Propeller One-Way Night Coach: A Story

by John Travolta

When his actress mother decides to move to Hollywood, Jeff, an eight-year-old boy who dreams of flying in a plane, begins his journey with connecting flights, airline food, stopovers, and time spent in first class.

Genres: Fiction, Novella

42 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1997

Reviews

[Lee Coleman]

For a book that is only 40 pages long I feel like I could spend 40 paragraphs complaining about it. And the most annoying aspect for me is that it has some cute bits and pieces in here. But they are completely overshadowed by the awful writing. First off, the cover. Calling this book 'a fable for all ages'. It's not a fable. I wouldn't read it to a kid and I didn't love it as an adult. But it IS full of cute nostalgic callbacks to flying in a plane back in 1962. Secondly, the first-person narrative. This story is the running monologue of an eight-year-old boy, excitedly taking a long flight cross-country from New Jersey to California.
"[My mother] told me that if I saved long enough we could go on a trip together. She would match my money... (boring filler)... [Looking at United first I] open to the back page where the air fares are listed. Then look for the most inexpensive fare possible. There it is, at the very end. PROPELLER ONE-WAY NIGHT COACH ($95) CHILDREN (half-fare)... United Flight 393 departs at 9:00 P.M. DC-6 service to Los Angeles with intermittent stops at Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles. Yes, that's it! Oh, it arrives at 3:00 P.M. the next day. What more could a kid ask for!"
Every page of this book was driving me crazy. None of this seemed remotely realistic. The overly mature voice of the narrator, the unlikelihood he was able to save up $20 in 1962 at the age of 8, his mother agreeing to be on a plane ride for 18 hours instead of 6, just to save some money and/or give her son who adores planes a real treat. This kid knew his mom's preferred alcoholic drink, suspected she was flirting with a married man and called the man on it. Scene after scene of his saying or doing something that seemed super fake and not age appropriate. Authors who can't write kid's accurately is a huge literary pet peeve of mine.
That said, there are some cute bits here. The kid's enthusiasm for flying really comes across. His love of drinking a glass of Coke, his wishing they had fried chicken on the plane and instead constantly getting chicken cordon bleu and every stewardess telling him is practically the same. His mom waiting for the 'you may smoke' light to come on during the flight. His getting to see the cockpit and meet the pilots up front. His getting the chance to lie down in a berthing cot since the plane was mostly empty and it was nighttime. His short stay for a few hours in an airport hotel. His getting to ride briefly in first class. His meeting another kid on a flight who loved flying as much as he did. And the amateurish pictures that were primarily drawn by John I thought were kind of cute. The book was originally created and sent out to 20 family members for Christmas gifts and he later decided to publish it when more than 200 friends and family enjoyed the original ones loaned out from family.
Ordinarily the cuteness might excuse the irritation... but if I had to read another kid-adult conversation that made me roll my eyes -it was a miracle I was able to push through the 40 pages. This absolutely should have been a children's book with bigger pictures showing how planes looked, NO narration, NO dialogue. Just talking about how fun it is to be on a plane.

[Tina M]

meh; don't quit your day job, Travolta

[Taylor Laqua]

3.5

[Kendra]

Yes, the John Travolta. That's why I picked it up ... at a used bookstore in Minnesota.

He apparently wrote this for his family, as a sort of gift. They loved it so much, he decided to "share it with the world."

As a gift, I suppose it's quite cute.

As a published work, it falls very short.

I think in his sharing, he should have allowed an editor to have at it. He's obviously not a writer. Or anything remotely resembling one.

Super-short little story about a boy who loves flying. His mother is a wanna-be actress who loves sleeping with married men. Wee.

It's billed as a fairy tale for all ages. I would disagree.

Didn't hate it. Didn't love it. Worth the $1, I suppose ;)

[A Rye]

John Travolta is a fairly good actor.

John Travolta is famous.

John Travolta is quite wealthy.

John Travolta is a scientologist.

John Travolta can therefore publish a book.


It's lighthearted enough, but honestly, the sum is not greater than or equal to its parts.

[James F.]

No substance purchased for grandchild but not really worth the time he should stick to acting

[K B]

Travolta likes planes and has mommy issues? Wow, who knew?

