Out of My Mind: The Discovery of Saunders-Vixen (Paperback)

~ Richard Bach (Author) "The problem was the door..." (more)
Key Phrases: oil cap, door latch, Derek Hawthorne, Saunders-Vixen Aircraft Company, Laura Bristol (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Richard Bach, the writer who flew to success on the wings of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, once again returns to flight for metaphysical inspiration. Bach begins this journey with a quandary--how to customize his airplane, a small Piper Cub? For example, how can he keep his latch door from slamming shut in midflight? How to stop his oil cap from jiggling loose and disappearing? With each question the solutions appear; they are apparently delivered by a vision of a benevolent woman. Before long, Bach realizes that an aircraft designer from an earlier time and another dimension is tutoring him. Of course, Bach takes the ultimate flight into her parallel universe where he finds an old-fashioned aviation company that solves problems for troubled aviators. He also meets his mysterious muse Laura Bristol.

This is a brief story (101 pages) that wrestles with the limitations of present-day technology and the grandeur of the early days of aviation. True to Bach's mission, it also wrestles with the choices we make in this time and this moment, and how they can change our life and our universe. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of the author or of small planes might enjoy this slight parable by Bach, still best known for Jonathan Livingston Seagull, but others will find it a flat experience. In a tale that could easily be retitled "Zen and the Art of Piper Cub Maintenance," narrator Richard Bach is having problems with the door latch of his plane. As he searches for a solution, designs begins to come to him from nowhere until one day, through one of the designs, he glimpses the image of his "love messenger." Believing that "everything is exactly as it is for a reason," Richard devotes long passages to pondering the whys behind seeming minutiaeAsuch as why his lovely messenger tucks a pencil in her hair, concluding finallyAfollowing quite a leap of logicAthat she must come from another, computerless, time. Richard's obsession with the lovely messenger and her designs eventually leads him to the discovery of a parallel universeAEngland's Saunders-Vixen Aircraft Company Ltd., circa 1923Aan aviation Shangri-La, where the answers to questions lead to more questions. Simplistic to the point of parody, with questions sometimes broken down into jerky individual elements ("Are you telling me that Geoffrey de Havilland? Copied? The design? Of your airplane? And called it his?"), this New Age parable is almost ludicrous in its strain for profundity. Line drawings. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Delta (September 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385334907
• ISBN-13: 978-0385334907
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #741,777 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as bad as everybody thinks, July 18, 2002

By	Martin J. Filiatrault (Anderson, California USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Out of My Mind: The Discovery of Saunders-Vixen (Hardcover)

Well, I ordered this book before I read all the reviews here, and I kicked myself after reading them. Not because of the book, but because I had just written a letter to Richard, not knowing of the divorce, and hinted at questions I'm sure he won't want to answer. The book isn't nearly as bad as some people here led me to believe. It is a short story, and should have been presented as a short story, but I wasn't left hanging, as some people were. I think it stands ok as it is. Maybe my perceptions were lowered enough by some of the scathing reviews, that it was easy to find it better than some people thought. It seems to me that it's too easy for some people to point fingers and shout, "Rip Off", with no attempt at understanding or empathy. Might it have occurred to them that maybe there's a reason this book is the way it is? That's certainly true of all his other books. I tried Richard's website too late; it had been shut down, so I missed what might have been said there. After doing some online research, it seems painfully obvious to me that, whatever the circumstances of the divorce, it must have been pretty rough; it seems evident that both Richard and Leslie agreed to keep the details personal, even to the exclusion of any mention of Leslie, or "Bridge Across Forever", in a recent interview for AOPAPilot. It seems plausible to me that he was driven back into seclusion by harsh criticism, just as he dismissed himself from the "Illusions" forum on CompuServe many years ago. Indeed, even in one past interview online, Leslie's face was obviously removed from a group photo. It's easy to imagine that a stipulation of the divorce is that it not be publicized. Of course, that's disconcerting to all of us that have been allowed to share in so many personal details of Richard's life in the past. But you know what? This his HIS LIFE, people; ease up. We're not entitled to anything; we should consider ourselves lucky he's still writing at all. People forget that Richard often said that he hates the act of writing, that he has to be driven to it by ideas that demand to be exposed. They also forget what a private person he can be, and how awkward it is for him at times, to have millions of people know all the personal details he shares, to the point where they feel that they have some kind of right to criticize him, or tell him what they think he should do, or what he should have done. So, "Out of My Mind" is short; so it disappointed some people who were expecting another "One" or "Running from Safety" or "Illusions". I prefer to think it was what Richard intended it to be, and maybe we should try to figure that out. Isn't that what books are for?

