Ann-Marie Zakos takes an inspirational approach to presenting a work of spiritual and philosophical questions in her novel “First Class Ticket”. She presents nine truths of life, which she cleverly intermingled into a work of fiction; where three students are challenged by their philosophy professor with an assignment to unravel these nine truths.The reader will follow these students as they realize, learn, ponder and grow. They are guided by various people into new epiphanies and a deeper understanding of their own individual being; making them look into themselves, and to reflect on their own choices.
These truths are discussed from various perspectives by the diverse characters, and the students use their personal experiences and perceptions to approach, digest and interpret each truth in their own way; at their own pace. The author was careful to give each character a distinct set of personality traits; and to bring them from various walks of life and belief systems to exhibit how each one might perceive each challenge. Any reader can find someone to relate to in these wonderful, three-dimensional characters.
Ann-Marie Zakos takes a collection of ideas and philosophies that would normally read as something dry and abstract by most standard presentations, and delivers them in a conversational, informal manner which makes these deeply relevant ideas easy to digest. She puts them into the context of real life, and fleshes these truths out into malleable ideas that are relevant to all of her readers.
This book is a refreshing change for its genre. The characters are fun and realistic, the challenges and ideas strong and meaningful, and the author’s writing style is engaging and descriptive, mixing ideas of depth and significance with beautiful visuals through the eyes of her main character. It is an easy, yet enlightening read. Odyssey Reviews gives it four medallions.
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Magnum Veritas Publishing; 1st edition (August 1, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0976452332
