TAKING FLIGHT

Author: Lynne Kaufman ISBN: 0778321886 12/2005 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MIRA

It was a simple plan: engage in some innocent flirtation, feel desirable again. But finding happiness is never that easy . . . Not even close. Professor Julia Benson's life is drifting. With a stalled marriage, the monotony of raising a family that seems to need her less each day and the sinking feeling that she is less than she could be. Julia takes to heart her dying mother's plea: "Live, Julia. I never did." With a student trip to Greece on the horizon, Julia hopes that the seductive climate and scenery will be the tonic she's after. Far from the pressures of home, her harmless fantasy of adoring local men clamoring for her attention is upstaged by her flighty coeds -- their youthful uninhibited sex appeal catching the eye of every man on the island, leaving Julia feeling jealous and utterly defeated. But then she meets Ted, an archaeologist with a passion for life and, seemingly, for Julia. Not knowing whether she is falling in love or merely obsessed with the idea of love, Julia makes an impulsive decision and begins unearthing the truth beneath her longing. Now, at the crossroads of her life, she must choose -- abandon her old life to pursue the love she craves, or honor her commitments and turn her back on what might be her only chance at true happiness.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Julie Benson is feeling unsatisfied with her life. She thinks she is falling out of love with her husband of 20 years, and her teaching career is even feeling mundane. Luckily, she has two children that make her happy. We meet her while she is getting ready to go on a student trip to Greece without her family. Before she takes the flight to Greece, she spends some time in New York City with her parents. Her mother is dying of cancer and right before Julia is about to leave for the airport, her mother whispers to her, "Live, Julia, I never did."

Lynne Kaufman's TAKING FLIGHT is one of those books that you're either going to like or dislike. Unfortunately, I am one who dislikes it. To Julia, apparently, "living" means to have sex with the first man who gives her attention. She even calls her husband to tell him that she's not coming home from the trip yet, just to spend more time (have sex) with this man that she met. Occasionally, between romps in bed, she feels guilty about cheating on her husband and thinks about her kids. She's really living her life when she tries pot and just about has a threesome in a hot tub. I really doubt her mother had meant for her to live her life quite like that.

Julia's about to return home when she learns that her mother has died. Now she has to go home and face the life that she was living, and also face having to bury her mother. The man she is having the affair with, Ted, asks Julia to stay with him after the funeral. But Julia just can't make up her mind. Too much "living", I suppose, clouded her thinking. Julia decides to talk to her husband about how unsatisfied she is, and that maybe the two of them are not in love anymore. Perhaps she could have thought about talking to him before she decided to cheat on him. I won't go any further and tell you what happens at the end.

I will say, however, that I did like Lynne Kaufman's writing, and I would be willing to read her other two novels.

Julie Kornhausl