Travel And Travails In Susanna Krizo’s When Birds Take Flight

  • Steve Ogah
  • U.S.A
  • February 1, 2022

Travel & Travails In Susanna Krizo’s When Birds Take Flight                           

What happens when birds take flight? That is precisely what novelist Susanna Krizo sets out to unravel in When Birds Take Flight, a familiar story of migration and love. This novel is also an intense story of domestic abandonment and recovery. The gifted author tells the story of Marja and her determination to rise above the strictures of migration in America.

Susanna Krizo

Susanna Krizo, a widely travelled writer, has a compelling view on what takes place in the world of immigrants and their quests for survival in new environments. That is what she has written about in this fine read of travels and travails. This is a book of movements across terrains without a sense of the other side until one arrives there. She has captured just too beautifully, a physical and emotional terrain in this passionate narration. But again, the novel’s protagonist is only in search of love and living. This is revealed when she says: “Love is what we all want and need, but sometimes we just can’t make it work no matter how hard we try. We all hope love will last and that life will caress us endlessly with soft petals. In reality, love ends and life pokes us mercilessly until we either give up or harden ourselves.”

An intimate fiction of the burden of domestic abandonment and a character’s search for solace in a hostile environment, the author richly captures the grief of her chief character and the empathy from Jimena, her closest friend and confidant.  When Birds Take Flight, has compassion, determination and is devoid of self-pity. Marja is determined to stay in a place she believes she will find warmth. To this end, she fights her demons in a manner of speaking. She is fortunate to find a compassionate judge who dissolves a traumatic union. Like a true warrior with grit, she holds onto her faith and ends up finding love and happiness in the comforting embrace and kiss of Miguel.

“We’ll win, okay?” Marja says. The triumph of Marja and her partner bears testimony to what happens when people in abusive relationships seek solutions within the law. People can always find solace and happiness if they are determined to fight for it. That is the subtext in When Birds Take Flight. The novel is a metaphor for freedom. The act of flying is a reflection of freedom and happiness. One simply can’t fly if there are limitations under the wings. When Birds Take Flight ends on a note of hope and faith in the inherent possibilities of love: “he cups my face with his hands and kisses me like there is a tomorrow. “

Most readers will ultimately feel empathy for Marja. This is a fine achievement most writers desire, that connection between characters and readers. This is where the author succeeds the most in drawing readers into her narrative. Who wouldn’t want a troubled soul to escape his or her travails? A novel of conjugal grief which ends with hope, When Birds Take Flight is available at https://www.amazon.com/When-Birds-Take-Flight-and where good books are sold.

Summary

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