Customer Reviews

Blaze of Noon

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Solid Five Stars...Well, hello out there, I have no idea if anyone will ever read this because this is such an obscure little book, but if you like aviation stories and if you like Ernest Gann (the other Ernest) then you are going to love this story. The story is set in the 1920's, and depicts the early efforts of transporting mail and packages using airplanes. Gann uses the background of four brothers struggling to mantain family unity as the frame of his picture. His characterizations are simply unbelievable and his style of writing is pure and crisp. Especially refreshing his skill and ability to structure a long paragraph and pack it full of many conflicting ideas and emotions, (in my humble opinion he easily rivals Hemingway in this regard.) Not to sound like a purist but modern authors cannot or will not write long paragraphs and certainly not like Gann or Hemingway, such words and paragraphs come from a lived life. The avaition aspect of Blaze of Noon, though dated, is still very interesting and Gann does an outstanding job of explaining terms and concepts. Blaze of Noon will keep you turning the pages! I got an original copy of it from my parents, but how anyone out there will find this book is beyond me. It is a shame that it is almost impossible to find a copy of it or any of Gann's books for that matter. Take Care.

It is about 1927. Since 1918 the U.S. Post Office has been flying the mail with its own pilots and planes; but now Congress has acknowledged the railroads' complaint that this puts government in competition with the private sector. "The Flying McDonalds," four barnstorming brothers, have been invited to sign on with a startup airline. Against the eldest's better judgment, they do so.

Their Pitcairn Mailwing biplanes are a substantial improvement over the World War One surplus craft that have been used up to now; but lack radios and any reliable blind flying instruments. (The episode of a whiskey bottle being used as the world's first artificial horizon is based on truth.) Flying is as often as not at night, and in awful weather and visibility. And there's not that much mail to carry, given the fatality rate.

Many of the characters are based on real mail pilots Gann met and worked with a decade or so later and are thus very interesting. "Fate is the Hunter" fans will have little enough trouble recognizing Keim. Alas, "Whispering Johnny" appears only briefly.

It's been decades now that all first class mail has been flown. Gone are the airmail stamps and those red/white/blue bordered envelopes. The early airmail, like the Pony Express, seems long ago and even quaint; but they were beginnings, they spanned a continent, and took the life of many a brave man