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It starts SO well, but ends in the middle, February 27, 2000

By	Michael Mee "mikemee" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Out of My Mind: The Discovery of Saunders-Vixen (Hardcover)

I was SO excited when I discovered a new Richard Bach book in my local bookstore that I almost bought it on the spot. However, I waited impatiently until I could check my local library and was pleased (though surprised) that they had a couple of copies and it wasn't already reserved. I took it home and couldn't wait for the day to end so I could read it quietly that night.

Yes, I've been a huge Richard Bach fan for years - to the extent that I quit a promising job, got my pilot's license, bought an old '46 Taylorcraft and then flew it around the USA for 3 months - largely inspired by his books and ideas. And what a blast that was!

So I eagerly started reading, turning each page slowly, allowing myself to sink into his wonderful narrative (as always) and relaxed as the story gently unfolded.

Lovely detail, I thought as he described his problem with the Piper's oil cap. Great idea, I mused as his parallel universe unfolded. Interesting character, I wonder how she fits in?

And then, just as I was starting to get comfortable, it was all over! I double checked - nope, no more pages. But wait, I only just started! Its just been a few minutes! (or so it seemed - it was probably 1/2 hour).

So... all I can hope is that this is just the first of several stories drawing from the same ideas. Its wonderfully written. Its engaging enough. But it doesn't touch Illusions or Jonathan (which you DEFINITELY should buy and read if you haven't already). Its brief, and for me anyway, short on meaning and inspiration.

Definitely read it, but borrow it from your local library or a friend [hmm, wonder if Amazon will leave this in :->].

PS: Based on the jacket information, I visited the richardbach website and discovered that he has re-married. Many "One" readers are angry, but its still a wonderful book, and Richard is true to himself to the end :-).

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AIRPLANES, PARALLEL UNIVERSES, BUT NO LESLIE!, July 20, 2000

By	Wayne C. Rogers (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Out of My Mind: The Discovery of Saunders-Vixen (Hardcover)

I'm a year behind all of the controversy about Richard Bach's OUT OF MY MIND. If I had read the reviews before getting the book, I probably wouldn't have purchased it. I'm glad, however, that I did. I can certainly understand why so many people were upset about Bach's new novel. Well, it actually isn't a novel. It's more like a twenty-five page short story, expanded to look longer than it really is. Also, the story is open-ended. There is no actual ending to it, but rather what appears to be the preparation of future things to come. Last, there is no Leslie Parrish in this book. Not even a mention of her. I wasn't aware that Richard and Leslie had divorced until I read the previous reviews. Like most fans of Richard Bach, I,too, was surprised by this and began to wonder if it is possible for anyone to have a happy, successful, long-term marriage. I mean, if soul mates can't do it, what chance does the rest of us have? Anyway, as to the story itself, I can see where a lot of people would find nothing useful in it. Mr. Bach has talked about "parallel universes" in some of his other books on a much more interesting level. There wasn't really anything new here that would capture the imagination of most readers...that is, unless the reader had also had similar experiences. For the last several years, I have visited a college town in my dream state that has beautiful oak trees lining both sides of the street, as well as a multitude of wonderful bookstores. I meet people on the street that I seem to know, and shop in the bookstores, finding new novels by some of my favorite authors. I as walk through the town, I feel like I'm finally home. The only catch here is that I have never been to this town in my awakened state, nor do I actually know any of the people I meet in the dream. Even worse, my favorite authors in the dream state don't exist outside of that realm. I have no idea where this town has come from, or why I dream about it so often ( probably around two dozen times so far). No one has been able to give me a satisfying answer to this question. I know that I experience an extreme sense of peace while visiting this place in my sleep, and that it carries over into my awakened state for at least half of the following day. OUT OF MY MIND has given me some food for thought about this unusual experience. I know that some of the leading scientists of the past century have expressed the possibility of parallel universes existing. Whether the scientists (Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawkings, & Kip Thorne) are correct is a question that may be answered in the future. Whether we can access a parallel universe, if one does exist, is another question in itself. And finally, what is real and what is simply one's imagination? I don't know the answer to that. What I do know is that I immensely enjoyed Bach's book for this particular story line. It touched something deep inside of me, and now I'm more determined than ever before to find out something about this reoccuring dream of mine. I don't know if Mr. Bach wrote OUT OF MY MIND for the money, or if he really had something important that he wanted to say. I would like to think the positive, and I would like to read more books concerning his visits to the Saunders-Vixen airplane facility. If one looks at the universe through the eyes of a child, anything is possible...maybe even the visiting of a parallel universe while one is sleeping. One last note, Mr. Bach has since closed down his web site. I wonder if it was because of too many angry E-mails about OUT OF MY MIND?