Exult

by Joe Quirk

Is a full life worth an early death?Jack Ostruck loves hang gliding, but his passion for the skies drains his commitment to life on earth. When someone he loves dies in a crash, the grieving mother demands that Jack come to the funeral and explain, to her entire family, why flying is worth her child's death. Jack's search for the answer will take him to mortuaries, mountaintops, an eagle's nest, the heart of a storm, and finally to a funeral, where he delivers the answer.First 150 pages are available free on Scribd.com."There is gusto in Exult. Quirk dares ask some of life's most fundamental Why do we die, and after we are gone, will we have meant anything at all? How should we spend the time we have been given on this earth?"-- Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns"I loved this bird's-eye look into the curious subculture of hang gliding‚ but Joe Quirk's book is about so much more. Tumbling into his wonderfully told story of life, death, friendship and love is a thrill not to be missed."-- Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately"Exult is a soaring novel about soaring -- but its nominal subject, hang gliding, is only a cover for its real to express, in words that have the compression and punch of the best poetry, what it means to be truly alive."-- Mike Chorost, author of How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human, winner of the 2006 PEN award for Creative Nonfiction."Twenty pages in and my adrenaline surges, heart in my throat. Joe Quirk's prose is exquisite and his plotting impeccable. Instead of a five star review, this book gets a galaxy."-- Erika Mailman, author of A Woman of Ill Fame and Witch's Trinity, which was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award"Joe Quirk wrote his ass off on this one. I never, ever, ever want togo hang gliding. Ever. It was that good."-- Christopher Moore, author of Fool, You Suck & A Dirty Job"Had a hard time putting it down. Fast-paced and energetic in a wild-eyed, adrenaline junkie kind of a way, this book takes hang gliding and the maniacs who practice it by the balls, shakes them like a bad martini, and then -- almost inexplicably -- brings it all in for a smooth landing."-- Huffington Post"Don't expect Quirk to provide any easy answers ... Exult isn't about justifying Jack's experience so much as sharing it. In the novel, Quirk attempts to capture feelings that many of us may never face directly - both the feeling of flight and the feeling of responsibility for a friend's death."-- San Francisco Chronicle"Author Joe Quirk produces a heart-pumping, heartstring-pulling tale of larger-than-life, balls-to-the-walls hang glider Jack Ostruck, his love affair with the extreme sport and his angst of living a life full of contradictions ... It’s fast-paced, soul-searching reading with turns and twists as unpredictable as the thermals and weather patterns the hang gliders chase."-- Alameda Magazine

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Bruce Genaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six pages in and I was hijacked, transported to another world, one I barely knew existed. I’d seen them soaring through the air occasionally, but I never gave hang gliders much thought until I
became one vicariously in Joe Quirk’s latest novel, Exult.
Filled with the nomenclature of aerodynamics and meteorology, it never feels like an information dump of facts about wind and thrust. Rather it feels like a reminder of things you knew but had forgotten, and it all comes rushing back as you slide your keel through its sheath with the other characters preparing to jump off a cliff. In this thought-provoking look at what it means to be alive, Quirk poses many questions for which there are no easy (or perhaps any) answers. When the narrator sates, “I fear nothing more than flying. Yet I live for nothing else,” it’s hard not to ponder your own compulsions.
It takes multifaceted characters, believable dialogue, and a dynamic plot to engage readers, and Quirk provides all that and more. His ability to condense pages of material into a single sentence, like “Exhilarating power waits at the edge of chaos,” makes Exult an intelligent and exhilarating tale, and a thrilling ride that won’t disappoint.