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In Flight
On the surface, Robert is a successful, happily married man, skillfully navigating midlife transitions. Then while traveling for business, he survives a harrowing plane crash and risks his life to rescue fellow passengers from the burning wreckage. The media dubs him the Plane Crash Hero, but Robert has disappeared from the scene. He is discovered days later in a hotel room with the woman who was sitting next to him on the plane. He remembers nothing. He has no way to explain.
A psychiatrist diagnoses his experience as a “fugue state” brought on by the trauma of the accident. Robert’s lack of memory causes guilt, confusion, and distress, yet he is determined to put the incident behind him. That’s not easy to do. He loses his temper with his daughter, melts down at work, thinks he’s being stalked by strangers, and resents that his wife will no longer make love to him.
As a series of unwanted memories slowly return, Robert wonders if he is really the man he believed himself to be, or have unconscious desires taken control of his life.
A psychiatrist diagnoses his experience as a “fugue state” brought on by the trauma of the accident. Robert’s lack of memory causes guilt, confusion, and distress, yet he is determined to put the incident behind him. That’s not easy to do. He loses his temper with his daughter, melts down at work, thinks he’s being stalked by strangers, and resents that his wife will no longer make love to him.
As a series of unwanted memories slowly return, Robert wonders if he is really the man he believed himself to be, or have unconscious desires taken control of his life.
326 pages, Paperback
Published March 30, 2023
6 people want to read
About the author
David Klein
6 books37 followersI am the author of the novels STASH and CLEAN BREAK, published by Broadway Books, the novels IN FLIGHT and THE SUITOR, and the exclusive eBook THE CULLING.
I like to write, and read, stories about people who find themselves, often due to their own character flaws, in extraordinary and difficult circumstances that test their moral courage.
Visit my web site: http://www.bydavidklein.com.
I like to write, and read, stories about people who find themselves, often due to their own character flaws, in extraordinary and difficult circumstances that test their moral courage.
Visit my web site: http://www.bydavidklein.com.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2024
LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD
Simply put, this book is excellent. In Flight is a thought-provoking page-turner about a normal man who, through no fault of his own, suffers irrevocable change to his life, his relationships with his family, and himself. It grapples with concepts not easily confronted: PTSD, infidelity, hidden stress, regret, missed opportunities, resilience, recovery. Mr. Klein does a fantastic job of creating realistic characters whose motivations and resulting actions are, if not totally logical to the reader, believable in the established universe. I felt fully immersed in the geography and timeline of Robert and Sasha’s suddenly upended life. The only breaks in immersion came from dialogue which at times felt stilted. Still, that dialogue contributes to expertly constructed, relatable characters for whom we can cheer, cringe, and fear.
What most impressed me about the story was Mr. Klein’s portrayal of Robert’s descent into anxiety and paranoia, his reluctant awareness of the inevitability of his madness, and his helpless inability to save himself. Robert is subtly made to be an unreliable narrator from the first few chapters and accentuated from there, pulling the reader through devastating fluxes of hope and uncertainty, much like Robert himself. The result is a reading experience in which we’re not entirely sure whom to side with or what to believe. The uncertainty almost drives the reader mad, creating a somewhat frantic desire for answers at the end. No such answers exist.
The final twist—cruelly striking in the last sentence of the book—is as unpredictable as it is gut-wrenching. However, therein lies the brilliance of this book; reflecting on prior developments reveals a trail of breadcrumbs that foreshadowed doom for Robert’s old life, and it delivers as promised. In Flight is a book that challenges expectations from start to finish and inspires contemplation of what happens when a regular man is wrecked beyond reason.
Simply put, this book is excellent. In Flight is a thought-provoking page-turner about a normal man who, through no fault of his own, suffers irrevocable change to his life, his relationships with his family, and himself. It grapples with concepts not easily confronted: PTSD, infidelity, hidden stress, regret, missed opportunities, resilience, recovery. Mr. Klein does a fantastic job of creating realistic characters whose motivations and resulting actions are, if not totally logical to the reader, believable in the established universe. I felt fully immersed in the geography and timeline of Robert and Sasha’s suddenly upended life. The only breaks in immersion came from dialogue which at times felt stilted. Still, that dialogue contributes to expertly constructed, relatable characters for whom we can cheer, cringe, and fear.
What most impressed me about the story was Mr. Klein’s portrayal of Robert’s descent into anxiety and paranoia, his reluctant awareness of the inevitability of his madness, and his helpless inability to save himself. Robert is subtly made to be an unreliable narrator from the first few chapters and accentuated from there, pulling the reader through devastating fluxes of hope and uncertainty, much like Robert himself. The result is a reading experience in which we’re not entirely sure whom to side with or what to believe. The uncertainty almost drives the reader mad, creating a somewhat frantic desire for answers at the end. No such answers exist.
The final twist—cruelly striking in the last sentence of the book—is as unpredictable as it is gut-wrenching. However, therein lies the brilliance of this book; reflecting on prior developments reveals a trail of breadcrumbs that foreshadowed doom for Robert’s old life, and it delivers as promised. In Flight is a book that challenges expectations from start to finish and inspires contemplation of what happens when a regular man is wrecked beyond reason.
May 3, 2023
5 Stars!!! This book will grip you from beginning to end. Finished in one day- couldn’t put it down. The initial intriguing character development of Robert who is then plagued with a fascinating and rare psychological, trauma-based disorder quickly becomes unsettling in the best way and you are left guessing what the ending will be until the very last page. I highly recommend this book to all!
March 31, 2023
I'm the author, so five stars!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews