Studio Saint-Ex

“. . . a strange and captivating novel . . .”

In a strange and captivating novel, Ania Szado’s Studio Saint-Ex brings the reader believably, stunningly, into the life and times of French aviator and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Exupéry, known best for The Little Prince, wrote some of the finest aviation literature every produced including Night Flight; Southern Mail; and Wind, Sand, and Stars. He flew for the French military in the early days of World War II, and when France fell he emigrated to New York. He could have spent the rest of his days as a celebrated author. But he chose to return to the fight—and it cost him his life.

Studio Saint-Ex walks a fine boundary between fiction and reality. Told primarily from the point of view of an aspiring fashion designer in 1940s New York, the story follows the fictional Mignonne Lachapelle’s fraught relationship with Saint-Ex (and his wife) in the months leading up to his disappearance on his final World War II mission.

Ms. Szado combines what was known during the 1940s with what we know now to create a story that could have been told only with the passage of time. For example, in one especially poignant scene, the novel weaves in a Saint-Ex artifact that surfaced in recent years. As the author/pilot prepares to return to war, he tries to give his silver identity bracelet to Mignonne. She refuses it, telling him, “I can’t let you be anonymous in the sky.”

In 1998—the real-world 1998—that bracelet came up from the bottom of the Mediterranean, snagged in a fisherman’s net. The discovery of the bracelet partially unlocked the mysteries of Saint-Ex’s fate. Later, a diver discovered the wreckage of Saint-Exupéry’s P-38 Lightning scattered across the sea floor.

If you’ll allow the reviewer a moment of full disclosure, I discovered Saint-Ex’s writings as a teenager while browsing a public library. I can honestly say his books made me want to learn to fly. And like Saint-Ex, my love of flying swept me into war.

But even readers unfamiliar with Saint-Ex’s writing will come to know him well in this book. Ms. Szado draws all of her characters deeply and deftly, including this description of her title character:

“. . . it was that of a dedicated storyteller and a natural mathematician, of a highly religious man who didn’t quite believe in God, of an inventor of magical worlds and patented mechanical gizmos, a war pilot who would never take up arms, that of a man whose greatest pleasure was friendship and whose greatest needs demanded solitude.”

With craftsmanship worthy of Saint-Ex himself, Ms. Szado ponders the nature of creativity and inspiration. At one point she has her title character say, “It kills me not to write, yet writing is agonizing.” And she has absorbed her subject’s biography and writings so thoroughly that she has him say other things in her novel that seem perfectly in character with the real Saint-Ex.

To her everlasting credit, she has not made silly technical mistakes when writing about flying. And the dialogue she creates for him rings true for the thoughts of a flier about to return to the hell of combat:

“I am going overseas to watch altimeters and tachometers. I will monitor pressure gauges and fuel gauges. Don’t worry, I won’t be very brave. Courage in war isn’t always what you think it is. Sometimes it is chance in the midst of routine; sometimes it is anger and vanity.”

This sentiment will ring true to any flier who has experienced war. You function as a technician. You push away fear not because you possess courage but because you don’t have time to fear. Fear comes later, in quiet moments, in the night, if you are lucky enough to survive. The author of Studio Saint-Ex has perceived this not by experiencing combat but by reading closely from one who has. That in itself is a feat.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took off on his last flight on July 31, 1944. In a chapter near the end of Studio Saint-Ex, he pens a letter to Mignonne, dated June 30, the day after his birthday. Its closing lines serve as a fine epitaph for a man who gave up fame to fight again for his country:

“I am exhausted and I am lonely, but I am not afraid. Do not be afraid for me.”

For readers like me who love Saint-Ex’s works, and who wish he could have lived longer and written more, Studio Saint-Ex provides the next best thing. We get to spend just a little more time with him.