The theme of flight is predominant in Oona Frawley’s debut novel. All of the main protagonists have left their homeland and have to go through the trials of fitting into a new country. In one case even returning to a country needs some settlement time.
Sandrine is from Zimbabwe. She leaves her son and husband behind it in order to live in Ireland as the economy is good (the book takes place during the economic boom of the 00’s). The problem is that she’s on a student visa and she is also pregnant, something her family doesn’t know about.
Tom and Clare are couple who have returned to Ireland after many years of bouncing between Vietnam and the U.S. Although Tom takes the nomadic lifestyle in his stride, Clare tends to favor certain places over others and suffers from homesickness. When they return to Ireland, they start suffering from dementia and need a caretaker, this is where Sandrine comes in.
Their daughter, Elizabeth also moves around with the family so she is not sure whether she is American or Irish. When she is in Vietnam, she notices that she sticks out.
Flight is a novel about identity. what it means to be a denizen of a country that’s totally foreign. All the characters in the book find it difficult to go through the adaptation process. In some cases the characters believe in a stereotype when it works against them. One example being Sandrine learning that Irish like meat and potatoes and cooks them for Tom and Clare, when in reality they want spicy food. Sometimes it is the culture against the person; Sandrine is subject to constant racism.
However it is Elizabeth’s story which I related to. Being a child who lived in Canada – where we moved house and provinces quite a bit, then settling in Malta was an experience which was jarring. even to this day, the Maltese attitude puzzles me. Obviously when living in Canada, I wasn’t sure what was the norm either and I didn’t fit in.
Flight is structured in a quirky way and does need a little time to get used to but after the reader gets a good grip on the characters, then it’s easy to get through. Definitely recommended for someone who has lived in different countries and found the adaptation period rough.
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