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There are currently 26 member reviews
for Fly Girl
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Patricia C. (Columbia, MO)
Fly Girl A Memoir by Ann Hood
My initial reaction was that this book was being published at the right time i.e. a "beach read". Most interesting to me were the history of passenger commercial flight and the evolution of the flight attendant. The training initially required to become a TWA flight attendant and the duties required once one was accepted was eye opening.
As a memoir it didn't develop any interest in her as a person.
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Cynthia V. (New York, NY)
Fly Girl Leaves Me On the Ground
I have always enjoyed Ann Hood's writing and expected to enjoy a light, breezy, inspiring read. The tone at the beginning was just right and held my interest. As the story continued, my interest flagged. The author kept repeating that the whole flight attendant experience was life-changing and exciting. From my perspective as a reader, however, it seemed that what she went through was constant struggle and matured from adversity rather than the incredible, exciting experiences she keeps talking about. Who hasn't heard about The Mile High Club at this point? Who hasn't heard about strange and unruly passengers? We have far too many details and repetitions about flight delays and meal service and sore feet. The book did pick up towards the end. My opinion is that this would have been far better as an essay or magazine piece.
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Anne C. (Herndon, VA)
Interesting Topic
Those readers who love nostalgia, when travelling by plane was glamorous and luxurious, will enjoy this memoir, and anyone planning a career as a flight attendant can learn a great deal from this book. The best parts of the book are the descriptions of her duties and interactions with passengers in flight.
However, those of us who read memoirs and autobiographies expecting to be inspired by a story of someone overcoming a hard life may be disappointed, as I was. The author is a gifted (and successful) writer who describes her training and work as a flight attendant for eight years, before becoming a full-time writer. Along the way, she details the many successes and achievements in her life. I found this to be tedious rather than inspiring.
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Jane B. (Chicago, IL)
Fly Girl
I wanted to like this book more than I did. Ann Hood is a good writer but I think her editor might have been a little more helpful. The book reads like pages taken verbatim from a diary. I did this, then I did this, then later I did this. The innocence of the 22 year old college student seems to last the whole book or at least the term innocent is repeated often. Though pride in one's job is admirable, this too is repeated often. Meantime, this very proud stewardess proclaims herself a writer and this sets her apart from the other more mundane stewardesses. Did she really mean it to seem that way? I don't know-something is off.
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Shaun D. (Woodridge, IL)
Disappointing In Every Aspect
Although I was looking forward to reading 'Fly Girl' by Ann Hood I found my attention wandered throughout and had to force myself to finish it.
I was surprised to see that this wasn't the author's inaugural effort as it read more like a high-school "Tell Me About a Time When" type of assignment. My disappointments and critiques are numerous. I found several factual errors, some statements copied almost word-for-word from Wikipedia, along with information that clearly wasn't fact-checked nor verified. (unless verification efforts aren't included until the final editing process?).
THE NARRATIVE LACKS CONTINUITY.
There aren't any segues or transitions from one event to another. EG: One minute the author is wistful that her hopes of bonding with the other trainees and going out for margheritas during layovers hasn't happened due to "all" of the others are too tired, then next she writes that they are all being evicted from their Boston rental because of the 'constant noise, loud music, doorbells and visitors in-and-out all the time'. I was taken aback when I read this thinking what visitors? Did she or they make new friends in the city? Or are these all Flight Attendants? Without any transition or additional information the reader feels almost whiplashed from one extreme to the other.
QUESTIONABLE MOTIVE:
When author writes about moving into the Boston apartment with 5 of the other trainees she devotes 18 sentences to 4 of the roommates. For one woman she includes her physical description, personality quirks and an aside about her car. For the next 2 women she uses 7 sentences to describe how they refer to and order pizza. For another trainee there are 6 sentences about her college major, previous employment and helpful information she's provided about the local Boston area. As for the 5th young woman? "Leslie was a stunning Black woman who had worked as a telephone operator in Los Angeles." (followed by 3 sentences about the then-useless hashtag and asterisk buttons). I am still trying to understand why the author found it necessary to provide Leslie's skin color. Lacking any external relevance such as quantifying Black Flight Attendants then vs now, or any accompanying information from Leslie's perspective, I find zero justification whatsoever for choosing to include Leslie's skin color. I also question the logic behind the detailed and lengthy descriptions of the other 4 yet selecting only ethnicity and occupation for Leslie.
DUPLICATE AND REPEATED INFORMATION THROUGHOUT.
