Mohsin Maqbool's Reviews > Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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I WAS gifted Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull by my elder brother when he visited Karachi from Frankfurt for his vacation in 1973. However, I did not read the book until 1987. To be honest with you, I did not think much of it at the time and gave it away to a friend.
Learning more about birds with the passage of time, I wanted to read the book again. I regretted giving it away. Luckily another friend of mine had a copy. He lent it to me for just one night in 2005, saying that it actually belonged to his son who hadn’t read it yet. I finished the book in a few hours. I liked it much better this time and even wrote a review for my friend to read.
Yesterday I re-read the book on pdf so that I could review it for goodreads. And I must admit that this time I actually found the book to be amazing. Maybe with age I have become more mature as I was able to grasp many things which I could not when I first read it during the '80s or even a decade back.
The book is extremely inspirational. Besides, it has a story to tell – an interesting one – that keeps you glued right to the very end. Mr Bach used to be a fighter pilot and a writer for magazines like Avian which is why talking about the flight of seagulls comes naturally to him.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull was more interested in flying than eating fish or bread crumbs for survival. He wants to fly as high as possible and at speeds deemed impossible. He kept challenging himself to break each previous record.

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A seagull in sunny spotlight.

The Elder of the Flock does not like Richard breaking rules and regulations. He wants him to stick to normal flying. “Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work. It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!”
He flies during the night. He is considered an Outcast and kicked out of the Flock.
“It wasn’t long before Jonathan Gull was off by himself again, far out at sea, hungry, happy, learning. The subject was speed, and in a week’s practice he learned more about speed than the fastest gull alive.”
Although Mr Bach is writing all about seagulls and flight, he uses simple English which even a layman reader would be able to understand. Having said that, it is creative writing at its best. Alliteration too is used in several places.
“He learned more each day. He learned that a streamlined high-speed dive could bring him to find the rare and tasty fish that schooled ten feet below the surface of the ocean: he no longer needed fishing boats and stale bread for survival. He learned to sleep in the air, setting a course at night across the offshore wind, covering a hundred miles from sunset to sunrise. With the same inner control, he flew through heavy sea fogs and climbed above them into dazzling clear skies ... in the very times when every other gull stood on the ground, knowing nothing but mist and rain. He learned to ride the high winds far inland, to dine there on delicate insects.”

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A seagull flies over cliffs.

The book teaches us to be kind and loving and tolerant through Jonathan who during a later stage of his life becomes an instructor for seagulls who want to become achievers by being at their innovative best where flying is concerned.
The tome is philosophical in some places like in the following paragraphs:
“I don’t understand how you manage to love a mob of birds that has just tried to kill you.” “Oh, Fletch, you don’t love that! You don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practise and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That’s what I mean by love. It’s fun, when you get the knack of it.”
“We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome.”
The next world can also be understood as the next stage in our life when we proceed to college from school or to university from college or even to a career when we are through with our education.
The book deals with a bit of fantasy too. But if I describe it, it would be akin to spoiling the fun for you.
The inspirational fable contains eight black and white photographs of seagulls in flight which have been magnificently captured by Russell Munson.
I highly recommend the book to everybody who likes reading good and meaningful literature and also to those who love our fine-feathered friends.
Director Hall Bartlett adapted the novella into a film in 1973. Whereas the book was a bestseller, the film was poorly received by critics and was a box-office failure. However, it was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Neil Diamond wrote and recorded an album for the film's soundtrack which was a critical and commercial success, earning Diamond a Grammy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Another plus point for the film is that it is recognised by American Film Institute in the following list:
2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – Nominated

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Film poster of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
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The camera catches Neil Diamond along with the high-flying Jonathan Livingston Seagull for the album's cover.