Takeoff: The Pilot's Lore

On a solo flight over Italy, no longer confined by the two-dimensional array of ground travel, Italian-born novelist del Giudice (Lines of Light) must adjust his senses to the vertical. While taking off on a training flight in his small prop plane with his instructor, Bruno, del Giudice made a potentially fatal mistake, but because he discovered and corrected the error, Bruno decided he was ready to head out on his own. Del Giudice takes the reader along on his first takeoff and solo flight and recollects the stories he heard from other pilots during his months of training. These tales, woven into accounts of del Giudice's virgin flight, both encourage and frighten the novice pilot: he hears about a freak commercial plane crash caused when the wings iced while passing through a cloud--from the two sole survivors, the pilots. Del Giudice recalls tales of Italian WWII torpedo pilots--much revered, and feared, by the British and Americans, who lost many ships to them. Throughout the training, Bruno's authoritative silence forces del Giudice to make split-second decisions and correct life-threatening errors, which he does with confidence when in flight but with hesitation in the rest of his life. With a strong narrative drive, del Giudice expertly strings together his thoughts and stories in a meditation as light as the clouds. (May)