Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Turbulence
David Szalay
Review by Priscilla Comen
Turbulence
David Szalay
Review by Priscilla Comen
Turbulence, by David Szalay is the tale of how we are all connected to one another. Author Szalay begins with the first character, a woman afraid to fly, on an airplane flying to London. She has just visited her son in the hospital. She is afraid he may be dying. She is seated next to a tall man. In the turbulence of the flight, the man spills his Coke onto his trousers. She helps him wipe it up. She feels dizzy and passes out and is treated by a Spanish doctor who is on board, then taken to a hospital after they land.
The man who spilled Coke exits the airport and gets into a limo. The limo gets stuck in traffic because of an accident. A boy lies dead on the road. Cheikh is seated in the back seat, Mohammed is the driver. Cheikh thinks Mohammed is keeping something from him. Werner leaves the airport in a taxi, and goes to a hotel in Sao Paulo. In the next chapter, he is in a hotel room with a woman. She’s a journalist who is going to interview a famous woman, a writer. The journalist slept with Werner the night before but she must leave early in the morning. He tells her he is a pilot, flies freighter planes. The woman must take a taxi to the airport. She is flying to Canada to interview the writer. But when she gets there, the writer says she must leave to be with her daughter who is having a baby. The writer, Marion, flies to Seattle from Toronto. When she gets to the hospital her daughter tells her the baby is blind. She stays with her daughter for two weeks. When she returns home, she meets a doctor and they go out for a drink. They go on many dates. She tells her husband she wants the doctor. She goes away for a weekend to an island with the doctor. She realizes she loves him as she had loved her husband before him. Did that annul her marriage?
Dr. Bannerjee flys to Saigon to play golf with his brother. They do that every year. He thinks about the woman he has been seeing. She has decided to stay with her husband. After their golf week- end, Bannerjee’s brother, Abir, goes to visit his aged father in Delhi. His father has a caregiver, Anita. She needed to go away for a few days and tells the brother her sister’s house has burned down. Author Szalay cleverly leads his characters through the “turbulence” of their lives. When Anita arrives at her sister’s house, she sees that the husband has beaten her, and that her house is still fine.
We meet many more characters and see how they interact. Will they stay connected after they meet? Find this short interesting novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
The man who spilled Coke exits the airport and gets into a limo. The limo gets stuck in traffic because of an accident. A boy lies dead on the road. Cheikh is seated in the back seat, Mohammed is the driver. Cheikh thinks Mohammed is keeping something from him. Werner leaves the airport in a taxi, and goes to a hotel in Sao Paulo. In the next chapter, he is in a hotel room with a woman. She’s a journalist who is going to interview a famous woman, a writer. The journalist slept with Werner the night before but she must leave early in the morning. He tells her he is a pilot, flies freighter planes. The woman must take a taxi to the airport. She is flying to Canada to interview the writer. But when she gets there, the writer says she must leave to be with her daughter who is having a baby. The writer, Marion, flies to Seattle from Toronto. When she gets to the hospital her daughter tells her the baby is blind. She stays with her daughter for two weeks. When she returns home, she meets a doctor and they go out for a drink. They go on many dates. She tells her husband she wants the doctor. She goes away for a weekend to an island with the doctor. She realizes she loves him as she had loved her husband before him. Did that annul her marriage?
Dr. Bannerjee flys to Saigon to play golf with his brother. They do that every year. He thinks about the woman he has been seeing. She has decided to stay with her husband. After their golf week- end, Bannerjee’s brother, Abir, goes to visit his aged father in Delhi. His father has a caregiver, Anita. She needed to go away for a few days and tells the brother her sister’s house has burned down. Author Szalay cleverly leads his characters through the “turbulence” of their lives. When Anita arrives at her sister’s house, she sees that the husband has beaten her, and that her house is still fine.
We meet many more characters and see how they interact. Will they stay connected after they meet? Find this short interesting novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.