What do you think?
Rate this book
Flight
The man of the house was mad when Sandrine came. Elizabeth’s mother rang her morning, noon and night. He’s driving me mad with his pepper talk, she said, I’ll crown him if he talks to me about the need for Vietnam to join the International Pepper Community and duties and postmen one more time! The cracks one begins to see in families.
Flight is the story of four travellers as their journeys intersect one winter in Dublin.
Sandrine, a Zimbabwean woman who has left her husband and son behind in the hope of making a better life for them in Ireland, is alone and secretly pregnant. She finds herself working as a carer for Tom and Clare, a couple whose travels are ending as their minds begin to fail. Meanwhile Elizabeth, their world-weary daughter, carries the weight of her own body’s secret.
Set in Ireland in 2004 as a referendum on citizenship approaches, Flight is a magically observed story of a family and belonging, following the gestation of a friendship during a year of crisis. A story of arrival and departure, the newly found and the left behind, Flight is among a new breed of Irish novel – one that recognizes the global nature of Ireland experience in the late 20th century, and one that considers Ireland in the aftermath of the failed Celtic Tiger.
Flight is the story of four travellers as their journeys intersect one winter in Dublin.
Sandrine, a Zimbabwean woman who has left her husband and son behind in the hope of making a better life for them in Ireland, is alone and secretly pregnant. She finds herself working as a carer for Tom and Clare, a couple whose travels are ending as their minds begin to fail. Meanwhile Elizabeth, their world-weary daughter, carries the weight of her own body’s secret.
Set in Ireland in 2004 as a referendum on citizenship approaches, Flight is a magically observed story of a family and belonging, following the gestation of a friendship during a year of crisis. A story of arrival and departure, the newly found and the left behind, Flight is among a new breed of Irish novel – one that recognizes the global nature of Ireland experience in the late 20th century, and one that considers Ireland in the aftermath of the failed Celtic Tiger.
223 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2014
7 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Oona Frawley
14 books9 followersBorn in NYC to Irish-actor parents, Oona has lived in Ireland full-time since completing her Ph.D. at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. She has held post-doctoral fellowships at Queen's University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin, and has lectured in the Department of English at Maynooth University since 2008. Oona's research interests lie in Irish Studies, particularly of the late 19th and 29th centuries, in Memory and Trauma Studies, and in ecocriticism. A Hennessy Award nominee, her first novel, Flight, was published in 2014 and was nominated for an Irish Book Award in the 'newcomer' category.Oona is currently writing a book on postcolonial ecocriticism, comparing Irish, American, Australian and New Zealand literature for attitudes towards land development, waste, and the environment.
(from https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/eng...)
(from https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/eng...)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 30, 2018
This novel is set in 2004 "boom-time Ireland" (to borrow from the Guardian). It is the story of two aging people, their adult daughter, and an immigrant from Zimbabwe. Tom and Clare have lived their lives on 3 continents : in Ireland, America, and Vietnam. Tom's work is importing spices, which leads them to America and Vietnam. Their daughter Elizabeth lives in all three countries as a child, but is most at home in America. She goes to Ireland for university, and settles there. Her parents return to Ireland when Tom decides it is time to retire and they are unsure how aging in Vietnam will go. We meet them as they are each slipping into dementia and Elizabeth is seeking someone to provide in-home care.
Sandrine has left Zimbabwe with a student visa to study English in Ireland. Her country is in crisis, and as a teacher, she is the one in the family who is able to get a visa, leaving her husband and young son behind. Ireland is on the verge of voting on the 2004 referendum that denied citizenship to children born in Ireland of non-citizen parents. Hostility towards immigrants is rising. Tom and Clare live in a somewhat rural setting, which leaves Sandrine both physically isolated, and lonely for home and family.
This is the story of four people who all yearn for places other than Ireland. The politics of the time are in the background, and we see them through the eyes of Sandrine. The story moves back and forth in time, and the point of view shifts between characters. The writing is skillful and gorgeous. It is hard to believe this is a first novel. It was 8 years before it was published. Tramp Press the publisher that took a chance on Solar Bones which went on to win multiple literary prizes, gave this worthy book a chance. It is my favorite book so far in 2018.
Sandrine has left Zimbabwe with a student visa to study English in Ireland. Her country is in crisis, and as a teacher, she is the one in the family who is able to get a visa, leaving her husband and young son behind. Ireland is on the verge of voting on the 2004 referendum that denied citizenship to children born in Ireland of non-citizen parents. Hostility towards immigrants is rising. Tom and Clare live in a somewhat rural setting, which leaves Sandrine both physically isolated, and lonely for home and family.
