My Rating 4/5
In Full Flight is a well-research book about the life of Anne Spoerry, a French woman who spent most of her life providing medical care in small villages and remote areas in Africa. This book was difficult read, its dense and can be slow going, but I’m so glad I stuck with it because I’ve thought about this story quite a bit since I first read it in 2018.
This is an unusual story.
Anne Spoerry was a complicated woman.
Anne Spoerry did good work in poor and rural communities and she was an adventurous woman, yet she had a dark history which she kept secret for most of her life.
Sometime in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s Anne Spoerry started providing medical care in Kenya. Spoerry had come to Africa from Europe, initially spending time in northern Africa, then settling in Kenya. She had a small medical practice, which grew steadily and she expanded her medical care by traveling by car to remote areas to serve rural, remote communities.
When Spoerry was in her mid-40’s she learned how to fly a single-engine airplane. She often flew by herself or with one other person to remote areas, traveling long distances to locations she was unable to reach by car, where she would set up a makeshift camp and medical clinic for a few days. She even joined the Flying Doctor Service, a volunteer effort comprised of doctors from around the globe, and flew with this organization to provide care in underserved areas.
In reading about this part of Spoerry life, she seemed like a dedicated, driven and fearless woman who was and willingness to try anything.
After learning the rest of her story I understand this boldness a bit differently.
By all accounts Spoerry was well respected among her peers. She was called “Mother Doctor” by her patients and villagers would walk for miles to receive care from her. In addition to providing medical care she actively raised funds and personally gave money to support medical services to remote areas. The author noted that Spoerry even provided support to members of her staff by paying for the education of their children.
However, Anne Spoerry’s life before she came to Africa is not as rosey.
Spoerry appears to have first come to Africa as a means of escape. And her work providing care to others may perhaps have been done as an act of atonement.
Anne Spoerry grew up in Europe. Her family was fairly well-off and was living in France during World War II. As a young woman Spoerry and her older brother were active in the resistance. What she did as part of the resistance is not know but during this time she was captured by the Nazi’s and held in Ravensbrück, the German concentration camp for women, until the end of WWII. When the war ended Spoerry was released.
In the concentration camp there is evidence that Anne Spoerry had aligned herself with a woman who was later tried and executed for war crimes, including murder. It appears Anne Spoerry was complicit in these war crimes and may have played a role in the murder of other prisoners in the camp.
Spoerry was arrested in Switzerland and charged with torture. Though she was not convicted of torture, Anne Spoerry was found guilty of being a traitor and she exiled from France. Her family helped her leave Europe.
When Spoerry left Europe she began a new life in Africa.
She used her medical school training to successfully pass herself off as a doctor, though she never actually graduated, and she was able to find work in hospitals. Her family money and connections helped her to establish herself and she eventually purchased property in Kenya.
She never told her friends or colleagues about her experience during and after the war.
As Anne Spoerry’s story unfolded it became harder and harder for me to feel the same sense of awe for the young woman who adventured off on her own to a new continent, for the middle-aged woman who bravely learned to fly a single-engine plane, for the older woman who quietly gave money to others.
Anne Spoerry had a long, rich and interesting life and through it all kept an enormous secret.
This story left me with so many questions. Questions about Anne Spoerry. But also questions about human nature, forgiveness, atonement and justice.
- Was Anne Spoerry trying to atone for her earlier acts?
- Was she living so boldly because she felt she had little to lose?
- How did she keep her earlier life secret?
- Did others know of or have suspicions about her past?
- Does Anne Spoerry’s good work and service to others outweigh her cruel acts?
- If a person doesn’t acknowledge their wrongdoing can they ever be forgiven?
- What constitutes justice?
- Who was Anne Spoerry at the core?
This is one of those books that is better after you’ve finished it, after you’ve had some time to think about the story. If you are interested in learning more about Anne Spoerry I recommend the following two articles linked below.
Wall Street Journal – Review of “In Full Flight”
Powells Book’s Blog – Eleven Encounters that Made Me Write “In Full Flight”
The Seventeenth Line 