Flight: A Novel [B1669]

2007 french-flap PB in nice clean condition. In this Young Adult novel, the National Book Award-winning (and Spokane Washington) author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, combines magical realism with his singular humor and insight to tell the tale of a troubled boy's time travel trip through history. Half Native American and half Irish, fifteen-year-old "Zits" has spent much of his short life alternately abused and ignored as an orphan and ward of the foster care system. Ever since his mother died, he's felt alienated from everyone, but, thanks to the alcoholic father he's never met, especially disconnected from other Indians. After he runs away from his latest foster home, he makes a new friend. Handsome, charismatic, and eloquent, Justice soon persuades Zits to unleash his pain and anger on the uncaring world. But picking up a gun leads Zits on an unexpected time-traveling journey through several violent moments in American history, experiencing life as an FBI agent during the civil rights movement, a mute Indian boy during the Battle of Little Bighorn, a nineteenth-century Indian tracker, and a modern-day airplane pilot. When Zits finally returns to his own body, "he begins to understand what it means to be the hero, the villain, and the victim. . . . Mr. Alexie succeeds yet again with his ability to pierce to the heart of matters, leaving this reader with tears in her eyes" (The New York Times Book Review).

From recent-ish Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Ultimately Spiritual. As a 1/4 native raised white with some idea of what my mother went through as a half-breed in Alaska I felt Zits' loss, confusion and guilt of being only a part of 'native'. The ending is extremely sad, uplifting and I couldn't see for awhile from the tears about how love wins if we hang on."; "Alexie's voice is loud inside my head. It's simple, easy and doesn't allow my mind to wander off. The dialogue is simple yet the experiences are dark and deeply troubled. Since the day I met him in person, there is something piercingly beautiful and ugly about it and I can't turn my eyes away. This is my third Alexie read. Some of his words are meant to piss you off. Some of his words he knows are untrue. I suppose that is the point. There is good and bad in all of us. We do get to choose."; "This has officially been bunched into the category of Greats That Have Made Me Sob. Not only is the smaller and more local narrative about Zits and his search for love so movingly examined, but the greater lens on the personal and global struggles that define not groups of people, but humanity as a whole are so stark and so thought-provoking in this novel that it left me a little bereft. I'm so glad something this garish but also beautiful landed into my lap."