Unit 3 Book Review

Angle 1:

For my unit 3 book, I read Down Around Midnight by Robert Sabbag.  This book is a memoir.  This book is about the life of the author during and after the airplane crash of Air New England flight 248.  It digs into his meet ups with the survivors of the crash, the first responders of the crash scene and the times his has spent at the FAA/ NTSB place.  Robert Sabbag uses the pronoun “I” a lot.  In fact, in almost every line that is about him, he will use “I” because this is a memoir.  Memoirs are in the category of non fiction but not exactly fit the category of autobiography.  That is what makes a memoir different; they go into the life of the person in that specific time period.  

Robert writes in an interesting way.  He uses a technique I saw in my last book I read, Airport by Arthur Hailey.  He uses this technique called ‘pot boiler’.  “The flight was an hour and a half late out of LaGuardia: Air New England flight 248, the last of the night, bound for Cape Cod” (Sabbag, 1).  “It had been more than six years since we had seen each other… Our delight at seeing each other after so much time was tempered by the sadness she was doing her best to hide” (Sabbag, 80).  It was first brought up with popularity with Airport but it did not get any more popular.  Kids my age would not like this type of writing style unless they are familiar or very interested in ‘pot boiler’.  Some other books that use the ‘pot boiler’ style are Whirligig and Airport.  I can sometimes put myself in his shoes because he uses “I” a lot.  The situations could happen to me anytime if I meet an old friend.  The theme of the book is shown clearly throughout the book by the author’s texts.  You should meet up with people that mean something to you is the message stated in the story.  “I called the number I had for the copilot several times and received no answer.  I left voice mail messages twice.  I placed calls at various times of the day, all of which were met by a variety of theatrical outgoing messages” (Sabbag, 194).  He made all tries to contact everyone he could, even if they did not answer them because he cared about them. I would do this to keep in touch if I was a survivor because we would have something in common that most people would not have in common and would not want to have in common.  He kept that touch and did the best he could. The main character is obviously Robert and the less important characters are the immediate family that is mentioned, the survivors and the emergency crew.  Robert visits with former colleagues which is great because I love hearing about great reunions and that he meets with the survivors and exchange the lives while they have not met each other.  I do not like the parts where Robert moves around his life a lot.  Most of the book, he goes back and forth, in a non smooth way.  It does not flow well and the story is hard to keep track of.  That is what I do not like about this book.  Not all ‘pot boilers’ are like this but the book is just not all that great type of ‘pot boiler’.  There really is not a clear plot to this book.  The book is non fiction memoir book.

                I would say the book is very close to Whirligig in terms of writing style.  The impacts of the events were revealed later in the book.  I did not enjoy Whirligig nor Down Around Midnight even though it was airplanes and survival.  I would give this a C-.  Overall, it was not good.  I think it was the style or type of writing that brought its grade down.  

Marvelous Memoirs

Memoir (French: memoria, meaning memory or reminiscence), is a literary nonfiction genre. More specifically, it is a collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events, either public or private that took place in the author's life.  It is a sub-genre of autobiography in my opinion.  Even Amazon uses autobiography in the same category as memoir.  Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers has written many memoirs and is one of the few well known authors that write memoirs normally.  According to FlavorWire, Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov is the number one memoir.  Since memoirs as in the same category as autobiographies, the author, the one who is in the story will use “I” instead of “we, one, or you”.  The author will reveal any thoughts or feelings they may have in the story.  The National Book Award does not give out awards to the category of memoir.  If any memoirs win those awards, the books will be listed in the non-fiction category.  The book, Lone Survivor, is a best seller.  You may have heard of the movie which was based directly off of the book. 

My book firsts starts off with Robert going to the airport and recalling the airplane crash.  After that, he jumps around his life after the crash.  He will also recall the events right after the crash and when he talks to the first responders.  He also talks about him meeting up with the survivors of the crash and how they have changed and how they have stayed the same.  He uses the first person point of view and gives description of what the person would actually see.  The feeling of the crash and the felling and smell of the jet fuel is so unreal because he went through normal people will never feel in their lives.  He shares his life also almost like an autobiography.  The reader gets to know the author very well.  He doesn’t use much dialogue as much as fictional books.  He uses a few lines which are important but he just tells the reader what physically happened. 

 

Sources:

Wikipedia

Engrade

FlavorWire

Amazon

National Book Awards

Snow Day 2

My third book is Down Around Midnight by Robert Sabbag.  I am reading a memoir.  I chose this book not because it was a memoir but because it involves an airplane crashing.  In my book talk, I said that I love reading non-fiction books that involve airplanes and survival.  I was looking for a new book to read once I finished Airport and I went to the Mason Public Library’s website and typed a few key words and found this book.  This book just happened to be a memoir.  I did not even know that the book was a memoir until Jack tells me my book was a memoir.  The book is about a real airplane crash that happened in the 70’s on Father’s day.  The flight was going from LaGuardia to Barnstable, Massachusetts on the cape.  There were a total of ten people on this flight.  One person, the co-pilot that happened to be the airlines co-founder, died.  He was called in at the last minute because the other co-pilot called in sick.  George was certified to fly the de Havilland DHC-6.  George Parameter was one of the co-founders of Air New England.   It talks about the perspective of one of the survivors of that night and how the crash affected the rest of his life.  I think the book is alright so far.  I would give it a B because the book is not filled with action and suspense like a survival book might have.  I did not expect the life after the crash either so that brought the grade down also.  I thought this would be a book focused on survival because the title says down around midnight.  The book talks about some survival but not too much.  I can understand some of the terms used in the book and I like to relate my knowledge to books.