A review by serendipitysbooks
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

adventurous challenging informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

 Flights won the prize in 2018. It’s a series of vignettes, and is marketed as a “philosophical rumination on modern day travel”. It certainly travels widely across time (17th -21st centuries), across countries and across topic, some purely fictional; others based on fact. This book traverses brain surgery, beached whales in Australia, Greek mythology, Captain Cook, Chopin’s heart- and that’s only some of the factually inspired material! In terms of fiction we have a woman returning to Poland to help her terminally ill highschool boyfriend end his life and a man holidaying in Greece whose wife and son mysteriously disappear … and just as mysteriously reappear. Some vignettes I loved; others not so much. I didn’t necessarily enjoy the reading experience as a whole . I love books I can sink into and this was not that. In fact I think I suffered from literary whiplash as I was flung from one time and place to another. I’m not entirely sure I was clever enough to fully understand the point of this book, but it did make me think about the way I’m moving through my life, what I’m seeing, doing and thinking on the journey. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings