Walking on Air [Paperback]

Christina Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2000

An enchanting, exuberant novel, featuring a girl who hates flying adrift in the world of aeronautical acrobatics, by a favourite storyteller. Billie Pascoe, currently a taxi driver in a country town, takes an impulsive risk when she spends her grandmother's small legacy on a warehouse on the edge of a small airfield. But her attempt at business enterprise and at a new image of professional efficiency is marred by her ex-boss's determination to keep her under control; her friends' and family's attempts to find her a suitable mate; and the mystery about her past, complicated by cover-ups. Among the first items in her warehouse is an old 'plane waiting to be restored. Billie hates flying, so it is even more surprising that she finds herself offering to perform acrobatic stunts and wing-walking...Filled with a great cast of characters from her flatmate who runs the local beauty salon to the fellow owners of the neighbouring warehouses, from the unspeakably glamorous air engineer to her redoubtable, interfering mother, Walking on Air is Christina Jones's most exhilarating novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jones, a publishing insider (he's a HarperCollins editor) got some excellent reviews for his first novel, Force of Gravity, four years ago, and his second shows the same ability to create an odd, obsessive world. William Addams (he insists on the second 'd' to emphasize his estrangement from his California family) is dying of AIDS in New York?and it is one of the book's oddities that his disease is never specified, although it could hardly be anything else. Terrified of perishing alone, yet severe, prickly and fiercely independent, William relies entirely on two friends who subsume their own lives and interests in an effort to help him: Henry, a rather vague, ineffectual teacher who was briefly William's lover, and Susan, a successful real estate saleswoman who is declining into lonely spinsterhood and largely sublimates her thwarted sexual energies in caring for William. William's terror at the hideous encroachments of his disease is the source of the book's greatest power; the sheer physical horror of human disintegration is graphically depicted in rare and unsparing detail. The little tugs-of-war among the three protagonists as William alternately asserts his independence and his needs, the flickering levels of caring and resentment in Henry and Susan, are skillfully evoked but are, alas, more familiar from other AIDS chronicles. The relationships seem oddly airless, and the apocalyptic climax is jarring. Jones's writing, however, is always vital and precise, and he achieves many memorable moments of horror and compassion. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In his second novel (following Force of Gravity, Viking, 1991), Jones presents an unflinching portrait of a man dying of an incurable disease who explores the nature of friendship, love, and trust as his friends grapple with their conflicting emotions. William had severed all ties with his family and their farm long ago and created an agreeable life in the city: a wonderful apartment, a circle of friends, a neighborhood gay bar hangout, and a weekend beach house. He always said his friends were now his family, but he keeps secrets from even his two closest friends, Henry and Susan. Once William knows he is dying, he becomes increasingly unpleasant, demanding, and manipulative, playing on Henry's and Susan's guilt feelings to make sure they won't desert him. The author fills so much of this novel with graphic details of William's horrible decline that the heart of the book-Henry's and Susan's very human doubts about their feelings for William-is never at the forefront. This leaves the reader unprepared for the ending, where the focus shifts from William's disease to a defiant and morally questionable act by Henry. Recommended for larger collections only.
Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Pb (May 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006513441
• ISBN-13: 978-0006513445
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,657,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tragic and poignant but surprisingly good read, December 3, 2002

By 

Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walking on Air: A Novel (Paperback)

I'm somewhat surprised about how little noise this novel creates among gay and lesbian reading community. The book was released in late October 2002 and no reviews are posted on here. Anyway, I stumbled across this elegantly-covered novel at a local store, flipped over several pages and decided to adopt it for the holiday reading list. The book was both revealing and compelling from the beginning: Forty-year-old William Addams is dying of the incurable epidermics. Cynical and estranged from his family, William is consumed and burdened by the fear that he will be abandoned by lover Henry and best friend Susan. As William's illness worsens, he struggles with fear of dying, battles with the thoughts of being maimed, and on top of that fear of losing his cloest friends. What William wants is for Henry and Susan to persevere until they take him home to his beloved house by the coast to die. William's desperation focuses on testing his friends' loyalty and playing with their sympathy. From page one you will already have known the outcome of the story, yet the author has chronicled the course of the disease in a very humane fashion. It is as if we can feel William's physical pain and experience the pang of his fear. The book is disturbing to read as you go on, but it is filled with dazzling beauty. The prose is cut-to-the-point. 4.1 stars.