Good-natured whimsy isn't something you expect from much pop culture today, but Dwight R. Decker's A Dream Flying has it. Using Decker's youth in Mount Vernon (renamed New Romford), Ohio as an autobiographical setting, he tells a far-fetched but enjoyable and relatable tale of a teenager, Kyle Rhodebeck, who dreams of flying and then inadvertently finds a way to do it.
It's a charm of the novel that outlandish events (with the exception of the story's climax) are made believable. Kyle's attempts at elevation are detailed and, ultimately, exhilarating. I'd never considered what it might be like to fly - the physical dangers, the risks involved, the required secrecy - but after reading this book, I almost feel like I have flown!
Many adventures, flying-related and not, are told within. The fantastical elements of the book are woven into a tapestry of small town life, one which I could relate to, partly because I grew up and still live near where the story takes place (watching the same Chiller Theatre on Friday nights on Channel 10 and buying science fiction books at Northland Mall in Columbus as Kyle does), but also because I grew up in roughly the same time period, listening to Ventures LPs and reading Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks as Kyle does).
My one big disappointment with A Dream Flying, even though it's nearly 300 pages long, is that it ends too soon. I'd love a sequel!
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