Quickly, deftly, Strong lays out the financial, emotional and sexual complexities of the three marriages and draws each of the family members for us. The children are as clearly differentiated as the adults, which is not an easy thing to do ...Part of the sense of life in the book comes from Strong’s distinctive prose style — compressed, telegraphic and gestural, one in which the sharp noticing of what might otherwise seem like ordinary details about a character or an exchange takes on a resonating depth ... Early on, Strong has introduced us to what will become the central issue among these characters ... This issue is resolved fairly easily, though, without high drama, giving the novel, rich as it is, a kind of loose, indeterminate quality ... But Strong has been working against this from the start by stepping away occasionally from the house to take up a very different kind of family living nearby — a druggy, at-risk mother and her young daughter, work clients of Alice’s. Their pointedly out-of-place presence at the edges of these otherwise more familiar domestic scenes seems portentous, and indeed, triggers a series of highly dramatic events that Strong uses to resolve everything ... Though it was hard for me to see exactly how, in part because the events this other family introduces to the novel seem disconnected from the quieter and more convincing dramas that have come before.
Strong’s slender but affecting new novel, Flight, ventures into this familiar terrain with a deft touch and an intuitive grasp of her characters. There’s an easy rhythm here: She’s in no rush as she roves among her cast ... The author recounts each character’s connection to Helen, their rivalries for her attention, folding planes of backstory into beautiful origami ... Strong is an exacting observer of families and their idiosyncrasies ... She nails the ennui of middle age ... There’s a slightness to the plot — Flight occasionally feels padded out, with gratuitous, tacked-on scenes — but Strong milks the high moments, such as a quarrel that erupts during a game of cards ... Strong keeps Flight in motion with twists of language and revelation ... Strong delicately teases out her characters’ emotional stasis, the end of one major phase and the inchoate beginnings of another ... Flight slips free of its tight narrative frame: More than just a domestic tale, it is a larger portrait of hearts and minds at war with the tedium of everydayness and the rote routines of relationships.
Lynn Steger Strong employs winter’s bounty to great effect, laying the groundwork for a plot that is decidedly, deliberately old-fashioned — in the best way ... Attentive readers won’t be surprised to find that the igloo plays a role in the story’s climax, although they may be surprised by how easily their attention has been diverted by the author’s elegant scene swiping ... it’s her facility with the details of habit and personality that breathe life and plot into this novel ... Like the birds that form the book’s leitmotif, Strong’s writing soars effortlessly from characters’ histories into their present situations, alighting here on the two brothers, there on the three women, then back to the age-old chaos of running children through the gantlet of dinner, baths and bed. She could easily have stuck with this family and its ultimately genteel concerns...But Strong is up to more than that ... the toughest lesson Strong shares in Flight is that not every story can have a satisfying conclusion. True reconciliation, safety, stability, fulfillment: These are destinations along a flight path forever uncertain — though shot through, like this novel, with moments of transcendence.
Strong bores in on each character, each couple, with acute emotional intelligence, crafting a chamber play atmosphere in the vein of Henrik Ibsen or Ingmar Bergman. Once we figure out who’s who, who’s married to whom and which kids belong to which couple, the character arcs begin to intersect and the sketches give way to frescoes. Flight doesn’t just juggle the interior lives of six protagonists with great dexterity; it also carefully delineates who these people are to each other, and where anger and jealousy might clip the wings of their better angels ... sweeps forward in a rich flurry of details.
