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Flight Dreams

By Michael Craft

4 stars

“Flight Dreams,�� the first of Michael Craft’s Mark Manning Mysteries was published in 1997, which is antique—last century!—in this online book review world.

But Craft’s husband is a Facebook friend, and when he realized that I review lots of books, he asked if I knew Michael’s books.

I’ll jump at any excuse to read something new, and especially a genre I have loved since Joseph Hansen caught my imagination in the 1970s. I focus on gay lit in my recreational reading for a reason, and a lot of that stems from how important his kind of writing was to me as a newly-out student in the 1970s. Craft, when I friended him, worried that I’d be harsh on this, his first mystery novel.

I love it when people are afraid of me. It’s so ridiculous.

This book is flawed, for sure. But it deserves four stars in spite of its flaws. I have already bought the second volume in the series, “Body Language,�� because I was anxious to see what would happen next. If I want to keep reading when I’m done, it’s a good thing.

Craft is a stylish, literate writer, salting his prose with wry elegance such as this:

“The lady with the novel flaps a silk fan. She is the only one present to take action against the heat; the others suffer passively, racking up purgatorial credits in some celestial ledger.��

The mystery, focused on the disappearance seven years previously of Helena Carter, a Chicago airline heiress, is engaging enough, if a little contrived. Through Mark Manning’s investigation—made under some urgency over his career and his reputation—Craft allows us to meet all of the players, past and present, in Mrs. Carter’s life. We are given, bit by bit, a complex backstory that offers a broad landscape of incident and psychological detail. There is a sort of weird stylistic thing, using the present tense in the first person. I got used to it, but it’s not the most comfortable narrative style for me.

My biggest problem with the book, for at least 60 per cent of it, anyway, was Mark himself. I got over it, eventually, but not without a good deal of discomfort about his character. Mark is 39, handsome, and really really well built (Craft rather overemphasizes that he doesn’t LOOK nearly forty, which for someone my age is really really tiresome. And don’t get me started on the 56-year-old Helena Carter being referred to as an “old lady.�� Grrr). Manning is also hugely self-assured. Obnoxiously self-assured, I’d go so far as to say. I think I see why Craft did this, but it’s off-putting.

You see, Mark Manning totally believes in himself without hesitation—except about his sexuality, apparently. One of the main thrusts (no pun intended) of the book’s plot is Mark’s coming to grips with a part of himself that he has successfully suppressed all of his life. Apparently, he’s never once considered sex with a man, in spite of being totally hot and successful and a public persona. I guess his Kinsey 4 ability to do it with women has allowed him to hide himself from himself.

Way to piss off a Kinsey 6, you smug bastard.

This sort of panicky closetedness just seems at odds with the kind of man his age in 1997 who is both confident in his beliefs and sure of his abilities—but not, oddly enough, homophobic. Indeed, to my mind both Manning and his best friend Roxanne Exner (great name, BTW) feel like characters stolen out of a gay angst novel from the 1970s, when I was in my twenties and coming out with a vengeance. Roxanne is an interesting woman, just as strong and self-assured as Mark is. But her jealousy of Mark’s friendship, which crossed a few boundaries once upon a time, turns her into a thoroughly unpleasant character for a good chunk of the book, culminating in one of the least enjoyable scenes I’ve ever read. I physically shuddered as I plowed through it, echoes of Ayn Rand’s nasty Howard Roark flickering through my imagination. Effective, I guess, but unpleasant.

But, ultimately I forgave both Manning and Roxanne, because Craft does something very good with this thread of the narrative, which runs parallel to the mystery line. Craft gives us Neil, the beautiful and very out younger architect from Phoenix, whose college friendship with Roxanne adds a sharp edge to the awkward triangle. But it is Neil who forces Mark to look inward. Although this comes very close to what the M/M fiction world refers to as a “gay for you�� moment; Craft handles it with emotional fluency. Manning begins to redeem himself with lines like this:

“But the label scares me. Even if no one else knew, I would. I’d be waiting there with the label, and I don’t know what it would do to me.��

It still feels awfully 1970s to me, but at least we are seeing a human, vulnerable Mark Manning. For all his stiffness (Craft never manages to really relax him—I’ll be curious to see how that evolves in the rest of the series), Mark is not surprised by his homosexuality, so much as afraid of it. This refreshing self-doubt creates a dynamic that is honest and believable. Neil’s own brand of serene self-worth and his gifts as an architect (again, shades of Howard Roark!) become the catalysts for what is a genuinely effective romantic subplot. Thank God.

One of the oddest of the book’s surprises was the cats. Abyssinians, to be precise. If you don’t know what these are, you’ll learn just enough to add a strange little bit of unexpected flavor to the story. How Craft stumbled onto this as a plot device I have no idea, but I found myself looking up these exotic, beautiful creatures online because of Craft’s writing about them. This is why I love the Internet.

There is suspense enough and romantic interest enough to pull the reader through this story, in spite of stylistic peculiarities and the above-noted character-based annoyances.

Craft messaged me on Facebook and told me that he’d learned a lot about writing in the seventeen years since this book appeared. Of this I have no doubt, and with this as a first try, I’m very hopeful that I’ll enjoy the others even more.