My aunt gave this to me, in person, with a weird smile on her face. The way she said “I got this for myself and I thought you’d REALLY like to read it” came out a bit tongue-in-cheek, and since neither she nor I have expressed interest in John Travolta (aside from his membership in a certain cult) I was puzzled and now I remain puzzled. There are a few fun details in here about the history/evolution of the airlines/domestic flights in the US, but it boils down to a kid’s uncomfortable relationship with his mother and it felt, uh, revealing to read. Not to mention the bizarre epilogue (idk) and the now bittersweet dedication to his son Jet and wife Kelly, now deceased.

Also… it claims to be a fable but I guess John and I have different definitions of what that means.

[Jana]

I spotted this little book in the T section of the library while I was looking for War and Peace, by Tolstoy. I'd never heard of John Travolta's book and you're probably wondering why you haven't heard of it either, so I'll tell you. First, it's not a fable like it states on the front cover. Also, it's not for all ages. (I'm so glad I didn't start reading this out loud to my kids, as sex is mentioned at least twice.) When Travolta wrote the story, he meant for it to be a family gift, so that was nice of him. He probably should have had an editor review it before it was published.

[Em]

What a nothing little book. Not merely because it has so few pages for after all it's meant as a children's book, but because the story is so pointless. The little boy as the narrator is rather generic, not really fleshed out. No mention is made of the boy's father, or what the boy feels, longing or sadness. His joy concerning the flight is very evident and it's finely written, but the rest of it is flat. And the ending is just too pat. The retiring captain of the night coach gives the little boy is wings. Then in the epilogue he reveals he made used of the wings by becoming a pilot of jets. But then further ties it up in a bow stating that he married the stewardess of that night flight? He's only 8 years old and is somehow able to keep in touch with a dishy blond adult and 17 years later (or a 17 year old age gap) they marry. I know Travolta had a much older first love in his life, but in this story it just seems too much and even a little unseemly. I wouldn't recommend it to parents of small children as a bedtime story.

[Christina]

I bought this book for a dollar as a joke gift for my brother's birthday, but couldn't resist reading it first. Despite the terrible writing, weird illustrations, and complete lack of plot or story structure, it was rather entertaining.

[Nancy Brady]

A cute little tale about a boy who is experiencing his first air plane ride. It is his dream come true, which is the whole point of this little fable: if you wish hard enough, sometimes your dream will come true.

[Shannon]

Mercifully short.

[Dawn]

Cute short story, but no fantastic read. I bought it because I love John Travolta. I still love his movies. Don't give up your day job John!

[Lee]

Cute little book, had no idea Travolta had this much love for planes

[Laurel Zeisler]

Another short story/novella miss for me. Was there a meaning that I missed?

[Peter]

Absolute pile of garbage. Terrible writing. Horror show of illustrations. The worst.

[Garrett Zecker]

Definitely not a 5-bagger, this book by the star of Michael and Phenomenon is designed to make the rounds among VFA and HEI enthusiasts around the globe.

This book was a short fable that was written on a typewriter by Travolta in Maine, and read aloud to his family as he finished pages. Man, it sounds like torture for them. Anyway, it is about a boy who goes along with his actress mother to LA, and she charms men, including married men the whole way while downing drinks and chain smoking. The boy has an innocent naive understanding of the world, and sees it in the terms he experiences it - endless chicken cordon bleu, the various low-cost propeller driven night flights with many layovers he chose as their mode of transportation, and looking out the windows at their low altitude environment as he snoozes in a first class bed.

Travolta was clearly trying for something whimsical here, but more clearly, he is completely out of touch with what it means to be a normal person. This story makes little sense, as do the observations of the young narrator who wouldn’t be thinking some of the more adult thoughts he does. The book is illustrated by Travolta, but there is an additional artist and the illustrations are strange and don’t match. The book is printed on one side of the page, and in blue ink, and it makes the whole experience bizarre and disorienting - in a bad way. Like, this is what a book looks like for people that don’t read, don’t understand how stories work, and have never really experienced life or stories or reading or pretty much anything as a normal person. Heck, even sentences and paragraphs are just so…. Wrong.

