Genre: Fiction | Pages: 156
Star rating:
Synopsis by Alex Stone:
An underpaid, overworked Certified Flight Instructor cheats death while attempting to teach a cast of incompetent student pilots to fly at a skeezy South Florida flight school; all in the quest to build flight time so he can get a “real job” at an airline. The planes break, the regs break, metal gets bent, students are lost at sea, and a Top Gun wannabe student, who has four hundred hours of flight instruction, still hasn’t made his first solo flight. “CFI! The Book” is an over-the-top satirical aviation comedy that’s loosely based on real world experiences of flight instruction, but if the FAA asks, this is all strictly fictional.
My Review:
If you've been following my blogs, you would know that this is my second review on Alex Stone's book and I couldn't be more thrilled. You can check out my review on his first book Hauling Checks here!
There is a general pressure for creators to deliver in their second work because of the expectation they set in their first . However, Alex Stone has out done himself with this short but wonderful prequel which technically becomes the first book, so no pressure!
I love how he opens with this amazing joke-".. hours of boredom followed by seconds of sheer terror, followed by several minutes of screaming, and then we did it again, over and over..." . It truly left me laughing with tears in my eyes. I mean! Alex has managed to pull off what seems to be the funniest aviation novel, much better than his previous book- Hauling Checks. I feel less sorry for him than I did last time, because really, when he himself is able to laugh it out, why shouldn't we? Besides, apart from the several near death experience, everything seems to be blatantly funny .
In an attempt to collect the required amount of flight time before looking for a full-time job, Alex joins a company and becomes a flight instructor only to be surrounded by lunatics at work and head weighted, whining students who are either disinterested or completely lack the knack of flying. To top it all, Alex lives a sorry life with 10 other flight instructors in small space with nearly nothing to eat, a lousy boss and a colleague who quits in the last minute.
People who are capable of laughing at themselves are the best kind of people and you can truly see it in Alex. I can almost imagine him shaking his head as these events unravel itself his life. His sarcasm is gold when he describes his experiences traveling with friends in a single car, going out with people and just losing his head over students who ignore the rules. He boldly jokes about instances that I am sure are most likely illegal. But hey, this is all fictional, isn't it? His approach and ability to turn some of the most painful and traumatic experiences into a sequence of comical events is just commendable. These preposterous and totally absurd episodes are completely distinctive and yet very familiar.The sarcasm of the narration is sometimes so stealthy that one might confuse it to politeness. A lot of incidents in the book keeps you guessing and makes you think if its actually true.His jokes are fast and spontaneous. the exchange between the instructors, the students or "the customers" as the boss calls it is just all over the place and makes you want to smack your forehead and wonder how he stayed for so long. But then you think about Hauling Checks and be like this is luxury compared to that.
About the book and author:
You can find his book CFI! on amazon by clicking here.
Alex Stone grew up in Munster, Indiana. He's been flying since age fourteen and received a Bachelor's Degree in Aviation Science from Western Michigan University. He has worked as a flight instructor and was a "Freight Dog" in the air cargo industry for seven years. This is his first novel.
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