Lines to Love: Her Last Flight
“It’s true, I’m as plain as could be. I just like to fly, that’s all.”
Perhaps it’s been all the upheaval we’ve experienced in the world at large, but Her Last Flight has been the perfect read for me. While it is different from other books- many of them that revolve around or evolve out of the Schuyler family- Her Last Flight grasps an aspect of real life that I completely identify with. The complexities of the characters- Janey Everett and Irene Foster, particularly- make these people incredibly real. The hurts they hide. The secrets they guard. The sentimentality they refuse to even acknowledge. The ways in which they keep people at arms length because they are afraid of being hurt again. That sort of fear, that sort of pain, is a stark reality. We’ve all known people like that. They’ve kept us at arms length. Sometimes they’ve succeeded at preventing us from getting to close. Other times, we’ve breached their defenses and found people of the highest caliber, people we are privileged to know. Yet, it took us time to get to truly know them. Her Last Flight reminds us that in life we must sometimes work and invest significant time with people to reap the reward of getting to know them.
Yet, at the same time that we experience that closed nature of these women, we also experience their inexhaustible quest to chase their dream. For Irene Foster, that dream is to push her plane to the furthest horizon.
For Janey, it’s to discover the seemingly undiscoverable truth- one every level.
The crux of Her Last Flight, the element upon which all else hinges is aviation. I appreciate the realities that Beatriz Williams does not shy away from. Too often we think in terms of the ideal- follow your dream and to hell with practicality. But that’s just not plausible is it? There’s always a price. Sometimes the price is manageable; other times it’s high. In Her Last Flight Williams gives you a front row seat to the ins and outs of early aviation. Keep in mind, today we hold pilots in respect. It’s a reputable career to enter. Back in the 1920s and 30s, pilots were looked on as extremists, nut jobs, adventurers.
It took courage to get in a cockpit back then. Courage that melded with the very marrow in your bones, that was a part of you on a molecular level. Sure there was engineering and major mechanical strides made, but at the end of the day, those strides had to be tested. And some pilot with the gumption to do it, did it.
What I appreciated most about Her Last Flight is that it is an homage to the unsung heroes who took to the skies. I wish I could give an accurate number of all who gave their life to advance the industry. Now I’m not saying every Tom, Dick, or Harriet who got in a cockpit was thinking of the greater good, but he truth remains that very Flight was learned from. Every crack up had its lesson. And every fatal crash had people on the ground asking why and figuring out how to make flight better. That’s what this book points out.
It’s about the intrepid spirit that launched a new age. Not just to glorify men like Lindbergh or immortalize women like Earhart. Not to give newspaper men and women something to write about. Not to promote any political movement, such as feminism. Williams eloquently points this out in the evolution of Irene Foster’s character.
The frenzy that surrounds Irene Foster’s colossal rise to fame as an aviatrix feels akin to what I’ve seen echoed in Amelia Earhart’s own word. The fame takes on a life of its own, particularly because she was a woman. Male pilots were a dime a dozen, but a female pilot was something to write about. But Foster, like Earhart, wanted to fly. It was as simple as that. Yet such a simple desire evolved into a very complex reality which entailed courting the fascination of the public in order to amass interest that amounted to funding. The toll of such a feat is high. It was for Earhart and Williams acknowledges that price with Foster.
And yet, like Earhart, the cost did not stop Irene. Each advancement in flight was one step closer for mankind to feel the exhilaration and wonder those dreamers felt back when the thought of flight was an impossibility.
I’m sure we’ve all wondered what happened to Amelia Earhart. There were many theories. Most ended with a crack up at sea. The loss of a legend in the watery depths. However, new information offers the possibility that she ended her days as a prisoner of war in the South Pacific. Sometimes the dreams we dream have hefty price tags. In Earhart’s case, that is the truth. However, I firmly believe that she would do the same thing over again, regardless of the cost. It was so intrinsic to her. She could NOT not fly. Her soul possessed wings and it would be a more costly death if she denied herself each chance to fly, each opportunity to get in the cockpit and see how close to the horizon she could get. She had to take flight. She had, as John Gillespie Magee Jr. wrote:
…topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, where never lark, or even eagle, flew; and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Irene Foster, though certainly NOT Amelia Earhart, is a beautiful tribute to such a woman. Yes, she’s a woman who accomplishes amazing feats. But she did not do those feats to prove a point that women are as capable as men. She had no agenda. She only had the marshaling beat of her heart that would not quiet until she took flight.
As a woman who still hopes to acquire her own pilot’s license and take to the skies myself, Her Last Flight offered me the thrill of becoming, as Williams wrote. That’s why I cannot recommend Her Last Flight enough. It’s the perfect melding of mystery, tragedy, and passion, all the things that give life its color.
And, a final word on Janey. Janey Everett’s character, though afraid to actually fly, possesses this same spirit within herself. And while you might not perceive the fact that her fears hold her back from acknowledging the truth, the longer you get to know her, the more you realize that she and Irene Foster possess the same spirit of indefatigable adventure. Irene’s points her to the sky; Janey’s points her toward the truth. So, you don’t need to have a love of aviation to be drawn into this novel. Perhaps you just have a love of knowing the truth for freedom’s sake. If that’s you, Her Last Flight will provide complete satisfaction.
There’s still time to enter for your chance to win a copy of Her Last Flight. To enter for a chance to win Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams:
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Leave a comment in the comments section at the bottom of THIS post telling me why you’re interested in reading this novel. Are you a Beatriz Williams fan? Do you like historical fiction? Are you drawn to aviation like I am? Does the idea of seeing an aviatrix take flight during a time when women didn’t do such things get you excited to crack open this novel? Do you just like the chance of winning books? (I can relate to that, dear readers!)
Let me know in the comments below and then cross your fingers. Now for the technical bits— The giveaway is open to all legal residents in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia from today, June 24, 2020 to July 2, 2020 at 11:59 PM (CT). Winner will be announced on July 3, 2020 via email and on the blog. Sign up for a chance to win one of my favorite things: Beatriz Williams’ Her Last Flight. (Don't forget to leave a comment to ensure your complete entry.) Giveaway open to all U.S. residents. Winner will be selected at random. Winner will be verified. Winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond. If no response is received in that time limit, a new winner will be chosen. Void where prohibited.
