Flights

by Jim Shepard

A thirteen-year-old hatches a plan of escape, solace, and utter independence through a dream of flight that's both literal and figurative in this engrossing novel by National Book Award finalist Jim ShepardAs beset by the world as any thirteen-year-old--and maybe a little more so--Biddy Siebert does his best to negotiate both the intimacies and isolations of his world and his own maddening and slightly comical idiosyncrasies. His ferocious younger sister hates everyone, including him; his sprawling Italian family, when it comes to emotional matters, has the touch of a blacksmith; and his Catholic school education provides a ready framework against which he can measure himself as continually falling short of the ideal. As his grades slip and his family begins to come apart, Biddy searches for a focus and finds one during a trip in a family friend's private To rise above his troubles, he's going to have to learn to fly.Biddy resolves to steal the plane, having taught himself as a pilot through manuals and observation, and as he moves through the progressions of his plan, he slowly develops the confidence and independence he's going to need later in life. In this compassionate and honest portrait of the challenges, missteps, and small successes of adolescence, Biddy is an unforgettable character whose problems might seem common but whose solutions are often extraordinary.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Jim Shepard is the author of seven novels, including most recently The Book of Aron, which won the Sophie Brody Medal for Achievement in Jewish Literature from the American Library Association and the PEN/New England Award for fiction, and five story collections, including his new collection, The World To Come. Five of his short stories have been chosen for the Best American Short Stories, two for the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and one for a Pushcart Prize. He teaches at Williams College.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim's first novel (published in 1983) has long been out of print, but it's a delight. Seemingly a conventional coming-of-age story, set in Stratford, Connecticut, the story gets weirder as it goes on, ending in a thrilling sequence that gives the book its title. Reading it, you can see the seeds of Jim's later masterpieces, but the book works perfectly well on its own.

[Ben Fowlkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once more Jim Shepard makes the point that he is awesome and you are bullshit. When are you finally going to get this through your head?

[Marco Bucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

If my math is right, Jim Shepard wrote this book when he was 27? Damn.