Big Dogs and Flyboys

by Sam Michel

Narrated by Adam Oney from his hospital bed in a burn unit, Sam Michel’s first novel centers around two boys, one black, the other white. They meet as eight-year-olds on an Air Force base in the Nevada desert where they share the bond of wanting to fly, like Adam’s father in his Phantom F-4 fighter. The boys navigate their childhood through fixed constellations of race and class as Adam loses his father to martinis and his fabled past, his mother to Reverend Marsh. He also faces losing Mike’s friendship, and very nearly loses his life. Throughout it all, Adam is buoyed by his talent for happiness and the strength of his flyer’s heart.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published July 30, 2007

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars for the level of sentence-writing here and for the quick grab with the situation of Sam Michel's first novel. Three stars for the progress in here, the level of emotion that Michel wants to achieve. Though the form gets pretty predictable after a while (man in burn ward recounts his life, what brought him to his lowly state), and this smacks at times of a heavy Gordon Lish influence and even too much of Pat Conroy (of whom I think primarily because of his blurb presence, which was there to remind me how much I skim through Conroy), but despite all this this a powerful book, when it settles down enough to let you read it.

[Lorelei Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an author who needs to be much better known.