“Flight”
Sherman Alexie
GROVE PRESS, BLACK CAT
It seems only fitting that Sherman Alexie’s new novel, “Flight,” uses a line from the Kurt Vonnegut classic “Slaughterhouse-Five” as its inspirational, front-page quote.
Both Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim and Zits, Alexie’s protagonist, travel through time and space without a clue about where they’re going to wind up.
Both books manage to take devastating circumstances and infuse them with humor. And both of these gems belong in your library immediately.
“Flight” is Alexie’s first novel in 10 years, but his skills are far from rusty.From the opening pages to the very last line, Alexie’s angry, often vulgar language gets straight to the point at rocket speed, typical of the author’s previous works.
The novel opens as Zits is counting the number of zits on his face in his new foster home ““ 14 on his forehead, 21 on his left cheek, six on his right cheek, five on his chin, a large one on his nose … and that doesn’t begin to cover the billions of “pimple-stars” on his back.
Imagine having that astronomical amount of zits on your face ““ you’d be resentful, ashamed and self-loathing, too, especially if you were a 15-year-old boy like Zits.
Add a father who left you at birth, a mother who died of breast cancer when you were 6, an aunt whose boyfriend molests you, and an identity crisis (being half Native American and half white) to the equation, and you’re setting up a recipe for disaster.
And disaster does strike, as young Zits, in a calculated fit of rage, decides to shoot up customers in a bank; he gets a bullet to the head before his murderous rampage has stopped and dies.
End of story. Right?
Except then Alexie’s book would only be 35 pages long.
What follows next in the remaining 146 pages is part sci-fi, part history lesson as the protagonist is inexplicably catapulted back in time to Red River, Idaho in 1975 ““ only he’s in the body of muscular white FBI agent Hank Storm.
He then cruises through time and shape-shifts into the body of a mute Native American child during the Battle at Little Bighorn (apparently Crazy Horse is a “Sioux Jesus”), an Indian tracker during the 19th century, an airline pilot whose friend and pupil commits a terrorist act, and finally the body of his own father, before returning to the scene of the crime.
After his trip, Zits gets a second chance to make the choice to pull the trigger or not, drawing on all he has seen, heard and learned.; this time, the decision he makes is 10 times more powerful.
“Flight” is a nearly perfect novel; its only flaw is that it has to end. Nevertheless, Alexie’s ending is exactly what it should be, reducing the reader to misty eyes.
Since the book is a quick read ““ the protagonist speaks like a 15-year-old does, so it’s not that difficult to follow ““ it’s the perfect Alexie book to start with before moving on to his other works, such as “Reservation Blues.”
And get your feet wet you should; Alexie is one of the most widely read Native American authors today and an important literary voice (which you can hear firsthand at this weekend’s Festival of Books).
But whether you’re reading “Flight” for a break from physics textbooks or to analyze its deeper themes, if you’re willing to hop on board, it’ll take you to the stars and beyond.
““ Julianne Fylstra
E-mail Fylstra at jfylstra@media.ucla.edu.