A very fast progressive book about relationships. It begins with a woman getting sick on a plane while sitting next to a man. It then takes you to the man’s story and then a character from his story, and so on. Very creative and a great read. ( )

I would have named this book, Planes, Planes and Planes ( )

In his very short novel, Turbulence, David Szalay sets out to portray human drama on a global scale. With a structure that resembles a collection of short fiction more so than a conventional novel, Turbulence chronicles twelve pivotal moments from twelve disparate and briefly overlapping lives. Szalay’s characters are drawn from a range of professions and nationalities, and their problems derive from a variety of sources. Travel is the prominent motif linking the 12 sections or chapters, with each section named for the airport codes that figure in the story. The novel opens with “LGW-MAD,” the tale of a woman who has been in London visiting her son, who is ill with cancer. She’s flying back to her home in Spain and had been talking with the man seated next to her when the plane passes through a patch of turbulence. The rocking of the plane, combined with her alarm over her son’s health, gives a solemn and symbolic turn to her thoughts: “What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security, the way it made it impossible to pretend she was somewhere safe.” Subsequently she falls ill, and the chapter ends with her, now in Madrid, being transported to hospital. The next chapter, “MAD-DSS,” picks up the story of the woman’s seating companion, whose name is Cheikh. Cheikh has flown home to Dakar, Senegal, where tragic family news awaits. This is followed by “DSS-GRU,” the story of Werner, a German flying from Dakar to Sao Paulo, whose airport taxi was delayed by a traffic accident (the same tragic event affecting Cheikh’s family), and who is distracted by thoughts of his sister Liesl, who drowned when they were children, and a woman named Sabine, with whom he’s currently involved in a relationship. The novel continues in this fashion, with new characters introduced in each section, whose lives glance briefly off one another, before arriving full circle in the final section, where we return to London and learn more about the son from the first chapter who is battling cancer. Szalay’s novel is a triumph of narrative economy. Each chapter expresses the essence of a life, captured—in the manner of a snapshot—at a single crucial moment. Thus, each miniature seems to carry the seed of a much longer work. The writing throughout is spare, unpretentious and measured. In the end, Turbulence comes across as a minor effort—an experiment in brevity perhaps—not quite a collection of short stories but something less than a novel—that leaves the reader betwixt and between. But it remains, in a quiet, unassuming way, remarkable. ( )

While on a flight from London to Madrid, a strong bit of turbulence causes an elderly woman to say a few quick words to the man sitting next to her, whom she was at first wary of. This small conversation begins a chain of human connections that travel around the globe, briefly touching on the small stories that normally go unnoticed.

"Turbulence" provides a good starting point for each of the connections, but I felt like just as the story started to reel me in, the flight moved to another city and another story. I never found myself truly captured by the book because I don't feel that I was given enough time with each group to connect with the characters. It came across as incomplete, needing a few more details to make each of the flights that much more clear instead of leaving as many unanswered questions as I found after finishing the book. ( )

Twelve people mostly strangers.

The surprising ripple effect each one has on the life of the next as they cross paths while in transit around the world.

Along the way, they experience the full range of human emotions from loneliness to love and, knowingly or otherwise, change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.

Thank you Goodreads and Scribner Books for a chance to read this book!

Each chapter is about a different character. But each chapter flows into one another to show the connection we have as people and how a single event can affect not just the people closest to the time and place of the event but it can affect someone on the other side of the world. The ripple effect. So, its 12 chapters of short stories but in a way, you don’t really feel like you a reading short story. It was a beautiful book. Happy reading everyone!! ( )