Richard Bach is the author of Stranger to the Ground, Biplane, Nothing by Chance, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, A Gift of Wings, Illusions, There's No Such Place as Far Away, The Bridge Across Forever, One, and Running from Safety.
This is a fictional autobiography by the author of the best-selling Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970). After meeting an angel named Shepherd on a paragliding adventure, Bach is challenged to get to know his inner child. At one point he describes his childhood memories as "burnt monochrome footage of the time from which I had come." This statement is an accurate description of Running from Safety. Bach intermittently weaves stories about "Dickie," his inner child, with tales about paragliding. This is a misguided venture in which the author tries to incorporate mysticism, angels, his inner childhood, and paragliding. The resulting bellyflop does not provide much entertainment. Most collections can pass on this.-Ravonne A. Green, Emmanuel Coll. Lib., Franklin Springs, Ga.
An extended dialogue between Bach and his inner child comprises the latest book from the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. While hang-gliding one afternoon, Bach is reminded of a promise he made to himself when he was a child: to write a book containing the sum of all he has learned and deliver it to his nine-year-old self, Dickie. But Bach finds that Dickie is angry and hurt at having been locked away for the last 50 years. Slowly a dialogue emerges, as Bach tries to pass on his years of experience and in return relives some buried memories, particularly the events surrounding the death of his brother Bobby. What results is a kind of Richard Bach primer, summing up the author's thoughts on time, love, death and God and laying out a belief system not unlike George Bernard Shaw's idea of the Life Force. Participating in this shared voyage of discovery is Bach's wife, who contributes her own insights and acts as a kind of reality check on her husband. Though the concept here may strike some as Philosophy Lite, the book-thanks in large part to Bach's sincerity-deftly skirts sentimentality and becomes, ultimately, a real and affecting creation. (Sept.)
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