What do you think?
Rate this book
Urban Flight: A Novel
Urban Flight takes place in New York City in the despairing days of 1975, when the Big Apple flirted with bankruptcy and its mean streets teetered on the edge of anarchy. A year after Nixon's resignation, Jason Sims, one-time sixties idealist and part-time musician, finds himself piloting a helicopter for a television news station's traffic reports. Jason agrees to do some extra flying for the station's mysterious owner, and during these extra-curricular flights observes activities that could be related to the urban corruption scandal and possible murder that his best friend, journalist Adam Shaker, has been investigating. As Jason becomes inadvertently enmeshed in the City's political crisis (and a new love interest) he confronts the demons of his past and experiences a personal re-awakening.
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 24, 2015
363 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 13, 2017
The title of this book caught my eye while browsing the Goodreads Giveaways, and I'm glad I entered (Yay, I won!) because I very much enjoyed this novel.
I'm not going to recap the plot, because the official blurb does its job rather well. Plus, I believe it's really difficult to talk about the plot in any meaningful way without dropping spoilers. But I will say that Kirshner has created some very amazing characters -- who are surprisingly well-developed for such a short novel -- and plunged them into a crazy, fast-paced story. I also feel the need to point out how great the dialog was. This novel is filled with witty banter, and it always feels very natural and fluid, something that, unfortunately, isn't always the case.
Under the surface, there's also a pretty good look at what happened to cities all over the country when their tax base fled for the 'burbs. And, as a nice bonus for fans of 60s-70s rock-and-roll and, in particular, the blues, there are plenty of great references and stories.
Bottom line: If you want a relatively quick read with well-developed characters and a smart and compelling plot, then this is it.
I'm not going to recap the plot, because the official blurb does its job rather well. Plus, I believe it's really difficult to talk about the plot in any meaningful way without dropping spoilers. But I will say that Kirshner has created some very amazing characters -- who are surprisingly well-developed for such a short novel -- and plunged them into a crazy, fast-paced story. I also feel the need to point out how great the dialog was. This novel is filled with witty banter, and it always feels very natural and fluid, something that, unfortunately, isn't always the case.
Under the surface, there's also a pretty good look at what happened to cities all over the country when their tax base fled for the 'burbs. And, as a nice bonus for fans of 60s-70s rock-and-roll and, in particular, the blues, there are plenty of great references and stories.
Bottom line: If you want a relatively quick read with well-developed characters and a smart and compelling plot, then this is it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review