The novel FLIGHTS by Nobel Prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk

Olga Tokarczuk (b. Poland1973) is a Man Booker and Nobel Prize winning author.  FLIGHTS is a fragmentary novel that transcends time, space and oftentimes logic for a complicated, chaotic and unsettling read.  The stories unfolds with a mysterious disappearance of a mother and child. The father is waiting in the car for them to return from what was to be a quick rest stop.  The family was vacationing on a small foreign island.  The father becomes dependent on his landlord for his assistance and translation.  When it becomes more apparent that it would be impossible to have left the island without notice the father becomes a suspect and how things will be resolved remain an unsettling enigma.  The beguiling chapters are all vastly different in subject, time and style.  For many readers the discordance will feel distracting and perhaps troubling in their intent.  For others, searching for a connective tissue present a challenging objective.  Unifying themes of travel, discovery and desire for groundbreaking exploration are tantamount.  This can be found in studies of the human form and its preservations.  "Transforming the human essence into a body and before our eyes undressing it of mystery."  The quest deemed paramount is  the essential need for a continual foray into the unknown, the unexamined by fierecly knocking down barriers.  Ironically, having unearthed the hidden, Tokarczuk condemns its clarifications.  "Description is akin to overuse-it destroys; the colors wear off, the corners lose their definition, and in the end what's been described begins to fade, to disappear."  The author also speaks to being drawn to that which is aberrant.  She's attracted to that which is flawed and defected, mistakes in the making.  "I believe unswervingly, agonizingly, that it is in freaks that Being breaks through to the surface and reveals its true nature."   Interspersed among the book are shorter stories or anecdotes which are noteworthy and yet baffling.  I'm at a loss for deciphering Tokarczuk's theological introspections.  Nevertheless, I found them arresting in their ambiguity.  FLIGHTS is not an easily accessible read.  While never tedious, it's oftentimes trying.   I was captivated most by several of the in depth stories as in the missing wife, and the scientist who visits a preservationist widow hoping to glean secret formulas taken to the grave.  FLIGHTS will elevate some readers onto an uncommon strata while pushing off others.  "What makes us most human is the possession of a unique and irreproducible story, that we take place over time and leave behind traces."