Only for the die hard Daniel Steel fans. Review on Wings - Danielle Steel

Not one of Daniel Steels best. She has written far superior stuff. This, though, is one of her most ambitious book in regards to the backdrop that she has chosen for this story.

Wing’s is a story of a young girl, Maureen Cassandra O’ Mailley aka Cassie who aspires to be a pilot in an era where the only domain thought to be apt for a woman is the kitchen. In a remote village in Chicago, Cassie grows up with real planes for toys; her pastimes include gassing and cleaning these ariel beauties. Her love for planes though fuelled by her close proximity to them is, however, hereditary. Her father Pat O Mailley is an ex- air force pilot, having driven planes during world war one. Pat’s passion for airplanes makes him risk his lives earnings to buy many acres of barren land in an isolated small village in Chicago, which for the remainder of his life was to be become his home, office and the perfect runway for his first plane named Jenny. The ethereal bond that Pat has with these creatures of the sky is a rarity in itself. It’s an all consuming flame that once stirred can never be satiated. It’s his very reason for living.

Pat has got a lovely wife who supports him in all his endeavors. She understands her husbands love for planes and stands by him quietly but firmly. They have 4 children. Cassie is the third child and her birth is much awaited by her father who is longing for a son to pass on his legacy to i.e. his ambitions and love for the winged birds. Born, thus, is Cassie who though a girl, is a reflection of her dad’s love, passion and ambition for airplanes. The runway becomes her playground as a child and the planes evolve from being her acquaintances as a young girl to an inseparable lover as she grows to be an adult. They are all she knows about and they are all she cares about. From washing them to knowing every intricate detail about their complex machinery, Cassie lives for them. The skies are her home. She lives on the land as a halt between flying again.

Thus starts the story of Cassandra Maureen, a girl who has been blessed with the knowledge of her true passion, her reason for existence but the trials and tribulations she has to undergo as the age and place she is born is not conducive for a free spirit such as her. Right from bribing her brother to take her up in the plane, convincing and pleading her father to let her fly, and then getting married to a man who exploits her love for him and planes for his material gains, and her subsequent divorce, Cassie’s is a story of a young girl who wants to live her life on her own terms and the responsibilities that she takes for her action. Hers is a story of sheer grit, courage and determination to live life completely and be true to own self. Another important aspect of this story is her romance with the one man she falls in love with since the time she does not even know what love means.

Daniel Steel has written a good book but somewhere she lost her way from making this book great to just good. The first half of this book, about Cassies’s life before her marriage and her desperate and futile attempts to convince her father to understand her and let her fly, lose their essence after some time due to their constant repetitiveness. During the first half, the pace is very slow and you start wondering when the story is going to move forward, the pages and the lines start feeling familiar. Also, the technical nitty-gritty’s that the author tries her hand at seem half baked. In the process of trying to attempt a genre she is not very comfortable with, the heart warming romance that we have come to expect from the author suffers.

However, the latter half of the book considerably improves. A definite story emerges and the pace increases. The plot stops faltering endlessly. We actually start turning the pages wanting to know what happens next. And there are even some touching moments between Cassie and her lover, but that’s what they are, some moments. At the end of it all, you are left wanting more, some more of the delicate moments that you know the author is proficient in creating yet did not this time round. It was a book that I had started with great expectations and then they nose dived to minimal ones and then gradually rose from abysmal levels to respectable ones where they stood steady.