The Flying Circus was read at a
too slow pace for me. I had a hard time getting the feel of this book. It's a historical novel, so
I should have been more captivated by the book from the very beginning, however
this did not happen. Set in the middle of the 20s in the USA, you get the feel
of a "road trip", rather than the roaring 20s everybody is used to
read about when that time period is mentioned. It was a nice perspective, but
not enough to save the book for me.
Henry Schuler/Jefferson runs away
from his home county in Indiana because he is suspected of murder. He doesn't
really know what happened, except that because he is German he is looked down
upon and his future is too grim to stay put. As he runs away, he meets Gil and
Cora, two rebels at heart, each deeply wanting to escape their present
surroundings. In a predictable and very rushed way, Henry falls in love with
Cora, Gil and Cora fall in love with one another, and this love story is ended
in a very convenient and boring way. While I could emphasize with Henry, I
didn't like the way his infatuation with Cora grew bigger and bigger as the
novel progressed. It felt too stretched and fake.
And speaking of Cora - a
young woman of merely 18, coming from a rich family, now ruined because of the
war - she seems to be good at everything, pointing out there's nothing she
can't do that she sets her mind to (paraphrasing here)... well, Cora is a very
fake and selfish character, in my opinion, although this is far from what was
aimed. She seems set on her idea to because an aviator, a rare thing for a
woman, but despite her ambition, what ruins her image is the air of superiority
that she presents. She's a good judge of character, she can even give Henry
tips on how to try to remember what happened in Indiana, she has some detective
skills that she insists on using and lo and behold! she actually succeeds in
moving things along in Henry's case back in Indiana, of course in a favorable
direction. Quite a catch this Cora!
As for Gil, the other important
character - I liked him; I wish there were a way to save him. I was more
interested in a future for him then Cora, mainly because she seemed all set and
ready to take over the world, but in Gil's case there was a bit more to work
with and on. Also, some more interest in him from the author wouldn't have
hurt. For example: for about 2-3 chapters, while on holiday and away from the
barnstorming season, we see Henry and Cora more than it was needed, while
nothing was mentioned of Gil, except the implied idea that his presence would
ruin what Henry hoped he had going on with Cora. I understand the author's
desire to focus on Henry, since he's the main character after all, but still,
tell me more about this character Henry claims is so important to him. I feel
like an unnecessary void was left there.
Despite the strong feelings the
characters arose in me (who knew this would happen from a slooow paced novel),
I liked the idea of the novel, namely barnstorming. For starters, I didn't know
this was what all those crazy acrobatics were called. It was nice to see a
little bit of the beginning of airplane flying, too. Whenever I read books set
in the past and they are talking about things we take as normal nowadays I
can't help but think "Man, if you knew!" I can only imagine the
amount of research that was needed for this book, and because of that I can say
that as an inexperienced reader in all things planes and flying, the
"technical" information provided was just right, not too much to overwhelm,
but the right amount to give the reader an idea about the way things worked.
The book seemed stretched a bit
more than necessary, maybe because of the slow beginning, and the ending was predictable and in the same time lacking a
strong emotional involvement. Just 2 stars for this novel.
This started with a desire to
just write a few sentences about how I liked this book, but I guess I had some
pent-up feelings about this book.
{!} I kept the rating constant - that is 2* both here and on Amazon. The general feeling: I didn't like, it was just OK.
{!} I kept the rating constant - that is 2* both here and on Amazon. The general feeling: I didn't like, it was just OK.
Title: The Flying Circus
Author: Susan Crandall
Reason I read it: Net Galley review. All thoughts expressed here are my own.
Language read in: English
Rating: 2*
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