Synopses & Reviews
Rinker Buck's beautiful memoir of fathers, sons, and adventure in the skies won abundant praise from critics and readers across the country. Now available in trade paperback, Flight of Passage is set to become the new favorite of the audience of millions who loved A River Runs Through It and My Old Man and the Sea.
In the summer of 1966, 15-year-old Rinker and 17-year-old Kern Buck bought a battered Piper Cub for $300 and set out for California. But the real story, Buck later realized, lay elsewhere: "The odyssey", he knew, "was us". Rinker and Kern's father taught his sons to rebuild planes and fly them by the old seat-of-the-pants technique. With their father no longer able to fly, the brothers took to the skies -- alone.
Flight of Passage has been praised as "a riveting adventure tale, loopy travelogue, and powerful family memoir in one ingeniously crafted package" (Harry Stein, One of the Guys) and an "enchanting story of youthful accomplishment" (Kirkus). Buck weaves a powerful story with verve, insight, grace, and compassion.
Synopsis
In the Summer of 1966, Rinker and Kernahan Buck - two teenaged schoolboys from New Jersey - bought a dilapidated Piper Cub airplane for $300, rebuilt it, and piloted it on a record breaking flight across America - navigating all the way to California without a radio, because they couldn't afford one. Their trip retraced a mythical route flown by their father, Tom Buck, a brash, colorful ex-barnstormer who had lost a leg in a tragic air crash before his sons were born - but who so loved the adventure of flight that he taught his boys to fly before they could drive. The journey west, and the preparations for it, become a figurative and literal process of discovery; as the young men battle thunderstorms and wracking turbulence and encounter Arkansas rednecks, Texas cowboys, and the languid, romantic culture of smalltown cafes, cheap motels, and dusty landing strips of pre-Vietnam America. The brothers have a lot to resolve among themselves, too - as Kern, the meticulous, dedicated visionary; and Rinker, the rebellious second son, must finally come to understand and depend on each other in the complex way that only brothers can. Most of all, Flight of Passage is a timeless story of fathers and sons. These two young men must separate from their difficult, quirky father - literally by putting a country's distance between them - but they do it on their father's terms: in an airplane. As he looks back from the perspective of now being a father himself, Rinker Buck's tale of two young men in search of themselves and their country becomes a book about the eternal enigma of family - of the distance and closeness of generations, of peace lost so that understanding can be gained - and it is exploredwith a storytelling power that is both brave and rare.
Synopsis
Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey. Buck is a great storyteller, and once you get airborne with the boys you find yourself absorbed in a story of adventure and family drama. And Flight of Passage is also an affecting look back to the summer of 1966, when the times seemed much less cynical and adventures much more enjoyable.
About the Author
Rinker Buck began his career as a reporter for The Berkshire Eagle in western Massachusetts. He then worked for New York, Life, and Adweek magazines, and his articles and columns have appeared in numerous national magazines and newspapers. Flight of Passage is his first book. He and his wife, Amelia de Neergaard, live with their two daughters in Cornwall, Connecticut.