Taking Flight (MIRA) [Paperback]

Lynne Kaufman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2005 | Series: MIRA

College professor Julia Benson is married to a doctor and a mother of two, but is growing increasingly unhappy. While on a trip to Greece, she meets Ted, an underwater archaeologist with a passion for life and, seemingly, for Julia.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Los Angeles college professor Julia Benson is at a crossroad in her life as her children grow older and her husband becomes less appealing. As she embarks on a trip to Greece with her students, she longs for her fantasy of an exiting life to come true. When she stops to visit her ailing mother, her mother implores Julia to live large as she has not. Once in Greece, Julia, all primed for romance, is disappointed to see that the colleague she is attracted to has connected with her assistant. On the return trip to California, a dejected Julia meets a wildly impassioned archaeologist. Ted's exuberance inspires Julia to make a detour and spend time with this exciting man in San Francisco. Her dilemma then is to decide where true happiness lies--with Ted or her husband. Kaufman deftly tells the complex story of a woman coming to terms with who she is, and with what she wants out of life. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Lynne Kaufman has the wisdom to understand that the spiritual and sexual needs of women are really inseparable." -- New York Times bestselling author Tom Robbins

Product Details

• Paperback: 281 pages
• Publisher: Mira (December 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778321886
• ISBN-13: 978-0778321880
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,723,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gender bending middle age crisis, November 30, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taking Flight (MIRA) (Paperback)

Even though she has been married twenty years with two children (teenage Davey and preadolescent Wendy), Los Angeles Community College Professor Julia Benson feels as if her life can fit inside a packed sardine can. She is unsure whether she loves her husband Mark or ever did while her dying mother residing in a Bronx slum, tells her to live life to the fullest. , Julia hopes the two-week trip to Greece in which she, another professor Michael, and the office assistant Sabrina will chaperone thirty female sophomores, will lead to some healthy flirting.

The trip proves a bust as Michael spends his time with Sabrina and the natives flirt with the students. Depressed on the way home, she meets Ted, an oceanic archeologist with his head in the clouds dreaming of finding Atlantis. As they hit it off, Julia wonders if she should run away to help Ted find his dream or be responsible to a spouse and two kids who cherish her.

Readers will appreciate the gender bending middle age crisis as Julia has her second identity issue after having obtained a new role when she returned to school to obtain a Masters and a teaching job so that she could be a professor not just a wife and mother. That proved not fulfilling enough making fans wonder whether the delightful protagonist will take flight with Ted or return to her adoring family. This character driven tale entices the audience because no one is nasty or abusive driving Julia away; to the contrary her family love her. Lynne Kaufman provides a fabulous tale of a woman on the crossroads taking stock of where her life is going while readers and her will wonder who she chooses.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Taking Flight, December 2, 2005

By 

AK "Bro" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taking Flight (MIRA) (Paperback)

On her way home from chaperoning a student trip to Greece, Julia Benson's safe, staid life that has been centered in her twenty year marriage is turned on its ear when she meets Ted, a passionate, younger archeologist who invites her to plunge into an affair. Barely looking back, Julia agrees, beginning an odyssey of sensuality that nearly leads her to abandon all she loves and holds dear. With Ted she feels things she has never felt before and does things that she would never dream of doing until now. Will she follow him or return to her husband and young children?

* If it were not for several particularly distasteful scenes, including a menage a trois, this book might rate a three. However, Julia's behavior is never labeled as wrong when it clearly is, and though in the end her journey is one that does reveal what is right about her life, the seedy nature of the trip is frankly revolting. *

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thorouhly enjoyed, January 10, 2006

By 

Stephen Goldberg "mihand" (New york) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taking Flight (MIRA) (Paperback)

Browsing at my local bookstore I found Ms.Kaufman's novel.What a treat,I found it to be delightful.Taking Flight was warm,witty and a great read.With my busy schedule finishing a book in two days is unheard of... Congratulations Ms.Kaufman your work was thoroughly enjoyed.