I Was Amelia Earhart

Rating:
Summary: Poetic
Review: Lyrical and imaginative, this is an extended poem to nature, flying and love itself. I think it's important to look beyond the elements that seem to be cliches to see how Mendelsohn uses them and how she keeps the reader questioning what is objective and what is subjective. This is not a Harlequin romance.

Rating:
Summary: Just plain bad
Review: Mendelsohn's book picks up where the known facts of Earhart leave off, answering the question of "just what happened to Noonan and Earhart after they left for Howland Island?" The plot line is razor thin, the writing style is straight out of a Harlequin romance novel, and the characters are cardboard cut-outs of real human beings. The book was bad. Really bad. Think "Blue Lagoon" meets "Gilligan's Isle" as a trashy dime-store novella, and you have a feel for the story. The only positive thing I can think to say about this horrible little book is that it is mercifully short.

Rating:
Summary: Just plain bad
Review: Mendelsohn's book picks up where the known facts of Earhart leave off, answering the question of "just what happened to Noonan and Earhart after they left for Howland Island?" The plot line is razor thin, the writing style is straight out of a Harlequin romance novel, and the characters are cardboard cut-outs of real human beings. The book was bad. Really bad. Think "Blue Lagoon" meets "Gilligan's Isle" as a trashy dime-store novella, and you have a feel for the story. The only positive thing I can think to say about this horrible little book is that it is mercifully short.

Rating:
Summary: I Was Amelia Earhart
Review: Surely one wonders of the whereabouts of Amelia Earhart after her aircraft disappeared several decades ago. If one is curious about her life, read one of the biographies; If one is open to intrigue by fictional possibilities, Ms. Mendelsohn deserves an A+ for originality. Themes such as illusion and reality, the eternity of the soul, flirtation with death, escapism, living in the moment, and Eden, are blended with romance, surrealiwm and exquisite visuals. I Was Amelia Earhart is an intriguing contemporay novel and I look foward to more from this author.

Rating:
Summary: I Was Amelia Earhart
Review: Surely one wonders of the whereabouts of Amelia Earhart after her aircraft disappeared several decades ago. If one is curious about her life, read one of the biographies; If one is open to intrigue by fictional possibilities, Ms. Mendelsohn deserves an A+ for originality. Themes such as illusion and reality, the eternity of the soul, flirtation with death, escapism, living in the moment, and Eden, are blended with romance, surrealiwm and exquisite visuals. I Was Amelia Earhart is an intriguing contemporay novel and I look foward to more from this author.

Rating:
Summary: Artsy--but not art
Review: The biggest fault of this little book (for me) was not the many licenses taken with the known facts. After all, it is a work of fiction, and a writer can make the South prevail at Gettysburg, for the sake of a good story. The real faults are in the very narration, i.e., the point of view shifts that are pretentious and annoying--and in the descent into romantic hogwash. Perhaps the readers of sappy romances will like the shift in Amelia's character and even believe it possible that such could occur, but it is not very satisfying to a reader who wants more from a book than sap. I just couldn't buy the premise, the point of views, and the denouement. I wish it were otherwise, because I wanted to like this.

Rating:
Summary: EVEN FICTION WRITERS SHOULD FAIRLY REPRESENT THEIR SUBJECTS!
Review: The two stars are awarded purely for the literary merit of the novel. It is an attractive piece of writing - even if a little annoying having to switch from first person to third person all the time. But that is where my admiration for this little book ends. I grew increasingly frustrated with the license Mendelsohn had given herself in representing Earhart and Noonan, and her characterizations are far from fair. In fact, if the subjects were alive I'll bet they'd sue! Earhart is represented as having a fatalistic death urge (which is clearly refuted by the painstaking preparations she made in Lae for the final leg), and by the way, I've been to Lae on many occasions and Mendelsohn's description of the locale shows she knows nothing of the place. Poor Fred Noonan is represented as an acoholic wreck of a man, and not the highly qualified and pioneering Pan-American navigator that he was. This is the most serious slur in the whole book, and more than once made me throw it down with disgust. If you want the straightforward historical facts about the flight and an accurate representation of the daring of Earhart and Noonan you must read Elgen and Marie Long's brilliant analysis, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved (1999). Oddly enough the second part of this novel is the most convincing since it is clear to the reader that it is pure fantasy. That does not excuse what I consider to be a disgraceful representation of the historical section of this important (though clearly fundamentally flawed) flight into human achievement and legend. Earhart and Noonan deserve better than this!

Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable Read
Review: This book completely surprised me. With wonderful style and imagery, the author wove an enjoyable physical and spiritual tale. A definite for those who appreciate lucid prose.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Point of View
Review: This book gave an interesting point of view on the life, last days, and supposed death of Amelia Earhart. The author's use of descriptive phrases really add a lot to the various settings and scenes that take place in the book. It was a little hard to get into at first because the narrator jumps around from time to time and person to person. Once I got into the book I found that it was a pretty fast as well as fascinating read. All in all, I really enjoyed it and it made me want to find out more about the life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Point of View
Review: This book gave an interesting point of view on the life, last days, and supposed death of Amelia Earhart. The author's use of descriptive phrases really add a lot to the various settings and scenes that take place in the book. It was a little hard to get into at first because the narrator jumps around from time to time and person to person. Once I got into the book I found that it was a pretty fast as well as fascinating read. All in all, I really enjoyed it and it made me want to find out more about the life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart.