Review: JT Torres' Novella, Taking Flight

 

‘Is it enough to be remembered? Or do you have to be the one remembering?’

Bit by bit, Tito is fading from existence. He has lost weight, and he is shorter than he was. Sometimes his body flickers like the pictures on an analogue TV. And sometimes he disappears altogether.

At home in Miami, Tito’s young life is in turmoil. Each of his parents seems to have rejected him, letting him know his birth was ‘an accident’ and referring to him as ‘your son’ when they argue. Finding refuge with his Cuban grandmother, Nana, he begins to learn about magic and the art of creating illusions. Illusions, she tells him, are meant to do good – to help others or oneself to see a situation more clearly. She warns, however, that there is also potential to do the opposite and to cloud or confuse a person’s ability to see at all.

‘In America, as an immigrant, we had to be invisible.’

Tito’s greatest desire, like that of any child, is to feel loved and valued. But his parents are distracted by pressures of work, by the worrying behaviour of Tito’s grandmother, and by their own marital struggles. In an attempt to gain his parents’ love and attention, and the love and attention of his teachers, Tito begins to self-harm, creating the illusion that he is bullied at school and abused at home. When the family move away from his beloved Nana, Tito’s behaviours escalate, becoming increasingly risky and bizarre. He swims in an alligator-infested pond. He drunkenly races his friend’s car through suburban streets. He pretends he is the family dog. Finally, in an effort to reverse his self-inflicted spell, he follows cryptic messages left by his grandfather, who disappeared after the Cuban Revolution, and flees far from home.

‘The world will disappear. The real magic is to remain visible.’

Combining philosophy with Cuban folklore, Taking Flight asks questions about illusions and reality, remembering and forgetting, and what it is to be truly visible and seen by those around us. At its core, it is a powerful story about the desperation of loneliness and the very basic need for unconditional love. It is funny in places, heart-breaking in others, and beautifully-written throughout.

*

Taking Flight by JT Torres is published by Fairlight Moderns, an imprint of Fairlight Books.

For more information about JT Torres and his writing, see my interview with him, HERE.