This is the story of four people who all yearn for places other than Ireland. The politics of the time are in the background, and we see them through the eyes of Sandrine. The story moves back and forth in time, and the point of view shifts between characters. The writing is skillful and gorgeous. It is hard to believe this is a first novel. It was 8 years before it was published. Tramp Press the publisher that took a chance on Solar Bones which went on to win multiple literary prizes, gave this worthy book a chance. It is my favorite book so far in 2018.
June 19, 2016
Tramp Press is doing a great job at introducing me to amazing contemporary Irish literature! I really appreciate it, thank you SO much! The writing in this book was so beautiful, intimate and heartfelt. I often found myself wondering how the author managed to connect the different perspectives so easily. Writing beautifully seems to be an extension of Oona Frawley's arm. I've mentioned before that I love reading immigrant fiction, and Flight fuelled that love so well. The characters in Flight are all immigrants or were once immigrants, they've all known displacement intimately. The themes of language and identity are dealt with so well, as well as the reinforcement of identity that comes from familiarity. The portrayal of old age and senility was so poignant and really showed how distinct that experience of old age can be for couples. That being said, the book did have its slow moments but it was all worth it.
I highly recommend Flight, especially if you're looking for beautiful writing, a slow burning yet consistent prose and a wonderful summer read!
I highly recommend Flight, especially if you're looking for beautiful writing, a slow burning yet consistent prose and a wonderful summer read!
February 18, 2019
“She wonders if these same business people, these men and women that she pushes past on the paths – did they vote yes, vote to change the constitution and keep people like Sandrine out? It scares her, in a way, that this baby is about to arrive in a country that only this week has voted to disallow her citizenship. She will be born placeless on this day, an unwelcome baby.”
This book is set in Ireland in 2004 (and written in 2006) but could not be more relevant today, in the time of the Brexit referendum, and Donald *ass* Trump’s call for the removal of birthright citizenship in the US.
Sandrine is from Zimbabwe. She’s in Ireland on a student visa, supposedly to learn, but she is really there to work, to find a better life for herself, her husband and child back home, and her unborn child that she is keeping secret. She finds a job caring for Tom and Clare, an elderly couple who can no longer manage on their own. Their daughter Elizabeth doesn’t live with them and has a bit of an awkward relationship with her mother. The family used to live in Vietnam and America, where Tom worked in the spice trade.
It’s a very emotional read. It’s hard to see one’s parents fade away in terms of health, both physical and mental. As Tom becomes a mere shadow of himself, his story is unraveled through his memories and recollections of their time in Vietnam and America. My late grandfather had dementia and the last time I saw him, I don’t think he knew who any of us were. I was living away from Singapore by then, and learnt of his death via Skype. So it was hard to read of Tom’s decline.
“His hair is softer than she expected, thinning, and the scalp pulses like a newborn’s. She senses this pulsing in her hands. He is living, his mind is moving, and he is looking up at her with surprised, glazing green eyes. Her tears are for nothing. There is nothing to weep for, since he is unaware, gazing at her crying or laughing with the same indifferent emptiness in his look which seems always surprised now, because everything lacks for him the context of memory.”
This is also Elizabeth’s story, one of belonging and fitting in – or not. Her childhood in Vietnam and America, then moving back to Ireland, then back again to Vietnam. Where does she belong? Is she Irish? Is she American? It’s similar with my own family. We are from Singapore, but the kids, being born in the US, are American citizens. We travel to Singapore once a year, and both sets of grandparents travel up here at least once or twice a year. My five-year-old once described himself as a Singapore American. I wonder how he will feel in the future. Will he still have a connection to Singapore?
Although we don’t really learn much about Sandrine’s life in Zimbabwe, her experiences in Ireland are the key to this book. Her struggle to adapt to life in Ireland, to learn to be a caregiver for these elderly people she now lives with. The racism she experiences, because of the colour of her skin.
“She does not know that it doesn’t matter how she perceives herself to fit in. What she feels, how she might work to become part of this new society, it makes no difference. Sandrine has been spat and cursed at, has peered with shock into women’s faces as they have sneered at hers – she expected better of women, and has been disappointed. At moments the desire to commiserate with another black Zimbabwean is overwhelming. She knows of the news that instances of assault are on the rise, the country is increasingly angry about non-nationals, and there is a referendum coming up that scares the life out of her.”
Flight takes time to get into. But when you do get into it, it is a gem. It is a story about feeling lost, both within the world and within themselves. It is unsettling, it is emotional. It is a thoughtful story that makes you examine your own life, your own situation, and where you belong.
May 3, 2014
Okay, I didn't read the whole thing so take my review with a grain of salt. I only got to about page 120. My attention span is a little short lately, and the slow, ruminative feel of this book made it easy to put down. I put it down twice and returned to it out of a feeling of duty. The third time, I left it down and moved on to other books.
I didn't want to admit that, as I felt I was probably just an insufficiently serious reader. But then there was a review of the book in the Irish Times today, which said, among other things, 'The narrative inches along with stilted velocity and has problems finding momentum.' So at least I am not the only one to find the pace a bit of a problem.
Flight really is an admirable book, with an important story to tell, and some fine writing. That doesn't make it a fun or easy read, though, and I am one of those shallow people who generally thinks that art should be pretty, that books should be fascinating, beautiful or fun, and that there's no place on my plate for flavored foam.
I didn't want to admit that, as I felt I was probably just an insufficiently serious reader. But then there was a review of the book in the Irish Times today, which said, among other things, 'The narrative inches along with stilted velocity and has problems finding momentum.' So at least I am not the only one to find the pace a bit of a problem.
Flight really is an admirable book, with an important story to tell, and some fine writing. That doesn't make it a fun or easy read, though, and I am one of those shallow people who generally thinks that art should be pretty, that books should be fascinating, beautiful or fun, and that there's no place on my plate for flavored foam.
November 6, 2020
The theme of flight is predominant in Oona Frawley’s debut novel. All of the main protagonists have left their homeland and have to go through the trials of fitting into a new country. In one case even returning to a country needs some settlement time.
Sandrine is from Zimbabwe. She leaves her son and husband behind it in order to live in Ireland as the economy is good (the book takes place during the economic boom of the 00’s). The problem is that she’s on a student visa and she is also pregnant, something her family doesn’t know about.
Tom and Clare are couple who have returned to Ireland after many years of bouncing between Vietnam and the U.S. Although Tom takes the nomadic lifestyle in his stride, Clare tends to favor certain places over others and suffers from homesickness. When they return to Ireland, they start suffering from dementia and need a caretaker, this is where Sandrine comes in.
Their daughter, Elizabeth also moves around with the family so she is not sure whether she is American or Irish. When she is in Vietnam, she notices that she sticks out.
Flight is a novel about identity. what it means to be a denizen of a country that’s totally foreign. All the characters in the book find it difficult to go through the adaptation process. In some cases the characters believe in a stereotype when it works against them. One example being Sandrine learning that Irish like meat and potatoes and cooks them for Tom and Clare, when in reality they want spicy food. Sometimes it is the culture against the person; Sandrine is subject to constant racism.
However it is Elizabeth’s story which I related to. Being a child who lived in Canada – where we moved house and provinces quite a bit, then settling in Malta was an experience which was jarring. even to this day, the Maltese attitude puzzles me. Obviously when living in Canada, I wasn’t sure what was the norm either and I didn’t fit in.
Flight is structured in a quirky way and does need a little time to get used to but after the reader gets a good grip on the characters, then it’s easy to get through. Definitely recommended for someone who has lived in different countries and found the adaptation period rough.
Sandrine is from Zimbabwe. She leaves her son and husband behind it in order to live in Ireland as the economy is good (the book takes place during the economic boom of the 00’s). The problem is that she’s on a student visa and she is also pregnant, something her family doesn’t know about.
Tom and Clare are couple who have returned to Ireland after many years of bouncing between Vietnam and the U.S. Although Tom takes the nomadic lifestyle in his stride, Clare tends to favor certain places over others and suffers from homesickness. When they return to Ireland, they start suffering from dementia and need a caretaker, this is where Sandrine comes in.
Their daughter, Elizabeth also moves around with the family so she is not sure whether she is American or Irish. When she is in Vietnam, she notices that she sticks out.
Flight is a novel about identity. what it means to be a denizen of a country that’s totally foreign. All the characters in the book find it difficult to go through the adaptation process. In some cases the characters believe in a stereotype when it works against them. One example being Sandrine learning that Irish like meat and potatoes and cooks them for Tom and Clare, when in reality they want spicy food. Sometimes it is the culture against the person; Sandrine is subject to constant racism.
