A poster, writing on Amazon, in praise of this book, said it best. That if one likes books with a straight, linear narrative, this is not the one for you. Boy, were they right!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently, Olga Tokarczuk has been very popular in her native country of Poland. "Flights," the first novel to be translated and published over her, is unquestionably ambitious, but it goes nowhere.
Which is ironic, because, at its heart, it is about travel. In true "Finnegan's Wake" fashion, people get on a plane at the beginning and end, as the story cycles through a series of vignettes dealing with philosophy, theology, time and space continuums, and stories like a woman carrying the relic of a sacred nun, or Chopin's sister carrying his heart back to his homeland, following as grisly a depiction of a man dying as I have ever read.
As Angela Cartwright said, in "The Sound Of Music," "But it doesn't mean anything! Although the translation is a good one, and the language solid, and beautifully crafted it has no narrative structure, and your eyes just feast on gorgeous prose, while images wash over you, but their impressions vanish as soon as they do.
Maybe this was Tokarczuk's intention. It did not work with me.
All I can say is, if THIS makes The Times Ten Best List, I will have strong words to say.
Yes, I finished the book. The last one I had to put aside was "A Brief History Of Seven Killings," by Marlon James!!!!!!!!! But I was so agitated over "Flights," wait till you see the piece of trash I am taking on next!
I will give you a full report, dolls, once I am done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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