Customer Reviews

Exult

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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...

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.

Exult is viscerally gripping, the parts that take place in a kitchen no less so than the parts that take place in the sky! The prose is rich (and funny!). The dialogue manages to be expository of the philosophy at the heart of the novel and yet remain natural, flowing and ultimately revealing of the charcaters....and we wouldn't care about the philosophy if we did not care about the characters. Exult speaks to anyone who has ever risked, or failed to risk. (Last I checked, that's all of us.)

And when is the last time you looked at a cloud from a TRULY different perspective? I finished Joe Quirk's new novel, Exult, this morning and looked at a towering cloud in a way in which I have never looked at a cloud before. I'm 42. That's rare. Thanks Joe!

This was a real page turner! Exciting and funny! I could not put it down, man. Me gusta mucho, tio! Te lo recomiendo.

Wow! This book is amazing! Jack Ostruck is both vulnerable and offish and ultimately very human. The author does a wonderful job making the world of hang gliding come to life. He imbues the book with humor and warmth. He isn't afraid to be both adventurous and emotional, and he leaves the reader with a understanding of how the search for the ultimate adventure not only calls for courage, but also calls for a searing search of one's own soul. Quirk is a thoughtful, careful writer, a gifted storyteller and, apparently, a hell of a hang glider as well (or at least Jack Ostruck is). His book makes me want to take off and fly high and explore my own inner life, yet understand when it's time to come in for a safe landing. An awesome, emotional, high-flying read!

The back cover of EXULT asks, "Is a full life worth an early death?" As someone who has always looked both ways before crossing streets, tied her shoe laces, washed her hands before meals and generally avoided illness or death-inducing activities, I would have reflexively said no. But that was before I read this book.

EXULT is wonderful. I cared deeply about Jack and his eccentric hang-gliding fraternity and thrilled at their adrenaline-pumped flying scenes. I laughed at Laura's extended Jewish family, and being a member of their tribe, I'm certain we share a demented, delightful uncle. However, hang-gliding may have lost another potential novice after reading about all the ways I could die, then having beloved characters go precisely, and movingly, that way. I may now believe a full life is worth an early death, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go just yet.

EXULT makes me jealous. I want to write like Joe Quirk and mine the poetry behind the prose. I yearn for the descriptive power of his lyrical sentences. If I hang-glided and touched the sun, as Quirk so clearly has, would I be imbued with his talents? Do giant hands reach down from the clouds, one fear-dispelling, one boon-bestowing, to give you the courage to grasp such gifts?

Damn him. Damn him to Heaven...

Exult, without a doubt, lived up to its name. The characters are well-rounded, spirited, and unforgettable. The prose is poetic, lyrical and pulled me in with every single word. I love how the story centers around hang gliding as metaphor for the depth of human emotion, especially when it comes to both romance and platonic relationships. The juxtaposition of Jack's love for Laura and Radcliffe's love for Jack was compelling and bittersweet. Every moment the characters were hang gliding, I was right up there with them. I cried, I laughed, I soared. Now, I feel like I have been on a great journey.

A first rate adventure that takes one into the highly specialized world of hang gliding. The story keeps the reader riveted but the philosophic ruminations on life and death keeps one thinking long after the covers have been closed.

Don't start reading this book unless you have a few hours free because once you start you will keep reading. Joe Quirk takes us on a visit to another world of people, feelings, understandings of life and love and does it all at high speed liberally laced with high emotion. I loved this book, even the sad parts, for the new vistas it opened for me and the insights it left. Highly recommended.