have provided so much added value to the story, but unfortunately, it is not the case. Bubbles is Scottish, and parts of the story are set in Scotland, but the accent keeps being the same from beginning to the end of the book. Adding this to the fact that all characters sounded the same, kind of ruined the book for me. I also found that the character’s interpretations could have been better. They sounded a bit flat and forced. The audio production was correct but I perceived a bit more reverberation than usual, and the the pauses between chapters felt also much shorter than what I am used to.

I received a copy of this book in audio format from the narrator in exchange for an honest review.

A Hilarious Odessey

When you have three women named Heather (daughter, mother, and grandmother), you just know things are going to be a bit confusing. Fortunately, the daughter and her mother use nicknames, which helps. Despite the common names, they are unique individuals, and their relationships are complicated and poignant. The flashbacks are sometimes slipped in so seamlessly, that you have to pay attention to know whose life you're looking at.

As it turns out, getting to Mexico City to reclaim Heather's ashes turns out to be the easy part of the journey. Bubbles, at 90, sometimes gets a little confused, and then reality becomes very fluid indeed.

Grab your sombrero and enjoy the trip!

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Boom.

Wild romp!

I enjoyed this audiobook – a mixture of family drama, humor, romance and fantasy. The narration was well done. I especially enjoyed the settings of Canada, Scotland and Mexico.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Fun Adventure

I chose to review this audiobook after receiving a free copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

While listening to the first quarter or so of Fling, I wondered how I was going to get through the whole thing. The more I listened to it, though, the more it grew on me. Not only did Feather and Bubbles make things interesting, but some strange things were happening and they didn’t seem to think anything of it!

The characters in Fling! are compelling. Bubbles is 90 years old and is quirky. Her daughter, Feather, is in her fifties and has always been unconventional. The two of them taking a trip to Mexico makes for an interesting story, especially once they get the ashes of Bubbles’ mother who died many years ago. When Bubbles’ mother, Heather, and her grandparents show up in the flesh, Bubbles and Feather think nothing of it.

Feather, Bubbles, and Heather take turns thinking about the past. It got a bit confusing for me at times because I was listening to the audiobook and I couldn’t just flip back a couple pages to see who was talking at the time. They all did have interesting experiences in their pasts.

The narrator, Anna Crowe, did a good job narrating. Her voice was clear and pleasant.

I definitely recommend Fling! It starts out slow but it end up being a good, different story.

La Alegría de la Vida

Like any compelling saga, the story is told in multiple points of view across a span of three lifetimes. Mackenzie’s language is straightforward and sensory. Her descriptions are vivid and progress to surprising comparisons and existential observations throughout the book. The story is told in both past and present tenses. Mackenzie’s skill in sliding in and out of tenses, and in and out of voices, is superb. Chapter headings clue readers into time periods and goddess images separate scenes. In the audio version, reader Anna Crow modulated her voice sufficiently that I could follow the changes and determine the speaker. I had no problem keeping up with her reading.

Bubbles has convinced daughter Feather to come home to Calgary, Canada from San Francisco to celebrate her 90th birthday, but she has another motive. Bubbles has received a notice from the dead letter office in Mexico City, asking her to pick up her mother’s ashes, left seventy years earlier, when Heather left her family to go to Mexico with a married man. Bubbles wants Feather to take her to Mexico so she can recover the ashes and give her mother a proper burial.

The story of their odyssey is woven together with the stories of their colorful Scottish ancestors, creating a family tapestry. In magical Mexico, Feather learns much about her mother. She hasn’t fully believed her mother’s story, but when Bubbles’ long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, she begins to understand the depth of her and her mother’s magic. Feather, who’s been seeking “The Goddess” for years, helped by Indian villagers mistaking Bubbles for a well-known rain goddess and praying for her to bring rain so their land will thrive again, realizes she’s overlooked her own mother.

In part, the collision of the characters' Celtic roots and lore with the rich blend of Spanish colonial and indigenous Mexican characteristics and culture they encounter in Mexico is what makes this all work. The dead come to visit, old ladies are mistaken for long awaited goddesses, and people change while finding their dreams. Ultimately, it’s the joy of life, la alegría de la vida that is the fountain of youth and it can be found or re-found at any age. Fling! is a perfect book for now.