Far too many occurrences of pre- and post-flight checklists and preparedness. While this information is repeated in almost every chapter the same information is listed each time. What is the relevance to include "checking tray tables are returned to their original upright and locked positions" over and over? The information seems to be copied from a Flight Attendant Manual from the 1970s/1980s and isn't presented in any type of interesting manner. The checklist is always perfunctory without any elaboration or further explanation and as such is interpreted as filler.
SELF-CONGRATULATORY STATEMENTS INTERSPERSED THROUGHOUT
Author provides information and experiences regarding the now-out-of-date weigh-ins and weight regulations and provides examples of the negative impact suffered by one Flight Attendant trainee in particular. While describing the unfortunate implications of these mandates Author makes it a point to mention that she kept her weight at exactly 120lbs, was a size 0, then notes that the 'weight charts show that a 5'7" female should weigh 135lbs". There are also many references to the fact that the author not only attended but also graduated from college. This information is repeatedly included usually in comparison to other Flight Attendants who either didn't go to college or dropped-out. Or 'to dream of doing something then doing it is hard to describe, like seeing my debut novel in a bookstore window'. Or 'I sat in an auditorium at TWA's Breech Training Academy with 120 new-hire Flight Attendants, and I was a just-turned-twenty-two-year-old recent college graduate.....'. And 'during one written test Paula my instructor calmed me down by reminding me 'You just graduated from college, you've taken tests a lot harder than this one'. And discussing homesickness 'Even in college I often dropped in to see my parents on weekends'. And again while describing an incident related to the mile-high club: 'I've told this story for years, and everyone who hears it immediately comes to the same conclusion - the men had hired a prostitute. But at 22, fresh out-of-college, I would never have concluded that.'
These repeated self-references, especially hitting the reader over the head that the author graduated college, are superfluous to the narrative.
SLOPPY FACT-CHECKING
By page 79 there were 3 errors regarding 2 plane crashes and 1 incorrect dating of historical information regarding O'Hare Airport.
EG: 'American Airlines Fight 191 crashed May 1979 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport killing all 273 on-board'. I referenced 3 separate news sources to verify this information and found that there were 271 people on-board Flight 191 including crew and passengers. All 271 on-board were killed. There were 2 mechanics working at a nearby garage that were also killed due to the fire caused by the impact of the crash. Note that the Wikipedia article states: "With 273 fatalities, it is the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the US."
Finding 3 inaccuracies in the first 30 of the book makes one wonder how many more mistakes exist. As this is classified as non-fiction hopefully all of the factual information will be cross-checked prior to publication.
LACKING IN INTROSPECTION
SUPERFICIAL ONE-DIMENSIONAL NARRATIVE
OVERALL TONE IS FLAT AND WITHOUT EMOTION
Since this book was written in 2021 looking back to events that occurred in the 1970s-and-1980s and labeled as a memoir I expected that it would be not only descriptive of past events but also written from a perspective of reflection and introspection. I couldn't be more disappointed in this book because it's entirely superficial, flat and one-dimensional. Events are described and cataloged and regurgitated as 'this happened. then that happened. then this other thing happened.' Facts are recited but not described. 'I did this. The other Flight Attendants did that'. I was really surprised to learn that this book wasn't the author's initial publication - learned because the author mentions her other books repeatedly throughout. The narrative lacks flow - over 100 pages (out of 265 pages) was listing flight-routes in the US. It really felt like the majority of the book was filler material. The author never tells us how she FELT during or after any of the events. She takes 3 pages telling us how she 'just knew' that the phone ringing in her room was going to be bad news, and how she answered then hung up repeatedly because she didn't want to hear it. Then in one sentence tells us her 30-year-old brother died after falling in the bathroom. She tells us her mind immediately goes to the bridesmaid dress she bought for his upcoming wedding. That's it. No description of how she felt in that moment or any time after. No mention of memories of Skip, or how his untimely passing affected her then or now. Every life event is recounted factually with no expansion on any feeling she had at the time or later on. She even tells us that she lost a child at just 5 years old but tells us nothing about this little girl, what she liked to do, what was her favorite toy, memories, feelings, anything. But no. The narrative remains entirely flat throughout. It's really hard to believe this effort is being published because wouldn't a publisher or editor or agent notice that 265 pages of facts, many without context, all missing any of the emotion that accompanies life events, life experiences, career ambitions, doesn't exactly make for interesting or fulfilling reading? This complete lack of cohesion between information recalled and the associated feelings that go along for the ride, causes this reader to feel entirely disconnected from the author's effort.
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