Fabulous Flight

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach

This book is Richard Bach's finest work. A simple story told with complex texture, the bird symbolizes the ineffable longings within humanity for a transcendental epiphany; a neon in the night of our stumblings; flash! I see! I hear! I fly! Valleys of failure and hills of hope are the topographic text through which the tale travels, and white-winged and wide are our stretchings towards self-actualization. This is a work of singular vision, aided by a slight editorial suggestion by me. Bach had just finished the final draft and we were sitting together on Santa Monica pier, feeding bread to the gathering gulls. Hundreds of the wretched creatures, all squawking and pecking and flapping. It was like being in the centre of a feathery blizzard and we were covered in gull-goo and crumbs. Fearing for our lives and an exorbitant dry-cleaning bill, we decamped to the safety of a nearby bar. After a dozen or so fortifying flagons, Bach unwrapped the splattered manuscript and showed me the title. Something about it wasn't quite right, so I propped the stupefied scribbler back into his chair and said, 'Richie, sure the bird idea's got legs, but Jonathan Livingston TURKEY? When those flocking gulls disappear, take a stumble along the beach and see what else you can come up with.'