She Treads Softly: Flight

Friday, November 4, 2022

Flight

Flight by Lynn Steger Strong
11/8/22; 240 pages
HarperCollins

Flight by Lynn Steger Strong is a highly recommended family drama.

For the first Christmas celebration after the death of their mother Helen, three siblings, Henry, Kate, and Martin, their spouses, and children gather together. They are celebrating the holiday but must also decide what to do with Helen's house. Martin, the oldest son, is married to Tess. Henry is married to Alice, and Kate is married to Josh. Kate is hoping that the others will agree to her and Josh moving into her mother's house. There are financial problems, long held resentments, and other tensions that are present from the start. Adding to the mix is the story of Quinn a young mother and her daughter, Madeleine (Maddy).

The key to appreciating the novel is to take care at the beginning to keep track of who the couples are, what they are struggling with, and what children belong to what parents. Once you have the characters firmly in place, you can fully appreciate the character development and the complexity of their interactions with each other. Sibling relationships can always be fraught with tension and underlying resentments that go back decades. The relationships here reflect that complexity and the challenges the group faces in making any decision that requires an agreement.

There are no exciting thrills and twists in the novel as the drama is in the nuances and interactions between the still grieving family members and spouses. The pace is slow as the focus is on the reactions of the characters. The whole family has been grieving Helen's absence especially as she had a way of helping everyone get along and find common ground with others. It is also a novel about the struggles and rewards of mothers, motherhood, and daughters.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.