When I was serving in the U.S. Air Force back in the early 1970s, one of my friends there was a pilot and a big fan of Ernest K. Gann. Based on his recommendations, I read four or five of Gann's adventure novels. However, I really don't remember much about them from my readings over 50 years ago. But I recently found this old paperback copy of High and the Mighty in a box of paperbacks that I have had since the 70s. Since I had never read it and I know that it was made into a movie starring John Wayne, I decided it had waited long enough!
The novel was written in 1953 and is about a commercial flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, its passengers and crew, and the struggles to fly the plane after it loses one of its engines and the propeller damages the wing resulting in massive fuel loss. The captain of the plane, Sullivan, has a lot of flight time over the ocean but hasn't really faced any real crises. However, his co-pilot, Dan Roman, is somewhat over-the-hill at age 53, but he has done it all including surviving a crash that killed his wife and son. The crew also includes a navigator, second officer, and stewardess. And then there are the passengers, each with a story of their own including a newlywed couple, a jealous husband, a man dying of bone cancer, a Korean woman on her way to school, etc. The novel sometimes reads like a soap opera in telling the stories of the individuals involved but when the crisis of the engine fire and propeller loss occurs and the passengers are alerted to a probable ditching in the ocean ahead the pages started turning faster.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this one. It was a real nail-biter up till the very end. However, as I said, some of it read like a soap opera which I think was very common in novels of the 1950s. It is also very dated and contained some definite misogynistic and racist language but again this was the norm for the time this was written. There was also a lot of technical dialog and descriptions of the operation of an airliner. I believe Gann wrote this to somewhat educate the public on what it takes to be a pilot. Gann was a sailor and aviator and had experience as a commercial airline pilot. I think if I had read this back in 1953, I would be really hesitant to fly on a commercial flight! But I definitely want to see the 1954 movie version with John Wayne. My father was a big John Wayne fan and I remember seeing a lot of his movies when I was young but somehow missed this one. Hopefully, I can find it on some streaming service.
The novel was written in 1953 and is about a commercial flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, its passengers and crew, and the struggles to fly the plane after it loses one of its engines and the propeller damages the wing resulting in massive fuel loss. The captain of the plane, Sullivan, has a lot of flight time over the ocean but hasn't really faced any real crises. However, his co-pilot, Dan Roman, is somewhat over-the-hill at age 53, but he has done it all including surviving a crash that killed his wife and son. The crew also includes a navigator, second officer, and stewardess. And then there are the passengers, each with a story of their own including a newlywed couple, a jealous husband, a man dying of bone cancer, a Korean woman on her way to school, etc. The novel sometimes reads like a soap opera in telling the stories of the individuals involved but when the crisis of the engine fire and propeller loss occurs and the passengers are alerted to a probable ditching in the ocean ahead the pages started turning faster.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this one. It was a real nail-biter up till the very end. However, as I said, some of it read like a soap opera which I think was very common in novels of the 1950s. It is also very dated and contained some definite misogynistic and racist language but again this was the norm for the time this was written. There was also a lot of technical dialog and descriptions of the operation of an airliner. I believe Gann wrote this to somewhat educate the public on what it takes to be a pilot. Gann was a sailor and aviator and had experience as a commercial airline pilot. I think if I had read this back in 1953, I would be really hesitant to fly on a commercial flight! But I definitely want to see the 1954 movie version with John Wayne. My father was a big John Wayne fan and I remember seeing a lot of his movies when I was young but somehow missed this one. Hopefully, I can find it on some streaming service.
