Customer Reviews

The Flight of the Falcon

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

 

 

Armino Fabbio is a thirty-two-year-old courier in Genoa. He is short (at least shorter than most men), baby-faced and pleasant enough. His work at Sunshine Tours provides him a satisfactory if predictable life. But all of it comes to an end when he spots a peasant woman on the street. There's nothing unusual about a peasant roaming aimlessly on the streets of Rome, but this woman is his former servant Martha. Her death follows her unexpected reappearance, and Fabbio, afraid of police interrogation, flees to his old hometown of Ruffano. This leads to unexpected events. His new job as assistant at a university library, the same university where his late father had once been the superintendent, provides him a temporary position at the school. There he meets some interesting characters, including students from the new Commerce and Economics curriculum. He also gets reacquainted with the past. His brother Aldo, once presumed dead, is now a highly respected professor and leader of a rather strange cult. Aldo is also in charge of an annual festival. This year he intends to reenact the five-hundred-year-old legend of Duke Claudio, known as The Falcon, and he wants to make the festival as lifelike as possible. In a series of twists and turns, Armino discovers just how fantasy and reality, good and evil, play part in his past and present.

At first, The Flight of the Falcon is rather dull. It starts out well, but the storyline is very slow-paced and you have to have some patience with it. It is nevertheless a fascinating novel. Character study is big in this story. The author develops the psychological aspects of the characters so well that their complexity is wonderful. I won't discuss what these complexities are, for that would ruin the fun of reading it for yourself. Another great thing about this book is the atmosphere. The portrait of The Temptation of Christ (which I think isn't based on a real portrait) and its implications play a major role in the story, only as backdrop. It is, in truth, the main theme in this book. The beautiful descriptions of Italy, deep character study, and the sinister and suspenseful plot turn this into an amazing gothic tale. I think this is one of Daphne du Maurier's most accomplished if underrated efforts, a reminder of why I've enjoyed her suspense novels the most. (Her other novels are great and not to be missed though.) So what at first was a near miss to me became a fascinating and unputdownable read. This would cover a number of book club discussions. If you love Daphne du Maurier, then you cannot miss this book.

No. It's not Rebecca, but since Rebecca is considered one of the greatest books ever written, it would be hard for anyone to top it. I found The Flight of the Falcon a great story. It captures the feel of Italy as well as it holds you from page to page. I think any du Maurier is good reading. It isn't fair to compare everything she writes to Rebecca. It WAS a masterpiece, but her brilliance came through in almost every piece of her work. Flight of the Falcon has a lot of mystery and intrigue and deserves to be read by any suspense/mystery fan.

This book deserves to be in print. It is an extraordinary work, vividly evoking a setting and characters far different from that of Rebecca. The story is equally dramatic, but the wry tone and subject matter may surprise those who have only read Du Maurier's better-known works. I urge any and all to read this book.

This is the first novel by DuMaurier that I didn't finish! I loved all of her other books that I have read, but ..... I would not recommend this one....

I'm surprised that this book is not better known. Although the style of writing is rather laid-back, this book packs an emotional punch that staggers one. There are some passages that convey worlds of powerful feeling in a couple of spare sentences, reminiscent of Hemingway. The description of how Aldo meets Beo is a case in point. Also, this book is one of the few from any female author that captures the male point-of-view perfectly. I consider this to be one of Du Maurier's best works, even better than Rebecca.

I can only agree with one of the reviews here, by Mark Meadows, saying it's a dull book. However, even if I read more than half of it and was rather fed up, I went through the end. *** sigh*** Why? Because of duMaurier's way of writing. Her descriptions are fabulous! And she probably kept me curious to find out the ending of this highly improbable story...
One thing I couldn't get rid of while I read: Fabbio, the principal character, is emotionally very flat, or cold, compared to all the other characters who are passionate, full of life and believable. You almost never get in his shoes and that doesn't help to fire our interest in this book.
Finally... As I adored Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel, I believe in reading as many books as I can from an author I like to recapture the pleasure and/or make a better judment of her/his writings. I don't regret reading Flight of the Falcon. So, I recommend this book ONLY if you love this author.
(For a smiliar «duMaurier feel», you should read Harwood, The Seance & Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger.)

....when, aided by his followers, he would seize and ravage...."

Oooh, I just love Du Maurier, she always delivers the goods. Armino Fabbio is working for Sunshine tours and while in Rome with his beef and barbarians (Americans and Brits) he comes across a down and out woman at the steps of a church, a woman who reminds him of someone from his childhood. Taking pity he slips her some money, but she later ends up murdered and Armino blames himself - if it hadn't been for the money no one would have robbed and then murdered her - or so he reasons. Distraught over the woman's identity he takes a holiday from his job and heads north to the city where he was born and where he recalls the murdered woman - Ruffano. Once there he finds himself and everyone around him being manipulated by a master puppeteer, who like Lazarus has returned from the dead.

Outside of that I'm not going to tell much more as I'd ruin it for the rest of you - read it for yourself. Du Maurier slowly builds her story into one heck of a climax as Armino finds himself in the midst of rival student factions and campus politics, all of which culminates in the final plot to recreate the "flight" of The Falcon, the first Duke of Ruffano, for the city festival - but will this flight end as disastrously as the first one? Despite a bit of a slow start, the finish was a nail-biter and she keeps you guessing until the very end. 4/5 stars.

I don't mean that to sound judgmental--there's nothing wrong with you if you don't like her, but she's kind of got her own gestalt that either you love or just leaves you cold.

Some of her books I don't care for: I found _Rule Britannia_ downright dopey in parts. And I do prefer her historicals to her more contemporary settings--such as _Scapegoat_ and this one.

However, she has this gift of being able to completely immerse you in the world of the story, and that counts for high marks in my book. Armino is a bit of a rootless drifter, but that's part of the theme of the novel--return, roots, identity. Another theme to be followed with profit to the reader is that of reliving history, both personal and larger. Armino discovers his brother, whom he'd thought dead, is in fact very much alive, and apparently plotting mass riots at the University in his hometown (another thematic debate--modern business majors versus ancient liberal arts). What to do when you suspect your dearest brother is unhinged?

There's a mystery to piece together beyond the hook--who actually killed the old lady on the church steps, and the climax keeps you nearly breathless. And it passed my own personal 'cry test' (I cried at the end). While '60s Italy isn't my favorite place to visit in fiction, I'd follow DuMaurier anywhere, and know that I'll turn that last page with regret.

I loved this book! I've read probably eight of Du Maurier's books, and though each of them is different, they all have the same effect of luring you into the story. I thought this one was just as good as the rest of her books. She has an amazing gift for telling a story, keeping all of her details straight (I'm an obsessive detail checker), and leaving a mystery ringing in the reader's mind long after the last page is finished.

It's a pity the editorial opinion doesn't match the general positivity of the customer reviews! I personally felt this was a very GOOD story. Well laid out. I can't really tell about the story, because most of the thrill of reading Daphne du M's work is figuring it out as you go, piecing together the bits and coming out with a peculiar and always wonderful ending. She had to be the master of endings. Anyway, this is a good story. I got it from the library while I was working last year and took it along sometimes to read between breaks and at lunch and stuff. I loved the way that all along you felt as if the book was heading toward one thing... then that was suddenly resolved and it went in a somewhat different direction. I recommend it highly.