Review by Kathy Wibbels, Yankton Community Library
On its doomed flight in early May of 1937,
the silver-skinned zeppelin Hindenburg sailed
600 feet above the earth from Frankfurt,
Germany, to Lakehurst, New Jersey. Traveling
at just under 80 miles an hour, it would take
four days on its trans-Atlantic voyage.
Flight of Dreams is a fiercely intimate
portrait of the ninety-seven people on
board the last, doomed flight of the
Hindenburg. Among them are a frightened
stewardess who is not what she seems;
the steadfast navigator determined to win
her heart; a naive cabin boy eager to earn
a permanent spot on the world’s largest
airship; an impetuous journalist who has
been blacklisted in her native Germany; and
an enigmatic American businessman with a
score to settle. Behind them is the gathering
storm in Europe and before them is looming
disaster. But for the moment they float over
the Atlantic, unaware of the inexorable, tragic
fate that awaits them.
From the ground, the Hindenburg must have been an
astonishing sight — over 800 feet long, 135 feet wide, nearly
13 stories high. On its tail fins, huge black swastikas reminded
the world that Nazi genius had created it. Within its rigid
metal frame hung huge fabric bladders of combustible
hydrogen, sufficiently capable of lifting its gargantuan mass
into the sky. As Ariel Lawhon vividly writes, they looked like
the “giant inflated lungs” of a “sentient beast.” There was
also, ominously, a smoking room on one of the passenger
decks, along with a lounge, a dining room, bar and sleeping
quarters, all located inside the dirigible.
Like the 1975 movie The Hindenburg, Flight of Dreams
makes use of the actual passengers
on that last flight to populate its story.
And like the film, the novel beautifully
exploits the unique, excruciating
kind of suspense in which the poor
horrified reader knows from the start
exactly what’s going to happen. Well,
maybe not exactly.
Few people today believe the
explosion of the Hindenburg as it
attempted to dock was the result
of sabotage; an electrostatic spark
was the likely culprit. But as our own
era makes only too clear, it’s always
possible to prefer conspiracy to
fact. Almost at once, rumors began
to spread: that a bomb had been
detonated, that someone had fired
a pistol, that an anti-Nazi agent had
brought down Hitler’s magnificent
symbol of prestige. A novelist, of
course, has no choice but to torment us with every possibility.
Brilliantly exploring one of the most enduring mysteries
of the twentieth century, Flight of Dreams is that rare novel
that keeps you guessing till the last page. The story ends
as it should. Both reader and airship pause for one terrible
moment as the sky turns suddenly to “liquid gold” and the
titanic Hindenburg “shatters into ocher and flame.”
I love reading historical fiction and thought this was a
great read. It made this small piece of history come alive. I
appreciated the use of actual passengers and their histories.
The Yankton Community Library owns the book and audio
book. You can also find The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
by the same author at the library.
• Literary Speaking •
Flight Of Dreams
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