I Was Amelia Earhart

by Jane Mendelsohn

Book Overview

In this brilliantly imagined novel, Amelia Earhart tells us what happened after she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared off the coast of New Guinea one glorious, windy day in 1937. And she... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679776362
• ISBN13: 9780679776369
• Release Date: March 1997
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Elegant, lyrical prose

This book is all about creating beautiful, dream-like images. When I first started it, I was annoyed by the shifts between first and third persons. When I returned to it I was in a quiet place at a quiet time. I was able to focus uninterruptedly upon the language and images. It was then that the full force of the book revealed itself. If you stand back and evaluate the plot alone it seems implausible and a little silly. But within the dream world Mendelsohn creates Amelia's thoughts are enlightening. When I finished it I turned back to page one and began reading it out loud. It was as if I experienced rather than read this story.

Moving, inspiring, and very funny

I came to this book full of the skepticism of someone who is sick of the media's deciding 'this is the book,' or 'this is the movie of the year.' What a surprise, therefore, to find that this book is not as good as they said -- it's BETTER. A compelling hybrid of Hemingway, Garcia Marquez, and Virgina Woolf, Mendelsohn really does deserve the praise she earned for this book -- and more. The mainstream press seems to have picked up on the Don Imus aspect of the success of the book -- and ignored the fact that it's beautifully, and brilliantly, written. And almost no one picked up on the book's exquisite irony, its dry wit, its utterly deadpan sense of humor. A really invigorating read, it makes me want to go back to college to take a course and discuss it further. It's that good. Of course the book's success may actually have hurt it in some ways (as some of the almost spiteful comments here indicate), made people fail to see the book on its own merits, but I have a feeling that her next book will more clearly establish Mendelsohn for what she is -- the writer of her generation -- and show that she is anything but a 'one-hit wonder.'

The magic of flying and being human...

This is not the greatest novel ever written, nor does it ever pretend to be. However, it has been one of the very few contemporary stories that flirts with originality and exploits imagination. I read this book on a long, long direct flight from New York to Tokyo a few months ago. Perhaps the way I read this book had alot to do with its impact on me. Had I read it on the ground I would have surely perceived it differently. I have always loved airplanes, I have always been in love with something and I have always, always (don't quite know why or how) been fascinated by the disappearance of this remarkable woman. So take it on your next long flight. Pick a window seat and enjoy it. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in aviation, the vagueries of love and Amelia Earhart. I do not really see it as a novel, but it very well may be a profoundly eloquent, lengthy and enduring poem. One of the best in my recent memory.

A lyrical and transcendent book.

This book is for everyone who finds poetic and lyrical prose inviting. If you enjoyHerman Hesse or any author who writes prose that takes your breath away, this is it!!

"Earhart" flys high

Ever just wanted to escape? To run away from everything in life? This is the whole basis of "I Was Amelia Earhart", a fascinating and highly detailed novel of adventure and self discovery that I throughly enjoyed. It is a story that makes you re-think your perception of Amelia Earhart as a person. You really discover her inner sadness and find a connection with the one of the greatest heroine's of our time. I really enjoyed this novel and hope others will read it