SOURCE: "Earhart Is Good for Anyone Needing to Escape," in USA Today, May 2, 1996, p. 4.

[In the following review, Donahue states that Mendelsohn's I Was Amelia Earhart is a lyrical story about escape, but points out that for those interested in what truly happened to Earhart it may seem insubstantial.]

The romance inherent in the early days of aviation has always escaped this reader: the tiny, fragile planes, the danger of crashing, the historical figures like aviators Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart in their leather jackets.

And yet Jane Mendelsohn's slim tale [I Was Amelia Earhart] swept me away, after something of a slow start. Nor, apparently, am I alone.

There are several reasons. Not least among them is that more and more readers enjoy books they can devour in a few hours. (Although it's hardcover, Earhart is barely larger than a paperback.) And radio personality Don Imus has...