THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (2018)
By Chris Bohjalian
Doubleday, 368 pages
★★★★
It makes a difference when authors do their homework. By his
own admission, Chris Bohjalian knew next to nothing about the following key
elements in his latest novel: the daily grind and road life of flight
attendants, the effects of severe alcoholism, weaponizing drones, or the
contemporary world of espionage. But before he put fingers to keyboard, he knew
a lot and it shows.
The eponymous Flight
Attendant is Cassandra Brown and, if you know Greek mythology, you're aware
that Cassandra is an unfortunate name with which to saddle someone. The
unconventional "Cassie" knew from an early age she needed to get out
of her hometown, but perhaps she fled her stifling hometown and dysfunctional
family before she was ready for adulthood. The only life she's known since she departed
is that of a rolling stone flight attendant with a major air carrier. Bohjalian
takes us inside a lifestyle that sounds more glamorous than it is—long journeys
with quick turnarounds, surly or sickly passengers, living out of a small
suitcase, unpredictable scheduling, and airline-provided sleeping quarters that
are more toward the former side of the budget versus luxury hotel spectrum. As
for destinations, the best even an experienced attendant like Cassie can hope
for is to "bid" a route and take her chances. Even that sometimes
requires some bargaining: if you want to go to Rome, volunteer for a place you
don't want to go, like Dubai. Women like Cassie are essentially airborne
domestics in high heels.
We meet Cassie on the downward slope. She's still
attractive, but is realistic enough to see that her job and Father Time have
exacted a physical toll. She has a few "bid buddies" she's gotten to
know, but even they are more concerned acquaintances than close friends. What they
know, however, is that Cassie fills the voids in her life with casual sex and
booze. Especially the latter, which is still another obstacle between she and
her sister, a responsible mother who makes sure her kids are never alone with
Cassie in the rare times she's at home. Cassie's life is thus a volatile mix of
loneliness, flirtation, and alcoholic-fueled hook-ups. Her drinking isn't just
foreplay—it's the sort that results in blackouts and waking up in the morning
naked beside a man and not being sure if you had a good time or not.
On a flight to Dubai, she chats up 28-year-old Alex, a
wealthy hedge fund manager and later that day, he slips her the key for his
room in a hotel that's decidedly more posh than her digs. He's younger than
Cassie's usual one-night stands, but also kinder and the night begins well.
There are just three things that mar Cassie's libidinous evening: a short
interruption when a woman calling herself Miranda visits—presumably to brief
Alex on his meeting the next day. Things two and three are more problematic:
she and Alex have great sex, but Cassie drinks until she blacks out. That's
embarrassing, but the fact that she wakes up soaked in Alex's blood is a real
problem. Dubai is not a place where
you want to be discovered with a dead man in the bed beside you and a broken
gin bottle on the floor.
Cassie doesn't think she killed Alex, but then she wouldn't
be the best judge of that, would she? Fight or flight? Hey—it's called The Flight Attendant! Bohjalian spins a
suspenseful thriller told from Cassie's befuddled point of view and Miranda's
more clear-headed perspective. This is far more than your average whodunit, one
that takes us into some of those other worlds mentioned in opening paragraph.
Is Cassie a deadly drunk? Did she just get away with murder? Who was Alex?
Miranda? Is anyone, Cassie included, who they seem to be?
Chris Bohjalian is an author I have long admired because,
yes, he does do his homework. More than
that, though, he knows how to build suspense without going Dan Brown
unbelievable on his readers. He is particularly skillful at getting inside the
heads of characters. That may sound obvious—he invents them, right? You try
thinking like someone who isn't you. Now repeat in a different mindset. And
again…. I won't pretend that The Flight
Attendant is the new War and Peace,
but it's a terrific page-turning mystery. The final pages are a tad contrived,
but there's plenty here to keep you glued in your reading chair way past your
normal bedtime. The Flight Attendant
earns its wings.
Rob Weir
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