Amazon.com Richard Bach， the writer who flew to success on the wings of Jonathan Livingston Seagull， once again returns to flight for metaphysical inspiration. Bach begins this journey with a quandary--how to customize his airplane， a small Piper Cub? For example， how can he keep his latch door from slamming shut in midflight? How to stop his oil cap from jiggling loose and disappearing? With each question the solutions appear; they are apparently delivered by a vision of a benevolent woman. Before long， Bach realizes that an aircraft designer from an earlier time and another dimension is tutoring him. Of course， Bach takes the ultimate flight into her parallel universe where he finds an old-fashioned aviation company that solves problems for troubled aviators. He also meets his mysterious muse Laura Bristol. This is a brief story (101 pages) that wrestles with the limitations of present-day technology and the grandeur of the early days of aviation. True to Bach's mission， it also wrestles with the choices we make in this time and this moment， and how they can change our life and our universe. --Gail Hudson From Publishers Weekly Fans of the author or of small planes might enjoy this slight parable by Bach， still best known for Jonathan Livingston Seagull， but others will find it a flat experience. In a tale that could easily be retitled "Zen and the Art of Piper Cub Maintenance，" narrator Richard Bach is having problems with the door latch of his plane. As he searches for a solution， designs begins to come to him from nowhere until one day， through one of the designs， he glimpses the image of his "love messenger." Believing that "everything is exactly as it is for a reason，" Richard devotes long passages to pondering the whys behind seeming minutiaeAsuch as why his lovely messenger tucks a pencil in her hair， concluding finallyAfollowing quite a leap of logicAthat she must come from another， computerless， time. Richard's obsession with the lovely messenger and her designs eventually leads him to the discovery of a parallel universeAEngland's Saunders-Vixen Aircraft Company Ltd.， circa 1923Aan aviation Shangri-La， where the answers to questions lead to more questions. Simplistic to the point of parody， with questions sometimes broken down into jerky individual elements ("Are you telling me that Geoffrey de Havilland? Copied? The design? Of your airplane? And called it his?")， this New Age parable is almost ludicrous in its strain for profundity. Line drawings. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews