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The Book of Flying
Apr. 11th, 2011 04:41 pmShort review: An amazing book, about books and stories, about longing, and about wings. A book within a book, and "a book within a book within a book" in a sense... you won't understand until you reach the end... it's a philosophical book feeling similar to The Alchemist or Le Petit Prince, so, if you like those, you might love this. This book is deep poetry, doesn't hold back from being harsh, and will hurt your heart.... Because of the ending, it's not the kind of book I would recommend normally for winged people, but, what comes up to that point is beautiful, though harsh, so worth reading anyway. Just be wary... hold your heart close.
Writing: The writing is like nothing else I have read. Everything is mystery, philosophy, magic, and wrapped in many meanings... nothing is said in a literal way and it makes the text thick and heavy with poetry, though it's easy to read still. It's so poetic, that it becomes a little much sometimes... it reads like it was meant to be spoken aloud, for the beauty of the words, which makes sense, because of the theme of the book.
From a winged person's perspective...: The winged people in this book are not seen much, but they drive the story and they are beautiful. They perch to sleep and fly in their dreams, treating flying as an art and a lost heritage... they are not human, and I love them. All through the book too, it keeps returning to them, to dreams of the air and flight, and bird metaphors, and you don't feel that the winged people are far from the story even when they are not in it. The book is very poetic, and that poetry is used to describe the winged people too of course.
The one thing that might be negative about the story for winged people (other than the things in "Trigger warnings") is that the main character doesn't want wings to have wings, but wants them so that he can be with the girl he loves. Well, it's not wholly true, he does want them for what they are, but... it's complicated. You can believe that he has a good motive, at least until the very end. Then, it gets more doubtful. If you want to be super safe, read "More thoughts", but, it will spoil the story.
Trigger warnings: Violence, lots of sexual content (described in poetic ways but very obvious), cruel treatment of bird bodies, detailed descriptions of birds cooked as food, stealing bird eggs to eat. ( May spoil the story ) It also might be triggery for people with eating disorders.
( More thoughts... )
Writing: The writing is like nothing else I have read. Everything is mystery, philosophy, magic, and wrapped in many meanings... nothing is said in a literal way and it makes the text thick and heavy with poetry, though it's easy to read still. It's so poetic, that it becomes a little much sometimes... it reads like it was meant to be spoken aloud, for the beauty of the words, which makes sense, because of the theme of the book.
From a winged person's perspective...: The winged people in this book are not seen much, but they drive the story and they are beautiful. They perch to sleep and fly in their dreams, treating flying as an art and a lost heritage... they are not human, and I love them. All through the book too, it keeps returning to them, to dreams of the air and flight, and bird metaphors, and you don't feel that the winged people are far from the story even when they are not in it. The book is very poetic, and that poetry is used to describe the winged people too of course.
The one thing that might be negative about the story for winged people (other than the things in "Trigger warnings") is that the main character doesn't want wings to have wings, but wants them so that he can be with the girl he loves. Well, it's not wholly true, he does want them for what they are, but... it's complicated. You can believe that he has a good motive, at least until the very end. Then, it gets more doubtful. If you want to be super safe, read "More thoughts", but, it will spoil the story.
Trigger warnings: Violence, lots of sexual content (described in poetic ways but very obvious), cruel treatment of bird bodies, detailed descriptions of birds cooked as food, stealing bird eggs to eat. ( May spoil the story ) It also might be triggery for people with eating disorders.
( More thoughts... )
