This is sad, happy, charming, and gently funny. A beautiful book with a bittersweet ending.
And look at that cover!
It reminds me a lot of The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine
Applegate—another fantastic book. But my
reactions are a little different. My
only (small) issue with the One and Only Ivan is that it's a little hard to
believe in parts. Ivan seems to know or
understand things he would have no way of knowing, given what we know about how
he learns, and I question why he can speak to the other animal species so
easily but can't understand humans. This
doesn't seem quite internally consistent, and I'm a proponent of books being
internally consistent—be they strictly modern day, far-distant future, or high fantasy.
Now, fast-forward to "The Simple Art of Flying." Objectively, it's way more difficult to believe.
The voices of the animals are way more human than Applegate's delightful
rendition of a gorilla's thought processes and inner voice in "The One and
Only Ivan." In "The Simple Art
of Flying," Alastair and others use slang and cultural references they
shouldn't use or understand, even if they are highly intelligent animals that
can communicate amongst themselves. But
here it doesn't bother me. And the
difference? Internal consistency. "The Simple Art of Flying" is so
fantastical (Alastair reads by eating paper—and he knows pretty much everything—and
the goldfish can analyze poetry—and the guinea pig plays poker). Because it's so fantastical, it doesn't seem
out of place that they all talk like humans.
It feels more internally consistent.
These are both great books.
I love them both. I just found my
different reactions interesting.
Anyway, I love the characters in "The Simple Art of
Flying." I love the writing, the
story structure, the pacing, the unusual premise, and the even more unusual
theme.
A great book. Highly
recommended. Can't wait to read more by Cory
Leonardo
Buy it on Amazon: The Simple Art of Flying
Read my review of The One and Only Ivan
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