Flights

 Flights by Olga Tokarczuk is a plotless, impressionistic work of long fiction that faintly explores the themes of travel and death. The varying characters and voices span countries and centuries, and the loose connections--only in ideas, not in any other literary element--do not add up to a unified whole, at least in this reader's mind. Each piece of the "novel" is well written and, translated by Jennifer Croft, Flights is clear and thoughtful, sentence by sentence. But something was lacking, something I couldn't quite identify. It was as though one or two vignettes were missing that could bring cohesion. (I also acknowledge that the message could have been above my understanding.) Still, I finished it. I've tried other plotless, European, thematic novels--Replacement by Tor Ulven, Septology by Jon Fosse--and been thwarted each time. Tokarczuk and Croft are great artists, and even while not on board with Flights overall, I found many moments of beauty and insight.