4 out of 4 stars
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Eagles in the Flesh: A wild hand gliding adventure by Erik B. Kaye is a book in the non-fiction genre, where the author narrates stories from his hand gliding days.
The author has penned down stories from his days as a hand gliding pilot. The stories are a recollection of the adventures with his group of hand gliding pilots called the Gangreen. The book is divided into twelve chapters, each containing a different episode and a different phase in the author’s life. The author has written about the marvel of flying like a bird across the blue, and sometimes black, sky, over deep forests and flowing rivers.
The author’s writing style is easy to read and his thoughts are freely flowing in his stories, which makes the book seem more personalized. The stories are very descriptive lending themselves well to imageries, which enhance the reading experience. His descriptions are not overly poetic; in fact they are downright hilarious, even in the face of impending doom. For example, “we are trapped under the cloud, like two rats scrambling on a slippery tile floor, trying to escape from being sucked up into an industrial vacuum cleaner, the nozzle of the vacuum, the center of the whirlpool, dragging us into the huge cloud.” The author has tried to convey the thrill and joy of sweeping the skies with a hand glider, through various means. “Once you have circled the skies with Mother Nature as your dance partner, you will look at clouds with the eyes of a bird, you will taste cotton candy skies that are finer than wine, finer even than Acapulco gold, the taste of fleeting clouds.” This is one of the many descriptions and comparisons that the author uses to express the wonder of flying in the skies.
From the very first story where the author and his partner dodge death, the reader will be glued to the book and from first page itself there is no end to the edge-of-the-seat experiences. The author does not confine his stories to the sky. A lot of his stories are about the insanity his group members get into with both their feet on land. Drunken brawling in the bar, trying to get foreign team members drunk out of their senses, flying the next morning with hangovers and washing away the exhaustion of flying with alcohol again. The author has given a very frank account of his adventures including the substance abuse and the possibly unsafe flying expeditions. The stories will make the reader wonder whether this group of pilots is pushing their daredevilry too far, challenging death again and again. The author mentions how his group does not set the ideal example of hand gliding and there are safer ways of hand gliding.
This candid account of hand gliding adventures is thrilling, entertaining and addictive. Whether the reader is interested in hand gliding or not, this book will appeal to everyone who wants read about some real, thrilling adventures. I rate it 4 out of 4 stars.
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Eagles in the Flesh
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