Listen. I LOVE books about well-to-do bohemians struggling with ennui. I can’t get enough! But now and then it’s nice to read about characters whose lives actually revolve around the grueling demands of work.
Tiffany Hawk’s excellent debut novel follows the careers of two young flight attendants. Long ago our pop culture assigned to the stewardess a certain sexual mystique that film and TV depictions rarely, if ever, transcend. Hawk, who worked as a stewardess for five years, beautifully destroys the stereotype, not by avoiding sex and romance, but by making it fraught and meaningful and putting it in the context of a full life. Her two memorable heroes, Emily and KC, are both trying to escape crumbling working class backgrounds. Being a flight attendant offers them independence and a chance to see the world. With grace, authority, and wit, Hawk illuminates both the exhilaration and loneliness of their vocation. Their lives are outwardly glamorous, landing daily in beautiful foreign capitals, but after they smile and say good-bye to departing passengers, they take a cab to a grim corporate apartment, owned by the airline and shared by six other flight attendants, and here they drink and stare at empty walls, killing time until their next flight.
In the 19th century, young men signed up for three year whaling voyages; Emily and KC have basically done the same thing. They live everywhere and nowhere at once. They deal with arrogant captains and salty crew members. They face mortal danger, in the form of emergency landings and monstrous passengers. They make friends and allies and, over time, they learn the tools of their trade. They are young and hopeful and they work their asses off. Hawks writes about her former profession with love and a wonderful sense of solidarity. Love Me Anyway is one of those rare books that make us look and actually see an entire group of people for the first time. Next time you take a flight, you’ll pay extra attention to the safety demonstration, not because you’re suddenly more interested in your own life, but because you’re suddenly more interested in the life of your flight attendant.