However it is Elizabeth’s story which I related to. Being a child who lived in Canada – where we moved house and provinces quite a bit, then settling in Malta was an experience which was jarring. even to this day, the Maltese attitude puzzles me. Obviously when living in Canada, I wasn’t sure what was the norm either and I didn’t fit in.
Flight is structured in a quirky way and does need a little time to get used to but after the reader gets a good grip on the characters, then it’s easy to get through. Definitely recommended for someone who has lived in different countries and found the adaptation period rough.
March 31, 2021
finished this the day before my presentation, i am once again asking declan to pretend he does not see
March 24, 2018
I once had a classmate named Oona Frawley. Though she wasn't the author of this book the name stood out when I first came across it, a reminder of a very distant past. Then when I saw the publisher was Tramp Press, publishers of Sarah Baume's Spill Simmer Falter Wither, one of my favourite books in recent years, I decided to give this book a try.
Flight is the story of three women. Sandrine leaves Zimbabwe in search of a better life in Ireland, bringing a freshly conceived baby with her as undeclared carry-on luggage. She becomes housekeeper/ live-in carer for Clare and Tom, a retired couple whose minds and memories are unraveling. Their daughter Elizabeth is perhaps the main character. Brought up between America and Vietnam she feels a sense of dislocation, being an outsider looking in no matter where she is. Flight explores the relationship between these three women, one near the end of her life, one about to bring new life into the world, and one lost in the middle of her life as her childless marriage falls apart and her aging parents disintegrate before her eyes.
It's a touching story with strong opinions, particularly when it comes to the racist treatment Sandrine endures in Ireland. And here I have to tread carefully. I have a several close family members who, like Sandrine, are African women living in Ireland. Despite living close to two decades in Ireland they claim never to have been on the receiving end of the type of treatment Sandrine seems to endure the moment she steps outside the door. Perhaps they are exceptionally lucky in this regard, but based on their accounts I feel the intensity of the invective Sandrine endures doesn't entirely ring true. That said I have no doubt that there is racism in Ireland and I don't condone these destructive and negative attitudes in any way.
Marcel Proust is transported by the taste of a fresh madeleine and the resulting stream of memories forms his book À la recherche du temps perdu. Taste, and more particularly smell are neurologically linked to memory. The character Tom is a spice merchant, and I really enjoyed the bits about spices, but I feel it was a missed chance for the author not to explore the link between smell and memory with this character, particularly since his sense of smell is so integral to his work and much of his story arc revolves around his failing memory. I kept waiting for a scene where his daughter brings him spices to smell and how that helps him return to the surface of his mind and recover some memories, even if just momentarily. But that scene never happens, which is a pity.
My last gripe is with the typos scattered through the text. Obviously a small publisher like Tramp doesn't necessarily have the same proof-reading resources as a larger company might, but nonetheless I was surprised at some of the typos that made it past the editor - the 'isle' in a stationary shop (Easons if we want to be precise) instead of 'aisle', thunder and (sic) 'lightening' as opposed to lightning, a 'jay cloth' instead of a J-cloth (perhaps this was deliberate to avoid product endorsement?). There were a few others, but those were the ones that stuck. Perhaps it's overly pedantic of me to focus on such details that are really just tiny hiccups in what is otherwise flawless prose. Flight is a very human book and and enjoyable read. I look forward to reading more from Oona Frawley in the future.
Flight is the story of three women. Sandrine leaves Zimbabwe in search of a better life in Ireland, bringing a freshly conceived baby with her as undeclared carry-on luggage. She becomes housekeeper/ live-in carer for Clare and Tom, a retired couple whose minds and memories are unraveling. Their daughter Elizabeth is perhaps the main character. Brought up between America and Vietnam she feels a sense of dislocation, being an outsider looking in no matter where she is. Flight explores the relationship between these three women, one near the end of her life, one about to bring new life into the world, and one lost in the middle of her life as her childless marriage falls apart and her aging parents disintegrate before her eyes.
It's a touching story with strong opinions, particularly when it comes to the racist treatment Sandrine endures in Ireland. And here I have to tread carefully. I have a several close family members who, like Sandrine, are African women living in Ireland. Despite living close to two decades in Ireland they claim never to have been on the receiving end of the type of treatment Sandrine seems to endure the moment she steps outside the door. Perhaps they are exceptionally lucky in this regard, but based on their accounts I feel the intensity of the invective Sandrine endures doesn't entirely ring true. That said I have no doubt that there is racism in Ireland and I don't condone these destructive and negative attitudes in any way.