Ulysses wrote: "Flight Dreams

By Michael Craft

4 stars

“Flight Dreams,�� the first of Michael Craft’s Mark Manning Mysteries was published in 1997, which is antique—last century!—in this online book review world..."

Really enjoyed your take on Flight Dreams as a current-day reader; I read the novel when first published in '97, as well as others in the Mark Manning series. What I find interesting are your comments about the actions of a guy of his age coming out in the late '90s. This is why gay novels of this generation-and those before-make such good reads for folks today; they often help to educate today's youth to the challenges of those our age who experienced far greater hidden identities than GLBT men and women today. BTW, keep reading the series, as Michael Craft does enhance his craft with subsequent novels, as does protagonist, Manning.

Hi, Jon--Thanks. Of course coming out for someone my age in the late 90s would have been so different (easier) than when I actually came out in the mid-70s at 20 And yet not so different. Because coming out for me in 1975 wasn't all that awful. But, as a Kinsey 6, I couldn't kid myself. By the time this novel is set (1997) my partner and I had been together 22 years and had two kids. Hence I get impatient with Mark because it is so at odds with my own experience (which I know makes me shallow!)

Ulysses wrote: "Hi, Jon--Thanks. Of course coming out for someone my age in the late 90s would have been so different (easier) than when I actually came out in the mid-70s at 20 And yet not so different. Because c..."

Wow! I'm honored, Ulysses. In 1997, I was with my "boyfriend" for almost twelve years - we've been together now almost 30 years! I couldn't even conceive of having a family in the late '90s - so, thank you for a little reality check as there were families such as yours then, just not as visual as the media likes to make them today. I suffered through high school and was so glad to graduate (early) because of all the hate and bullying I got. Going away to college helped to spring me from the closet in 1978 and I am so glad - never looked back. Kids today have it so much easier, yet I hear they still suffer from the same evils we did, both personally and in public. Congrats to you and your partner, and family!

I really liked Michael Craft's novels. I am so sorry he retired.

He's retired? Well, now all his books are coming out in ebook formats, so he's promoting them again. He's no older than I am!

Hey, everyone - I didn't want to mention this until the time came, but I conducted an interview with Michael Craft and posted it today. I hope you take and look. Enjoy!!

Jon wrote: "Hey, everyone - I didn't want to mention this until the time came, but I conducted an interview with Michael Craft and posted it today. I hope you take and look. Enjoy!!

...."

Thanks for the link, Jon. I've just read the second book in the Manning series, and was interested to read about Michael's life since he finished the series.

Aussie54 wrote: "Jon wrote: "Hey, everyone - I didn't want to mention this until the time came, but I conducted an interview with Michael Craft and posted it today. I hope you take and look. Enjoy!!
..."

Thanks, Aussie54; I enjoyed getting an update on Michael Craft as well.

Body Language (Book #3 in the Mark Manning Series.)

/book/show/2...

I'm enjoying these books as I continue to read the series, but did have a couple of problems with this story. My understanding is that when someone sells a house, they clear it out. So why is it that when Mark sells his inherited house, there's so much left behind? And when the new owners sell the house back to Mark, why have they left this stuff alone for the time they've lived there?

Also, when Mark originally went to Dumont to sell the house, wouldn't he have met Suzanne to discuss distribution of the contents? Surely he would've caught up with her and Joey at some stage.

Hmmm...I thought of your comments as I read "Body Language." But I think that when he sold the house initially, he wanted nothing to do with it and sold it "lock stock and barrel." The couple who lived there, and then divorced, were eccentric, and probably didn't change much--something I've heard of--and then, given the circumstances of their departure, left it all behind. Yes, it's weird that memorabilia would be left behind; but not unthinkable, given Mark's attitude when he inherited. But it's his decision to buy the Dumont Register that makes him reevaluate the house, and revives the crucial memories. Suzanne didn't inherit the house, and thus had no say in the contents--this was her father's strange relationship with Mark, (because of something you know but I won't mention).

Ulysses wrote: "Hmmm...I thought of your comments as I read "Body Language." But I think that when he sold the house initially, he wanted nothing to do with it and sold it "lock stock and barrel." The couple who ..."

Fair enough. Although if Mark had decided he didn't want anything to do with the house, he could've at least contacted Suzanne to ask her if she wanted any of the contents. After having several bereavements in my family recently, cousins and other family members were asked to choose things they might like to have.

Sometimes little things throw me out of a story, but it seems it might just be me in this case.

MY suspicion is, Aussie, that Michael Craft didn't fully think through the implications of the house in Dumont, and used it as a convenient detail...then had to figure out how to bring it back into the story...but, yes, I would have liked to have had some resolution as to why the house was sold contents intact without consulting his cousin--even a simple "I tried to contact my cousin Suzanne, but she was perhaps aggrieved over the house being left to me and never got back in touch."...

Ulysses wrote: "MY suspicion is, Aussie, that Michael Craft didn't fully think through the implications of the house in Dumont, and used it as a convenient detail...then had to figure out how to bring it back into..."

*thumbs up to this comment* :)