Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12876 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780802170378
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
A deadpan "Call Me Zits" opens the first novel in 10 years from Alexie (Smoke Signals, etc.), narrated by a self-described "time-traveling mass murderer" whose name and deeds unravel as this captivating bildungsroman progresses. Half-Indian, half-Irish, acne-beset Zits is 15: he never knew his alcoholic father; his mother died when he was six; his aunt kicked him out when he was 10 (after he set her sleeping boyfriend on fire because the boyfriend had been forcing Zits to have sex). Running away from his 20th foster home, Zits ends up, briefly, in jail; soon after, he enters a bank, shoots several people and is shot dead himself. Zits then commences time-traveling via the bodies of others, finding himself variously lodged in an FBI agent in the '70s (helping to assassinate radical Indian activists); a mute Indian boy at the Battle of Little Big Horn; an Indian tracker named Gus; an airplane pilot instructor (one of whose pupils commits a terrorist act); and his own father. Zits eventually comes back to himself and to an unexpected redemption. While the plot is wisp-thin, one quickly surrenders to Zits's voice, which elegantly mixes free-floating young adult cynicism with a charged, idiosyncratic view of American history. Alexie plunges the book into bracing depths. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
The year is 2007; the hero, a throwaway kid named Zits. Half-Native American, half- Irish, an orphan since the age of 6, Zits is a self-proclaimed blank sky, a solar eclipse. He inherited his mother's green eyes and his father's acne. At 15, he has lived in 20 different foster homes, gone to 22 different schools and owns just enough clothing to fill a backpack. Then one day, looking for revenge, he takes a trip back in time and gets a chance at redemption. Where H.G. Wells used a time machine and Jack Finney used hypnosis, Sherman Alexie uses a gun as a mode of transport in his entertaining new novel, Flight.

The story opens as Zits wakes up in yet another foster home, has a stare-down contest with his brutish foster father, shoves his whiney foster mother and ends up in juvie, the routine as familiar to him as sunrise. In jail, he meets a wise and well-read white boy, Justice, who apologizes for his race's aggression toward Native Americans and encourages Zits to perform a Ghost Dance, dancing the white people away. Once out of jail, Justice gives Zits two guns, one real, one paint, and Zits ghost dances in a bank, where he gets shot in the head. At the moment of impact, his journey through time begins. Zits's odyssey is actually a vision quest on which he learns that revenge is bloody painful.

Landing in 1975, Zits inhabits the body of FBI agent Hank Storm and finds himself suddenly sympathetic with the law as he confronts two traitorous members of a Native American group called Indigenous Rights Now, who have gruesomely tortured a young warrior for not revealing some mysterious and unspecified secrets. Sickened, Zits/Storm falls unconscious, wakes three days later, meets his wife, Mrs. Storm, kisses her and realizes he would kill for her kisses. That thought transports him again, and he lands in a real Indian camp, where Crazy Horse and his band await Custer. Zits witnesses the carnage of Custer's Last Stand through the eyes of a young Indian child and finds he's losing his stomach for revenge.

He time-travels several more times, and each trip presents moral dilemmas. He becomes the linchpin for the slaughter of children, innocently befriends a suicide bomber and finally inhabits his own absentee father.

The quest for revenge becomes a lesson in empathy, and while "lesson" may not sound like a recipe for good fiction, Zits is extraordinarily good company. Self-mocking without being self-effacing, he seduces us with attitude that seems especially geared to teenage readers: "The skin doctor tells me I have six months to live. I'm exaggerating. I don't have a skin doctor and you can't actually die of zits. But you can die of shame. And, trust me, my zit-shame is killing me."

A character who's charmingly cheeky about himself talks well about things like shame and revenge but occasionally embodies the ideas, not the emotions. And the novel's pretty much a one-man show. Even while Zits inhabits other bodies, he rarely loses Zits-consciousness, so we experience "the other" through one spirit, voice and mind. In real time, the secondary characters are more plot props than fully developed people. They range from eloquent philosophers like Justice to cartoons like the foster parents. The foster mother is described as "a short, fat woman. If this were a fairy tale, she'd be the evil stepmother who eats children. This isn't a fairy tale, so she's just a loser who gorges on food like alcoholics drink booze."

These caricatures seem deliberate and are arguably appropriate for a novel about a loner like Zits, who defines himself against the world. Why give the world dimension when its orphaned children have none? At any rate, don't look for languid realism or descriptive fluff in Flight. Alexie favors the short-cut transitions of a director, and he choreographs potent, dramatic stand-alone scenes that would play well on stage. Here Zits meditates on the nature of profanity, deciding even a harmless word can be profane when delivered with punch:

" 'Don't you look at me that way,' [the foster father] says. 'Don't try to stare me down.'