Marcel Proust is transported by the taste of a fresh madeleine and the resulting stream of memories forms his book À la recherche du temps perdu. Taste, and more particularly smell are neurologically linked to memory. The character Tom is a spice merchant, and I really enjoyed the bits about spices, but I feel it was a missed chance for the author not to explore the link between smell and memory with this character, particularly since his sense of smell is so integral to his work and much of his story arc revolves around his failing memory. I kept waiting for a scene where his daughter brings him spices to smell and how that helps him return to the surface of his mind and recover some memories, even if just momentarily. But that scene never happens, which is a pity.
My last gripe is with the typos scattered through the text. Obviously a small publisher like Tramp doesn't necessarily have the same proof-reading resources as a larger company might, but nonetheless I was surprised at some of the typos that made it past the editor - the 'isle' in a stationary shop (Easons if we want to be precise) instead of 'aisle', thunder and (sic) 'lightening' as opposed to lightning, a 'jay cloth' instead of a J-cloth (perhaps this was deliberate to avoid product endorsement?). There were a few others, but those were the ones that stuck. Perhaps it's overly pedantic of me to focus on such details that are really just tiny hiccups in what is otherwise flawless prose. Flight is a very human book and and enjoyable read. I look forward to reading more from Oona Frawley in the future.
February 6, 2018
This was a wonderful debut novel, and so timely, about the increased numbers of migrants in Ireland and the country's 2004 referendum restricting the citizenship rights of children born in Ireland to non-national parents. I really fell in love with the characters, especially Sandrine, and the story of Elizabeth watching her parents decline is deeply moving. Plus, the sentences were lovely and there was some killer figurative language. I hope Oona Frawley continues to write fiction - I'm her newest fan.
March 20, 2018
My Irish literature professor from college recommended this novel and it couldn't have been more timely - 1) I was visiting Dublin, and 2) the US is experiencing its own immigration crisis. Oona's characters are vivid and she captures both despair and hopefulness with equal beauty.
April 11, 2014
I'm party of the team at Tramp Press that published this book – but before we published 'Flight' it was just a manuscript that we absolutely loved. It's a brilliant work of fiction and Frawley's view on contemporary Ireland are relevant and important.
March 27, 2016
Vreselijk mooi. Vol met allerlei vormen van verdriet, eenzaamheid en de menselijke impuls om op de een of andere manier hoop te putten uit elkaar
January 25, 2025
“Sandrine is learning about the limitations of narrative. She writes to her son of the things she sees and does, and to her husband she writes other things. Nothing things.” Oona Frawley’s debut novel Flight, published in 2014 and set in 2004 around Ireland’s citizenship referendum, is as starkly pertinent now as it must’ve been then. Frawley writes with such great emotional precision, her prose deftly grounded with a perfectly subtle hint of lyricism. Her characterisation of the fading Tom and Clare felt compassionate and realised, while Elizabeth’s sense of rootlessness and Sandrine’s fear of the future punctuated the novel with a kind of spiritual tension. I also thought that Frawley’s writing of Sandrine was sensitive and sharp and researched, meticulously avoiding any hint of exploitation while telling a vital story of immigration, asylum, and racism both social and institutional. A moving, quiet story of ‘flights’ of all kinds - travel, escape, searching, avoiding, both bodily and mentally.
March 2, 2018
I read a description of this book on The Millions, and it had me at "Zimbabwean coming to Ireland." (I've been to both of those countries and they hold a special place in my heart.) It's a short book and a bit slow, but it's definitely interesting to read a book about immigration issues in a country other than the US.
November 2, 2020
4.5: Started a bit slow for me but worth sticking with it as a perceptive snapshot of recent Irish history as it reverberates through individual lives and personal choices, with a fresh take on familiar themes of identity, family, and class.
July 2, 2017
Beautifully crafted characters with well-woven narratives. A story about modern Ireland that feels simultaneously large and small in scope.
April 28, 2018
This is a quiet, internal book. Beautifully written, with characters fully realized. My only complaint is not enough really happens, but if it seems slow, keep going - the ending is satisfying.
October 9, 2018
Sad. Just so sad.
March 12, 2023
A slow burner but so beautifully and poetically written.
