Last Flight of Poxl West (Torday)

Book Reviews
The Last Flight provides both a touching, old-fashioned drama about war and love…and a more modern framing tale that makes us rethink the impulses behind storytelling, and the toll that self-dramatization can take not only on practitioners but also on those who believe and cherish their fictions…. It's Mr. Torday's ability to shift gears between sweeping historical vistas and more intimate family dramas, and between old-school theatrics and more contemporary meditations on the nature of storytelling that announces his emergence as a writer deserving of attention.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times


[An] expertly crafted first novel…. There doesn't seem to be a germane subject for which the author hasn't done his homework, from the leather trade to the cockpit controls of military aircraft to the kabbalah…. And all of this is rendered in Torday's unobtrusively lyrical prose, superb Rothian sentences that glide over the page as smoothly as a Spitfire across a cloudless sky…. The Last Flight of Poxl West…[is] an utterly accomplished novel…. Daniel Torday is a writer…with real talent and heart.
Teddy Wayne - New York Times Book Review


OMFG! What a book! Eli Goldstein has the retrospective candor of Roth's Zuckerman and the sensitivity of a Harold Brodkey narrator, and Poxl West is an unforgettable creation. Plus, things happen in this book, big things like the world wars. A delight!
Gary Shteyngart


The Last Flight of Poxl West manages to be about WWII, the Holocaust, the place of novels and memoirs in the lives of their readers, and what the book's narrator makes of all this.
Terry Gross - NPR's Fresh Air
 

The last sentence of The Last Flight of Poxl West is one of the great conclusions.... The best 149 words published this year.
Chris Jones - Esquire Magazine


Torday’s descriptive and powerful prose stands as the book’s highlight. The book-within-a-book memoir is a page-turner.... [His nephew] Elijah’s chapters culminate with him looking at his uncle through more mature eyes...culminating with a tender ending to Elijah’s narrative.
Publishers Weekly


Torday...is a polished writer who creates an unforgettable character for whom the term flight describes his whole life.... This portrait of a Holocaust survivor's experiences is innovative, and its page-turning plot will keep readers on the edge until the very end. —Andrea Kempf, formerly with Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Library Journal


(Starred review.) While Torday is more likely to be compared to Philip Roth or Michael Chabon than Gillian Flynn, his debut novel has two big things in common with Gone Girl—it's a story told in two voices, and it's almost impossible to discuss without revealing spoilers. A richly layered, beautifully told and somehow lovable story about war, revenge and loss.
Kirkus Reviews