"Of course, I keep staring at him.

" 'Stop staring at me,' he says.

" 'Plop,' I say.

" 'What did you say?'

" 'Plopping plop.'

"Jesus, I sound like a pissed-off Dr. Seuss character. That thought makes me laugh.

" 'Are you laughing at me?' he asks.

" 'You bet your plopping ass I'm laughing at you.' "

Flight lacks the depth and scope of Alexie's groundbreaking Reservation Blues, but it's original, funny and provocative -- a trip worth taking.

-- Ann Cummins is the author of a story collection, "Red Ant House," and a novel, "Yellowcake."

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
His first novel in over a decade, Sherman Alexie's Flight winds themes of alienation, revenge, and forgiveness through its narrator's time-traveling adventures. Critics were impressed with the clever Zits: his thoughts and actions are both humorous and painfully genuine, the essence of troubled adolescence. However, reviewers complained about the lack of depth, of fully developed secondary characters, and of historical detail. Many critics also noted that the plot's swift pace and tidy ending were more appropriate for juvenile fiction. The New York Times, on the other hand, considered these elements part of the novel's charm. Though Alexie's latest effort may disappoint some readers, many will still find snatches of his trademark humor and moving prose.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Customer Reviews

In light of recent tragedy, this book is a must read!
I have pretty much loved everything that I've read of Sherman Alexie's. He is absolutely brilliant, and his latest work is no exception. I found out about this book from a recent NPR interview with Mr. Alexie and bought it the next day. In a few short days, I was finished with it.

I'm not sure that it would have had such a strong impact on me if it hadn't been for the recent incident at VT. Such an event is difficult to make sense of, but reading this book about a person who justifies random murders in his head is eerily similar to what happened. Is killing ever all right? How many things do we justify to ourselves that may be in the scheme of things really unjustifiable?

What I was really in need of after something so awful was hope. This book helps give the reader hope that people can change; people can realize their mistakes and undo the brainwashing they have done to themselves.

In the end, a little bit of hope goes a long way, and this wonderfully written and insightful book manages to give just that. Please read it!!!

fantastic new novel from Sherman Alexie......
FLIGHT is the latest novel by Seattle-based author, Sherman Alexie, and is probably his best yet! Alexie's works are always rich with double entendre and poetic depth. He has the power to make you laugh so hard you cry, and then cry so hard that you laugh. As an author, he mixes bitterness with joy, all the while looking at human tragedy and its power to make or break you, or, in this case, provide enough material to induce powerful fantastical experiences.

Alexie transfers the experience of alienated, biracial identity to main character, Zits (the name speaks for itself), a half Native/half Irish young teenager who has been through the foster care system numerous times, never knew his biological father (his link to his Native identity), and therefore never felt a sense of himself as Native or Irish, but an ambigiously ethnic "other." Zits deals with turbulent experiences in his foster homes (including sexual abuse at the hands of his foster father, and numerous violent episodes with others), through escaping into a fantasy world, where he has the power to time travel and takes on the persona of numerous characters, including a Caucasian vigilante and a Native boy who has lost the power to speak. Powerful and beautiful.........I can already see this being adapted for the screen.

Adolescent Connections
Sherman Alexie reaches out to every adolescent who has ever felt isolated, alone, or embarrassed about themselves. The protagonist, Michael (or "Zits") embodies the very essence of adolescent behavior: he lashes out against authority; he seeks acceptance and friendship from a boy that shares similar beliefs; he speaks in a tone and voice that is a perfect replica of most teens today; and, Zits searches for his identity at a point in his life which mirrors when most teens are uncertain of who they are. Each of these important life experiences offer the reader a chance to connect to this dynamic character.

The language that Sherman Alexie uses really is sophisticated, relatable and engaging. Zits uses foul language to protect himself. Basically, the language Zits uses serves as a defense mechanism, and in turn, shows his reluctance to open his heart. Zits usually reacts with statements like, "You bet your plopping a** I'm laughing at you," (15) when he wants to avoid conversations or agitate someone. This is by no means the crudest of his language usage, but for this review, I chose to keep it as clean as possible. Check it out to see what other hostile comeback responses Zits responds with.

As a future high school English teacher, I am a little reluctant to use this book during the beginning of my career because of the crude language used at times, but I would definitely recommend this book to all tenured teachers who want to share endless conversations about adolescent behavior.

For those readers out there that just want to curl up with an engaging quality read, I recommend this book to you as well.