Wings of War

This is a coming-of-age story of a young man who realizes that the world is a complex place. The book is very short, so there isn’t a lot of action, but there is a lot of character development. Edward, a Canadian, realizes that he will never be truly be happy unless he is a pilot, so he gets a degree in aviation and travels to England to join the Flying Corps and fight in the Great War. He makes two friends; one goes off to Egypt to fight, but the other is killed in a plane crash. Edward hesitates to forge new relationships because he fears the pain that comes when they end. As he progresses upward, he starts flying over enemy lines to try to become an ‘Ace’, which means he kills five people. He struggles to remain humane as he realizes the enemy are just people like himself. I didn’t expect the end of this book, because there isn’t really a climax. It left me feeling pensive; it showed you that even in war the people on both sides can be bad and good. It was a very interesting book.