Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wind, Sand and Stars
Book Review: I loved it.
Summary: 5 Stars
It was sometimes slow, sometimes pretentious and not a very long book at all. I don't really know what I liked about it...It's just one of those warm fuzzy feeling books i guess.
A view of the world from an author who loved life and felt pity for those who couldn't. He was a good story teller. He had a childish romantic view of the world which is part of the charm.
I think if you can't identify with him, then you won't like the story.
Book Review: Was Very Boring
Summary: 2 Stars
I thought the book was horrible cuz it was nothing that i thought was exciting and also cuz it was very hard to read i hated it but that is my opinion but everyone i asked said they thought the same thing i just said!!!Book Review: Wind, Sand & Stars
Summary: 1 Stars
I can't believe this book is rated so highly! I though it was awful and found the writing very boring. I would read several pages and completely forget what I just read. There were a few good parts, but every time the author would start to draw you in so you feel involved with a character he would stop and completely change subjects. Don't bother with this book. I would highly recommend "West With The Night" instead if you're interested in pilot stories of this era.Book Review: Wind-swept Whimsy
Summary: 4 Stars
I'd been meaning to read Antoine de Saint-Exupery's 1939 tale of his early flying days for many years. It's only a little book, some 120 pages long, and you can read it easily within a day. Overall, I sort of enjoyed it and the introduction by the English translator. (I read the new 1995 translation published by Penguin Paperbacks). Antoine de Saint-Exupery was an aviation pioneer and he and his friends' many crash survivals are retold in lurid detail. There are tales of fantastic escapes following mountain-side crashes in the Andes. There is also lament for those free-spirited pioneers who never returned. Even so, I wouldn't say this is the classic that many have made it out to be. It's fairly entertaining. His earlier works are supposed to be better and more fluid and I'll give them a go at a later date.
But for now, the main problem I found with Wind, Sand and Stars is that it is more a collection of shorts inter-woven with Saint-Exupery's philosophical musings on life and death behind the joy-stick. As such, it isn't a tale that begins, gains momentum and races towards a final frenetic conclusion. It reads more like a series of diary entries with orders to the existential milkman thrown in between.
The biggest disappointment for me was the so-called classic account of his miraculous escape from the clutches of the sandy Libyan desert. Try as he might de Saint-Exupery's writing didn't inspire the same dry-mouthed anticipation made marvellous by Camus in his shorter works.
Overall, Wind, Sand and Stars is great for a lazy day in the garden when you want a bit of escapism. The world of de Saint-Exupery's, in his early pioneering days, was very different to the cushy world most of us inhabit. Where Saint-Exupery and friends risked life and limb heading off into mountainous terrain in little more than motorised kite, the biggest risk most of us ever take is deciding which stocks to buy to where to go on holiday. For this reason alone, I'd recommend giving Wind, Sand and Stars an afternoon's attention.
Three/four stars.
Book Review: Pilot-Philosopher laureate of France
Summary: 5 Stars
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was one of the most interesting figures of 20th century literature. He wrote The Little Prince, a children's book that sold 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone in one year several years ago, and was also the author of several novels and memoirs, all relating to flying, of which this is one. The author was MIA over his beloved France while flying for the Free French Air Force in 1944 (after having to argue to be allowed to fly in combat; he was considered a national treasure). It appears the site of the wreck was discovered in the water just off the Riviera a couple of years ago, though no one's certain. Wind, Sand and Stars is a recounting of several episodes in Saint-Exupery's life as a pilot, told to illustrate his view of the world, and especially his opinions of what makes life worth living, and who we are or should be. He was a wonderfully insightful individual, and his prose and ideas are the sort of thing you'll carry with you for years. I would highly recommend this book.