Fool's Errand

by Marc Norman

They were winging it blind over the frozen Andes on a cargo of nitro and the last of their lunatic luck.

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really exciting adventure from 1978 set in Depression-era Panama and South America. A group of flyers in Trimotors are hired by a young woman to fly unstable dynamite over the Andes to Bolivia. The flying is superbly described as the three planes, all falling apart, undertake the dangerous flight, while the back-stories of the desperate flyers and the woman are unveiled before a dramatic finale. A dinner with rich Americans in Peru slows the action but the rest of the story is an old-fashioned perilous adventure against the odds.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the mid ‘80s, inspired by the occupations of my two favourite movie characters, I briefly entertained the thought of becoming a pilot. The idea lasted about 5 minutes until my mum and I discovered how expensive the training would be. As an alternative, I accumulated as many second-hand books I could with airplanes on the cover. Some of them, like this one, I never read at the time (I was probably segueing from the not too busy to read but too poor to buy phase to not too busy to buy but too busy to read phase), and they took up secondary spots on multiple bookshelves (and in multiple storage boxes) over the years. Until now. I just read “Fool’s Errand” and I really enjoyed it. It might have been a bit bleak and adult for me as a teen, but great now. The characters aren’t heroic, but they ARE great creations. The story is a cracker. It basically rips-off both Wages of Fear and one of my favourite 30s flicks – Only Angels Have Wings. It’s grim, but fairly propulsive, with a some surprises, including the ending. Th flying scenes REALLY hit the spot, and Forney’s personal journey is surprising, and appreciated. I still think this should have been called “The Panama Suicide Squad” instead of the highly generic “Fool’s Errand”. So weird to think that the author won an Oscar, too. I imagine anyone reading this NOW won’t be doing it for the circuitous reason I just did, but because they are on some mission to read every book written by every Oscar winner. In which case, they can’t borrow it from me. It’s been my book for 35 years, but – as much as I enjoyed it – I’m shedding it like a crate of Nitro over the Andes. If my wife has her way it will be the first of many…

8/10