March 16, 2024
A beautiful book. Filled me with a warmness, a nostalgia.
July 25, 2015
Review from BleachHouseLibrary.Blogspot.ie
Thanks to Tramp Press for sending me a review copy of this book .......
Four people. Four journeys. Four lives. From Zimbabwe to Ireland, America to Vietnam, these journeys each come with their own tales. Some of isolation, humiliation and degradation, others of hope and prosperity in a different world.
Sandrine has come to Ireland to seek a better life for herself, and hopefully her family. She is employed by Elizabeth to look after her elderly parents, Tom and Clare, who can longer manage alone.
Having returned to Ireland on Tom's retirement, the couple are now based in their seaside home in Dublin. Elizabeth warns Sandrine that they often get confused and can be a handful. Sandrine soon realises that her hopes of attending school in Ireland are no longer a viable option and she dedicates her time to the monitoring of Tom and Grace. On her rare occasions to venture out of the house, she is a first hand witness to the hostile treatment of "non-nationals" in Ireland and how the country, as a whole, sees the immigrant workers as some kind of threat to their nation. Deportations are a regular thing and Sandrine fears she will be discovered as working full-time, despite her student visa status. On top of this, there is the added problem of her pregnancy. She has not told anyone, and finds it hard to plan her future with so much uncertainty in the present.
Elizabeth visits her parents almost everyday and watches as they deteriorate at an alarming rate. When her father has to be placed in a care facility, her mother is distraught. Sandrine does her best to create a normal atmosphere in the house but it soon becomes apparent that Grace is fading. Elizabeth can only watch, helpless as her parents become shadows of their former selves. She remembers how much she wanted to leave their home in Vietnam, to study in America, away from the restrictions of Asian life and how even now, in her late 30s, she can still remember the monsoons, the heat and the smell of spices, which were the ingredients of her childhood abroad.
This story is based during the economic boom years of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland. There are jobs for everyone, houses being built on land in every town and a flood of immigrants to fill positions that the general population thought beneath them. The streets are crowded, the shops are bustling and the roads jammed packed with gleaming new cars. One can see why Ireland was an ideal destination for the thousands of people from troubled countries, who needed to escape to survive.
Oona Frawley has cleverly linked the two sides of the story without being either dismissive or preachy. The narrative is jam-packed with melodic prose and I found something beautiful on almost every page. When trying to pick a short excerpt to use for this review, I really struggled. There were simply too many. Descriptive passages are used with such powerful intensity throughout the novel, gliding from chapter to chapter. There is no need for inverted commas, for example. The dialogue is blended in with the sentences, of which I didn't even notice for a while, so seamlessly was it done.
It is a while since I was moved to tears while reading a book, but the chapters describing the downward spiral of Tom and Clare were emotionally draining for me. I could almost have been in the room at times. Watching a parent, who was always the one in charge, now become the one requiring help, is a painful storyline. However, the author has done this with care, and carries it off very well. Although I thought I would tire of hearing about Tom's career and his obsession with peppers and spices, the narrative moved on and my senses took over. Scent and sound, imagining the rains and intense heat, this became part of my world as I turned page after page of this poetic book.
I would recommend this novel for lovers of Colum McCann, Colm Tobin and Anne Enright as it is full of their warmth, passion and clever use of language.
Thanks to Tramp Press for sending me a review copy of this book .......
Four people. Four journeys. Four lives. From Zimbabwe to Ireland, America to Vietnam, these journeys each come with their own tales. Some of isolation, humiliation and degradation, others of hope and prosperity in a different world.
Sandrine has come to Ireland to seek a better life for herself, and hopefully her family. She is employed by Elizabeth to look after her elderly parents, Tom and Clare, who can longer manage alone.
Having returned to Ireland on Tom's retirement, the couple are now based in their seaside home in Dublin. Elizabeth warns Sandrine that they often get confused and can be a handful. Sandrine soon realises that her hopes of attending school in Ireland are no longer a viable option and she dedicates her time to the monitoring of Tom and Grace. On her rare occasions to venture out of the house, she is a first hand witness to the hostile treatment of "non-nationals" in Ireland and how the country, as a whole, sees the immigrant workers as some kind of threat to their nation. Deportations are a regular thing and Sandrine fears she will be discovered as working full-time, despite her student visa status. On top of this, there is the added problem of her pregnancy. She has not told anyone, and finds it hard to plan her future with so much uncertainty in the present.
Elizabeth visits her parents almost everyday and watches as they deteriorate at an alarming rate. When her father has to be placed in a care facility, her mother is distraught. Sandrine does her best to create a normal atmosphere in the house but it soon becomes apparent that Grace is fading. Elizabeth can only watch, helpless as her parents become shadows of their former selves. She remembers how much she wanted to leave their home in Vietnam, to study in America, away from the restrictions of Asian life and how even now, in her late 30s, she can still remember the monsoons, the heat and the smell of spices, which were the ingredients of her childhood abroad.
This story is based during the economic boom years of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland. There are jobs for everyone, houses being built on land in every town and a flood of immigrants to fill positions that the general population thought beneath them. The streets are crowded, the shops are bustling and the roads jammed packed with gleaming new cars. One can see why Ireland was an ideal destination for the thousands of people from troubled countries, who needed to escape to survive.
Oona Frawley has cleverly linked the two sides of the story without being either dismissive or preachy. The narrative is jam-packed with melodic prose and I found something beautiful on almost every page. When trying to pick a short excerpt to use for this review, I really struggled. There were simply too many. Descriptive passages are used with such powerful intensity throughout the novel, gliding from chapter to chapter. There is no need for inverted commas, for example. The dialogue is blended in with the sentences, of which I didn't even notice for a while, so seamlessly was it done.
It is a while since I was moved to tears while reading a book, but the chapters describing the downward spiral of Tom and Clare were emotionally draining for me. I could almost have been in the room at times. Watching a parent, who was always the one in charge, now become the one requiring help, is a painful storyline. However, the author has done this with care, and carries it off very well. Although I thought I would tire of hearing about Tom's career and his obsession with peppers and spices, the narrative moved on and my senses took over. Scent and sound, imagining the rains and intense heat, this became part of my world as I turned page after page of this poetic book.
I would recommend this novel for lovers of Colum McCann, Colm Tobin and Anne Enright as it is full of their warmth, passion and clever use of language.
October 25, 2023
Beautifully written, rich imagery and a narrative that is woven with great care despite its complexity. A very modern book that tells an old story, that of migration, moving lives between Ireland, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and New York.
December 27, 2015
I know Oona Frawley and have great respect for her erudition as a scholar . Her critical writing and research prowess are superb. That she can also write excellent fiction staggers me. Few are those who can successfully perform in both realms. Her debut novel is set in Ireland, 2004 as its present moment (thus, high on the Tiger) but with considerable portions of the characters' respective lifetimes taking place in Vietnam, Zimbabwe, and the U.S. It is truly a multi-national book. Sandrine, a Zimbabwean woman, is in Ireland seeking a better life, trying to help (and hoping to be reunited with) her husband and young son who are still in Africa. Hiding her nascent pregnancy, she works as caregiver to an elderly Irish couple who are in different stages of dementia. That couple has lived a non-traditional life due to the husband's obsessive work in the spice/pepper trade, their locales ranging from tropical Vietnam to suburban Connecticut. Their daughter, now in her 30s, has had a peripatetic life far different from the average Irish woman of her generation. Frawley knits the stories of these four together ably and with a distinctive flair for effective language while exploring themes of identity, fear, isolation, charity, love - so many major things.
September 8, 2016
While Frawley conveys some compassionate observations on a number of important social issues - emigration, asylum, and citizenship; racism; motherhood and family - as a novel, it felt a bit heavy-handed. The quality of the writing was stunning, as expected, but the plot was, well, weak. While I'm used to reading detective fiction where plot is everything, I also enjoy a good Banville novel every now and then - lyrical prose and a lacklustre story - but his novels don't feel like platforms, and Flight unfortunately does read that way at times. "Relevant" and "important," yes, but as far as artistry and entertainment are concerned... I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did.
April 26, 2014
Excellent read, well written and different
Currently reading
July 24, 2014Published 2014, written 2006.
December 20, 2014
I just finished Flight and liked it very much. My review will be published on Wednesday, 12/24 on breac.nd.edu.
January 21, 2015
Beautifully written book which touches on some big issues but perhaps a little too ponderous and melancholy for my tastes.
July 27, 2016
Brilliant. An evocation of 21st century Ireland and the changing nature of Irish identity. Frawley reveals the fractures and the beauty so commonly found in the Ireland of today.
July 13, 2021
A beautifully written book, which has a simple main story, but rich back stories. The topics covered include losing parents, dementia, immigration, infertility and bringing children into the world.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews