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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent excursion into the sky., June 30, 2010
This review is from: Exult (Paperback)
My biggest problem with this incredible page turner and delightful book is that for the life of me, I couldn't classify what it was I was reading. Sometimes I thought it was a pure boy's adventure tale, but all too often it entered into the philosophical realm, and I thought I was reading a Generation X version of James Agee's A Death in the Family. Yet how could a book about death be, at times, so outrageously funny -- was I reading some type of upbeat new age tale on the importance of living our life to the fullest (via taunting death while hang gliding)?
The book really does defy any type of simple classification, and all to the benefit of the reader. It's a highly condensed tale that take place in a roughly 24 hour period between a tragic hang gliding accident and the attendance of the protagonist at a funeral, where he must speak and give meaning to a meaningless death. In that period the hero goes from questioning his love of hang gliding to needing to don the metaphorical wings of an angel once again, to try and solve the nearly impossible and ageless riddle of death. Does he do it? Does he put the riddle together ... and can he get to the funeral not only in one piece -- but on time as well?
Quirk is outstanding at using a few select words or phrases to create really vivid scenes. For example, here's a typical example, "My pores pry open. My numb arms hang at my sides like salami. They even smell like salami." Vivid. Also, I love this, "It was as heart-melting as a lisp, a mole, an outsie. Perfection I admire. Imperfection I adore. It was erotic, too, because lost in my intertitulation, I felt like I was loving two women at once." Wow. Again and again, Quirk outdoes himself with these descriptions. Of course the hang gliding scenes are worth the price of the book alone, an early sequence already impressive enough is topped by a thrilling night sequence later in the book.
Hey, and if that's not enough, the book manages to mix in tastefully issues of homosexuality, Jewishness, and a heck of a lot of hang gliding lore. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Check it out!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping - heartbreaking and howlingly funny, January 29, 2010
This review is from: Exult (Paperback)
Exult is one of the best books you'll read about why people risk their lives doing what they love. From the beginning, Exult's metaphor of dizzying heights and crushing depths gives us a way to ask the hard questions and strip away convenient answers. There is no room for polite affectation when your entire life - everything you are or were or ever will be - is dangling from 40 pounds of glider. As life becomes more complex for Exult's hero, Jack Ostruck, the allure of the simplicity is unavoidable. Suddenly, he is thrown into a situation he was desperately trying to avoid.
After the tragedy of watching a fellow hang glider drown during a routine outing, Jack is struck again with the loss of his budding love and potential soul mate. His grief is compounded with the burden of her family's demand that he come to her funeral and defend the decision to risk her life in this way. How can he defend what he doesn't personally understand? Jack's search for answers is as heart-breaking and tragically comic as life itself.
Exult is a great book for people who are who have reached a contemplative stage in their lives. It calmly steps us through the minefield between the agony of uncertainty and the necessity of action. It reminded me of similar discussions I have had with friends and family, trying to put the puzzle pieces of life together. What Mr. Quirk isn't afraid to say is that sometimes you get the puzzle together only to realize that you don't like the picture very much. Now what? The awkwardness of poor choices can lead to some hysterically funny moments and Exult lets us have it in spades.
Exult is recommended for anyone who has had to suffer through the black comedy of a family tragedy or for anyone who dares to risk it all on a game of pitch and toss. Exult is lets me laugh because it wasn't happening to me and at the same time it quietly reminded me of how lucky that should make me feel.
Thanks Joe...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply one of the Best Books of the Year, January 7, 2010
This review is from: Exult (Paperback)
Exult does for hang gliding what Hemingway did for bullfighting or Saint-Exupéry for early aviation. For the duration of this book, Quirk will convince you that no other subject could be vital and intense enough for a truly moving novel.
Lyrical yet earthy throughout, Exult packs the full range of human emotional experience into the space of about a day. You will be blown away.
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