Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Miles and Isabel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In a theater in Sydney, Australia, at the turn of the century, Eliza McGinty, a young actress, steps into the shoes of an actor too drunk to play the role of Hamlet one night and gives the performance of her life. Pregnant and unmarried, she goes into labor on stage and gives birth to a son, Miles. Her apparently contagious exertions stimulate a banker's wife in the audience to go into labor and give birth to a daughter, Isabel, that same night. Of different family backgrounds and social class, Miles and Isabel nevertheless reflect the remarkable coincidence of their births by growing up to be remarkably similar in personality-both are fiercely independent, adventurous, and determined to break free of the constraints on their lives. Most importantly, both have always wanted to fly.

A wry humor and light-hearted tone pervade the novel as Miles, tired of working as an assistant to Balthazar the Levitator and "flying" on stage each night, eventually sets off on his own adventures, learning everything he can from story tellers, inventors, and his own observations of nature in an effort to design a flying machine. Isabel, too, eventually sets off on her own, fleeing from suitors, a perverted distant relative, and the specter of a stifling life like that of her mother. It is, of course, no surprise that the fates which governed their births also bring them together so that they can continue their dreams of flight.

Gilling writes simply here, creating an old-fashioned story for the sake of story, a story easy to read, with no deep or hidden meanings, no symbolism, and no pretension. Filled with quirky characters and amusing anecdotes, the novel is straightforward and relatively mellow in tone. The boisterous humor, irreverent satire, and ironic detachment which made Gillings's first novel, The Sooterkin, such a wacky pleasure are sacrificed here in favor of charm, as Gilling becomes more involved with individual characters and dreams than with the society at large. Some readers may miss that harder edge. Mary Whipple

in 1856, Miles McGinty and Isabel Dowling are born on the same day. That is the accident before fate sets in. Miles serves as medium for the levitator Zbiginil Wolunsky and thus starts his dream of flying. He grows up to be a penniless tinkerer, who refuses to give up his dream. One day he breaks his arm while helping to advertise Horatio's Boomerang Brandy. The kind man who caused the accident takes him in for the duration of recuperation. And there Miles meets Isabel.The youngest of six sisters, Isabel has had it with hand-me-downs, strictures of the household and being the last in the receiving line. So, as a tender teenager, she leaves home and travels through Australia, winding up with Uncle John - where Miles is nursing his broken arm and his dream of flying. After building all kinds of contraptions, he finally comes close to something that works. Isabel, of course, helps him and the two grow close.

I will not divulge the ending because it is too beautiful to be messed with by an amateur. Mr. Gilling, who wrote the incredible "The Sooterkin", again uses his unique imagination and the beauty of his language to give us a novel that will stay in our memory for a long time and uplift our spirits.

In "The Adventures of Miles and Isabel", Tom Gilling brings back the classic story of fated romance, but without any of the frivolous swooning our twenty-first century culture prefers to do without. This love story is set in the pre-aviation era of the 1850's and 60's... only it's not so much about the love between a boy and a girl as it is between a boy and a girl and their obsession with flight.

Miles is an intelligent, restless boy who is bursting with the unwavering confidence of his own ideals. He is the only son of Eliza McGinty, famed Australian stage actress, who went into labor with him during her controversial rendition of Hamlet. Isabel is an independent young lady who is submissive to nothing but fate. She is very much like her progressive and headstrong mother, Lousia Dowling, who was in the audience the night Eliza fell into labor with Miles. In a manner only providence can predict, Louisa's own contractions begin as she witnesses Eliza's laboring... and so Miles and Isabel enter the world.

The first two-thirds of this book set-up the inevitable meeting of the two young characters. Isabel is taken for a brief, impromptu flight in a hot air balloon by Tobias Smith, the area's first aviation entrepreneur. Several years later, Miles encounters a broken-down Mr. Smith who passes to him his personal journal full of notes and sketches of various flying machines. This is the beginning of a series of what some skeptics might call `coincidences', but what the rest of us will firmly believe is `fate' by the time the story is finished.

Gilling displays a commendable amount of research in this book. His grasp of the historical facts keep the story strong and intact. The engaging dialog between his unique characters is one of the facets that keeps you glued to the page. I highly recommend this book to any creative person. It combines the perfect mix of history, human interest and fantasy that makes a book truly timeless.

This period-peice unravels itself as though it were a screenplay, having had all of its plot/character development guts ripped out due to time contstraints. It successfully plods along with enough verve and wit to make this an easy-read, but nothing grabs you, there's nobody with whom to empathize.

A love story 'written in the stars' means soo little when there's nothing to explain their call to action.. In the end, Gilling's tale comes off with about as much potency as the strip-mall prophetics of a guy in a Sasquache costume, holding a sign proclaiming "Monster Deals on Sealy, Simmons, and Tempur-Pedic."

Now a story of Tobias Smith's (balloonist) tragic fall into social pariah status would have been interesting!

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME (unless between the ages of 13-18)

I was pulled into this tale by the first few pages about Eliza and her adventures in the theater, but the story didn't turn out to be about her. Rather it was about her son, Miles, who decides he's going to build an airplane (in about 1876). The other part of the book is about Isabel, a spoiled rich girl. It takes about 140 out of 198 pages for them to meet, and predictably fall in love. Or maybe fall in love. Miles is totally lacking in emotions and has very little to say for himself. He's hiding the secret of wanting to fly.

The other characters in this book are wacky and reasonably interesting. It simply does not go anywhere much. Lots of good details, but no real story.

I've read a couple of other male Australian writers, Peter Carey and Tim Winton. Why are they so peculiar? Are there any women Australian writers? Are they weird too?

The Adventures of Miles and Isabel is a well-written tale of two young Australians in the 1800s, born on the same night, to utterly different lives, who are linked through their devotion to flying. Both lead unconventional lives and thier paths seem to almost cross several times in the novel before they finally meet. This novel is enjoyable and just the right length for its whimsical focus. Have fun.