This family seemed to have remarkably little to work through, other than small eldest/youngest sibling grievances about fairness and responsibility. The biggest issue seems to be that they all don’t like Kate’s annoying husband, Josh, who seems deservedly unlikable. Their love and grief for their mother also reads as completely uncomplicated ... The definition of a good novel is multifold, ever shifting, but, to me, what it comes down to is the ability to both reflect and surprise. Strong succeeds most fully on the first half of the equation ... Strong excels at demonstrating the disjointedness, this awkward reimagining of what everyone is supposed to be to one another now that their mother is gone. Interactions between the in-laws, between the siblings, seem to barely skim the surface of internality, to the depths that must exist beneath their relationships ... All told, I wished for more. The downfall of a multi-person perspective is that it takes that much more work to fully flesh out each character, which, in a 226-page novel, takes a precise and efficient hand ... Strong attempts to sum up the entirety of her character’s personalities in the scope of a couple personalized paragraphs ... In the end, I felt the same about Flight as I did about Want: everything about it sounds right up my alley, Strong’s prose has moments of real heft and poignancy, and yet in the end the novel didn’t quite have the surprise and transcendence necessary to elevate its story of mundanity.
Consoling and unsettling in equal measure ... Strong uses this less fortunate family unit to school her characters in their own privilege. When at last they all sit down around a laden dining table, the feeling of togetherness is genuine, albeit haunted by a caveat that recurs throughout this understated, insightful novel: 'for now'.
... intricate and moving ... a deeply considered book that wears its serious themes lightly ... It can be tricky to introduce so many characters at once, but Steger Strong switches nimbly between the couples as they arrive or prepare for the holiday period, establishing their distinct personalities with ease ... If this makes it seem as if Steger Strong is trying to tick various zeitgeist boxes, the book doesn’t read that way at all. Through her subtle depiction of character, these individual plights are keenly felt ... an ode to in-laws and extended family who, over time and shared experience, often come to mean as much to a person as their family of origin. It’s a story about support networks, the importance of the collective, which is seen in various strains of the narrative ... Steger Strong is skilled at showing the many different ways that people look to escape from family, to detach from the everyday stresses and conflicts ... The tone is wise, probing, softly poking fun at life, in a way that is reminiscent of Anne Tyler, that great chronicler of American families. The prose style is similar too: no fireworks, just clear description and the occasional memorable image ... As with many of Tyler’s novels, Steger Strong’s writing doesn’t announce itself, there is no one-line action summary of Flight. Instead the reader comes away with a feeling of lived experience over a long weekend with a bunch of people who annoy and care for each other through the good times and the bad. In short, a quiet but insistent study of character and interconnected relationships that deserves to take flight.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Flight is how its austere style actually bolsters its overarching themes ... Strong is a keen observer of the gradations of middle-class life ... Capturing that complexity in prose is no easy task, but this novel is up to the challenge.
Art, in particular, receives a thorough and thoughtful treatment ... When Alice and her mother fall into an 'old fight,' Strong summarizes it with beauty and restraint...Such wishes are flung in every direction at this family gathering, and Strong captures them well in her understated prose.
Strong knows just how to write a quietly emotional novel. Her characters feel both familiar and unique, and she is skilled at creating subtly devastating moments mixed with hope and tenderness. Written during a time of intense isolation, Flight reminds us that there is power in community, family, and those special times in which we don’t have to do anything but be human.
Taut ... Every sibling and spouse in Flight is nuanced and multidimensional ... A significant side plot involving one of Alice’s more troubled clients provides a key rallying point for the family as well as some much-needed breathing room. But of course, the myriad fissures, fractures and worries are what make this family drama feel utterly real.
Delicate ... A disappearance midway through amplifies the plot, but the theme of grief takes center stage, as Helen’s memory permeates the gathering. Strong is adept as characterizing this loss in all its manifestations, and in rendering the challenges inherent in three families trying to celebrate together ... Of course, the drama and fully formed characters make readers feel otherwise. Once again, Strong demonstrates her talents for perception and nuance.
Despite being set over just three days, Strong's book manages to distill the essences of not only the characters, but of their decades of shared history and the complicated, complex relationships among them ... With deft, discerning prose, Strong writes beautifully about mothers and the struggles, fears, and joys of motherhood ... As the novel comes to a close, Strong offers moments of connection among the family members that feel genuine and earned ... A quiet domestic novel that soars.