Five bags and a little keepsake pair of pilot wings for the poor kid at the center of the story. I am looking forward to seeing where the book goes and what people thought of it!

[B.]

Let me start out by saying that I was initially disappointed when I finished reading this one. I had hoped for more. What I was looking for, I'm not sure, I just knew I didn't find it in these pages. I finished the book, went to sleep, and fully intended to put it in my going away pile in the morning. The more I thought about it, however, the more I came to appreciate it. It's a short story about a boy's flight on the one way night coach. The thing is, my first flight was also on a little prop plane, and this book reminded me of that flight. It reminded me of the way that airports used to be - so full of excitement and wonder, and the true joy I used to get from flying. It's all there, in those pages, waiting for you to find it, if you only let it percolate for a bit. This is one of those stories that grows on you. It may not be one that a younger audience appreciates, hell, most of them don't remember a pre-9/11 airport, but for those who do? It's everything that flying once was.

[Charles]

An eight-year-old-boy has for years dreamed of flying in an airplane. His name is Jeff and his mother told him that if he saved his small change, then they would take a trip together on a plane. His mother is a grade-B movie actress, and she decides to take a trip from their hometown of Newark, New Jersey to Hollywood. This is in the days before there were transcontinental jet airliners, so their trip will be by prop plane with several intermediate stops.
Travolta captures the joy of a boy living his dream while he mixes in his mother drinking, smoking and apparently cavorting with a man she met on the plane. There are also several lies put forward regarding the status of his mother’s acting career. It may be fiction, but this story has all the attributes of being based on real events.

[Maia 🍀]

This is a very light read, as it goes beyond the standard plot development structure of conflict introduction and then resolution. Simply put this is just the story of a young boy who boards a flight to LA with his mom and, during the overlays and in between flights, has a series of mildly intriguing adventures. This book is a little bit like A Christmas Story meets Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — it is labeled as a fable, definitely fun as a children’s read, and it does get me wondering how it must have been way back when for a kid to take a flight for the first time.

Overall pretty wholesome, and the little illustrations throughout also add to that feeling of curiosity you just develop over the course of the book :)

[Dee]

Lmao once again I am giving five stars to a book that everyone seems to hate!

I will say I read this for the first time as a child and have read it many times since then, so maybe that's coloring my judgment. It's a cute book about how airplanes used to be. It means nothing to me that John Travolta wrote it, honestly. I just like the story. It's sort of a comfort read for me at this point? YMMV.

[Joyce]

Subtitled A Fable for All Ages, John Travolta wrote and illustrated this short story of less then 50 pages in 10 days. It is about an 8 year old boy who goes for his first airplane flight from Pittsburgh to Loa Angeles on a propeller plane. The boy reports on all the events on the multi-stop trip with his mother.

[Monty]

The book was okay, and perhaps the sex parts aren't really appropriate for 8 year olds. But I really liked reading the descriptions of airplane travel in the early 1960s--Oh for the days of no need for security and for passenger comfort.

[Lisa]

Wellll.... not much ummph to it, to coin a phrase. Interesting in a mild sort of way, but not really entertaining. Easy to tell this was a quickly thought out plan without much preparation for it.

I don't discourage folks from reading it, but I can't say I would encourage them to do so either.

[Nancy Lewis]

You never know what you're going to find in a thrift store.

I'm not sure why this is called a fable. I didn't feel there was any lesson presented. Everything was just so great the whole story. Probably would have been better as a picture book.

[Sandy]

I liked the story line but there was just not enough meat to it and the ending was just bizarre to me. I understand it was never meant to be a major literary work so I can appreciate this annoying young man flying for the first time.

[Yves]

This short book is a biographical and chronological view of John Travolta's love of flying as seen through his eight year old eyes. Remarkably fresh, a literary breath of fresh air.

[Henry Acuña]

Excellent story. It is a pitty that John Travolta hasn't written more books so far. I liked the human way he treats his family characters.

[Thea]

This book is a little creepy.

[Adrian]

A great story to inspire kids who would like to fly, with the exception of a couple passages implying sex and other detailing smoking details, is pure entertainment for younger readers