Fearless a Novel [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Yglesias (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1993

After a disastrous plane crash, two rather different survivors--Max, a sophisticated architect from New York's Upper West Side, and Carla, a young housewife from Little Italy--must help each other recover.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A powerful examination of denial and guilt, Yglesias's ( Hot Properties) terrific new novel opens with a gut-wrenching scene incarnating the worst nightmares of anyone who is afraid of flying. Forty-two minutes after takeoff, a DC-10 en route from New York to Los Angeles loses its rear engine. Max Klein, an architect traveling with his business partner, imagines the worst. Carla Fransisca, her two-year-old son in her lap, refuses to believe that she and her child are in danger. When the plane crashes, both are ironically confounded: Max walks away unhurt, and Carla blames herself for her son's death. The ordeal crushes Carla, elevates Max to a higher level of perception and strips them both of everything except brutal, fearless honesty. Yglesias chronicles their actions after the flight with the same candor, often portraying Max and Carla as abrupt and abrasive without making them any less real or less likable to the reader. A screenwriter as well as a novelist, he makes good use of cinematic techniques. Each image in his simple, precise prose is vivid and memorable; the pre-crash scene on the plane and a later re-enactment of the accident, in particular, linger in the mind. Film rights to Spring Creek Productions; audio rights to Simon & Schuster; BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Acclaimed author Yglesias ( The Murderer Next Door , LJ 8/90) examines how almost dying can affect one's life. His protagonists are Max and Carla, who experience psychological problems after surviving a DC-10 crash. An architect traveling on business, Max accompanies his partner, who is killed in the crash. Having outwitted death, Max decides that he has nothing further to fear. Carla, traveling with her baby, feels unworthy to live once she loses him. Consumed by guilt, Max and Carla reexamine their lives, their relationships, and their religious beliefs, and eventually realize that they alone can make each other whole. Yglesias, a talented writer, immediately involves readers in the fate of his characters, telling their story extremely well. Highly recommended.
- Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audioworks (May 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671868152
• ISBN-13: 978-0671868154
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,338,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rafael Yglesias is an American novelist and screenwriter, the son of writers Jose and Helen Yglesias. He dropped out of high school upon publication of his first novel, Hide Fox, And All After in 1972 at age 17. He is the author of nine novels, including A Happy Marriage, winner of the 2009 Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize, Dr. Neruda's Cure For Evil and Fearless, which he adapted for the screen. He also wrote the screenplays for Death And The Maiden, Les Miserables, From Hell, and Dark Water. He has two sons: Matthew Yglesias, a Fellow at the Center For American Progress, public intellectual and author of Heads In The Sand; Nicholas Yglesias is a fantasy novelist who has recently completed Succession, the first of a three volume trilogy. Rafael lives in the city of his birth, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A winner of a story, December 19, 2010

By 

debabms - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fearless (Kindle Edition)

Don't let the title fool you. We are all driven in some way or another by fear. And perhaps dream of being in a state of fearlessness. That is one of the areas that Yglesias explores in this compelling and beautifully written novel. Is fear something that can be mastered and overcome? And what if we actually need it to contain other impulses? Through the story in "Fearless" the reader gets to discover and rediscover the dark and lightness in trauma, attachment, and love as the characters struggle with being accountable to people who need them, in the midst of needing to follow their overwhelming desires that prove to be imperative to their own survival.
I don't know how Yglesias has done it actually. But he has. He has written a story that helps us better understand ourselves, the best and the worst of ourselves, through our imagining and being deeply connected to the well crafted characters in this novel. One will want to spend all of their time sharing Max and Carla's world. Yglesias has given us a gift that we all want; which is to get to fall in love with, route for, fret for, and yes; fear for, the decisions these characters make, based on the forces that control them and their struggles to gain some of that control back, and to ultimately find a balance. A captivating read

4.0 out of 5 stars The Lessons of Near Misses, March 28, 2011

By 

Sam Sattler (Spring, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fearless (Kindle Edition)

Max Klein has serious problems when it comes to flying. Like pretty much everything else in his life, Max sees flying as just another disaster waiting to happen. But, remarkably, when he finds himself in a passenger jet that is almost certainly going to crash, Max is one of the calmest people on the whole plane. He is the guy who takes the time to comfort a young boy who is traveling alone, assuring the boy that everyone will be alright despite sincerely believing they would all soon be dead. Then, improbable as it is, the pilot makes a miracle landing without killing everyone and Max becomes a folk hero. Suddenly, the man who was terrified to fly feels invincible.

Carla Fransisca, on the other hand, boarded the plane with her young son figuring that this was going to be just another plane ride. Now, because she was unable to save her son, Carla is crushed by the realization that she failed in the most important job of her life. She blames herself for the toddler's death and seems perfectly willing to live the rest of her life in seclusion. `

Fearless begins with an airplane crash, one so vividly described by Rafael Yglesias that readers with even a tinge of the fear of flying will find themselves cringing at what the passengers are enduring. The book looks at how people react to almost dying, how it changes the way they see the world and how they plan to spend the rest of their lives. Living on "bonus time" is, it seems, a blessing for some, but a burden for those overcome by survivor's guilt.

When, in the aftermath of the crash, Max finally meets Carla, he feels compelled to help her through the grief of losing her only child. As their spouses watch helplessly from the sidelines, Max and Carla must decide who they will be for the rest of their lives. This 1993 novel, part comedy and part tragedy, is both entertaining and thought provoking as it forces the reader to consider how he might react to his own near miss.

Rated at: 4.0

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overflowing with Good Fortune, July 31, 2007

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fearless (Mass Market Paperback)

Max Klein is traveling on business for his architecutural firm on a DC-10. Carla is traveling with her young son Leonardo, (Bubble). There are two explosions, chaos in the cabin, and the plane is scheduled for an emergency landing. Max and his partner Jeff anticipate the generous settlement their families will receive in the event of a crash. In the partnership, Max had been the worker, Jeff the rainmaker. Jeff had harassed Max about his clothing choices.

After the crash Max flees, going to Pittsburgh, the scene of his college years. Max believes he lives in a reductive age. The crash is stupid, senseless, he opines. Personnel from the airline find him in Pittsburgh and arrange for him to return home to his wife and son in NYC. Max becomes annoyed that reporters are trying to make him into a hero for saving the lives of two children.

Carla's husband Manny retains a lawyer to represent them, (Leonardo dies in the crash), and she is supposed to recount her story in a tape recorder. The kinds of people involved in the post-disaster industry are interestingly described by the author.

Why Max is fearless because he is overflowing with good fortune is the part of the plot I will leave to the readers to discern. They are urged to find out what happens to Max and Carla when for the first time in Max's life he feels talented. This is pretty good beach fare.