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Elizabeth Gilbert on Dear American Airlines
Elizabeth Gilbert's first three books, Pilgrims, Stern
Men, and the National Book Award nominee The Last American
Man, received awards and acclaim, but her fourth, Eat, Pray,
Love, a chronicle of her spiritual search and redemption
following a difficult divorce, has put her on the bedside tables of
millions of readers across the world. Her next book, Weddings
and Evictions, a memoir about her unexpected journey into
second marriage, will be published in 2009.
I'm one of
those readers who can't get enough of Martin Amis novels, since
Amis--a savage misanthrope who sometimes writes, it seems, with a
drill bit--is a guilty pleasure of mine from way back. So it's no
wonder that I fell so hard for the bitter, hilarious, dark,
twisted, and wonderfully written delights of Dear American
Airlines--the most Amis-like novel I've ever read. Jonathan
Miles is a first-time novelist (and--full disclosure--friend of
mine) whose journalism I've long admired for its clear, humane
prose. I never suspected that he had a book like this in him,
and--frankly--now that I do know, I'm a little worried for his
mental state (even as I'm totally impressed with his
writing.)
The novel relays the tale of Bennie Ford, a man who is marinating like a cocktail olive in the sour middle-aged juices of his own mistakes, but who has decided to redeem himself completely by attending the wedding of his estranged daughter. Now, as some of us have learned from painful personal experience, it's not always easy to redeem a lifetime of screw-ups in one weekend, but that doesn't deter Bennie from heading to the airport to fly off to what he has decided is the most important event in his life. (The fact that he doesn't seem to notice that the wedding should actually be the most important event in his DAUGHTER'S life, not his, is an early clue of his particular breed of hilarious narcissism.) But at the airport is where his troubles begin, as American Airlines cancels his flight and thus--as far as he is concerned--destroys his life. What follows is a complaint letter raised to the level of high narrative art. I have never before encountered a novel written in the form of a complaint letter, and we can safely assume there will never be another such after this one, just because Miles has created an inimitable story here--one which, despite all the dark wit of its narrator--leaves room in the sad margins for real heartbreak, real feeling, real life. (This is something Amis himself wasn't able to do until many years into his career.) This is the most entertaining first novel I've read in a long while, as well as a searing cautionary tale. Bring it to the airport with you next time you fly somewhere to change your life...
Tour de forceReviewed by Manny "Pilar" AKA The Booklover Extraordinaire, 2010-03-05
This is a beautifully-written, laugh-out loud funny -- and also heartbreaking -- book. All these reviews that complain that it's not actually about an airline or plane travel are just plain silly. Come on, folks! Didn't your high school English teacher cover "literary devices"? I suppose you were disappointed that The Scarlet Letter wasn't about a note written on bright red paper. Or that The Turn of the Screw wasn't about carpentry. Stop being so literal! If you don't know MASTERFUL WRITING when you see it, what's the point? This book is brilliant tour de force. It will stand the test of time....and then some.
A bleak but an extraordinary work of invention and detailReviewed by Andy Orrock, 2010-02-21
I heard that Jonathan Miles gained the inspiration for this novel
from a real-life event: a delayed or canceled American Airlines
flight that left him steaming and whiling away the hours in an
airport. But this book's venom (and it is a dark, depressing and
remorseful tale) is directed not so much at the Texas-based airline
(though he gets in some nice shots), nor at the airline industry in
general, but instead at the narrator himself...ruing and lamenting
a mistake-ridden, alcohol-fueled life. Miles' ear, eye and pen on
the subject of a dissolute, drinking life seems so well-informed,
so razor-sharp that it can't be the stuff of pure invention. Either
there's a bit of himself in Benjamin R. Ford, or Miles has close
contemporaries who've lived such a life.
Miles stuffs an equally inventive story-within-a-story in the book:
the tale of Polish corpsman Walenty Mozelewski. Miles' Ford is a
Polish translator on minor works. While penning his screed to AA,
Ford updates them on the increasingly fraught tales of woe of
Walenty, which he's in the process of discovering sentence by
sentence. Quite unexpectedly, Miles' work is rife with all matters
Polish. The life he's invented for Ford's mother, Miss Willa, and
her Polish immigrant husband, is an extraordinary work of invention
and detail.
The subject matter here is bleak. Miles is a masterful writer.
Dear American Airlines ReviewReviewed by D. Rodefeld, 2010-02-16
Before I comment on "Dear American Airlines" let me outline my
expectations. I was anticipating an angry, pointed criticism of not
only the airline industry, but of all that industry represents.
Modern convenience, our lives in transit, perhaps a comedic
critique of the red tape industries acquire after growing so
large.
Well, my expectation was correct in that this book is indeed angry.
After that, there's very little I expected. Our protagonist is a
former poet, turned into a bitter old malcontent. The current
object of his ire is the airline which grounded a flight for
suspiciously absent hazardous weather. The voice of this narrative
feels realistic, if annoying. The points are labored, labored, and
labored some more, the sentences clever but padded and stretched
out unnecessarily, which fits the bill for a pretentious ex-poet.
However, it does make for slow reading, and I found myself less
excited about reading this book than I did finishing it.
Aside from the frequent jabs at the airline, which taper off as the
story unfolds, the setting is secondary to the story, which is told
largely in flashback. Our narrator, Bennie Ford, is a recovering
alcoholic, and a sack of misery. He laments his fate, which he is
quick to attribute to just that-- fate, rather than his own
irresponsibility and selfishness, which makes him even more
unlikeable than a ranting customer typically is.
All told, this isn't a bad book. The story is well-written, if
long-winded, and the pacing is competent. It doesn't serve its
topic well, and more than anything, the most frustrating part is
the squandered opportunity to really tear into an easy target.
Instead, the story, like its protagonist, lingers and wallows in
itself, refusing to grow, change, or evolve.
Humorous but also deeply melancholicReviewed by Mr. Toad, 2010-01-18
Many of those expressing disappointment in this novel seem to have
not known what to expect. Based upon many of the positive reviews,
I was anticipating a cathartic, humorous rant about how we are
often placed at the mercy of uncaring, unresponsive corporations.
Yes, I got that. But what I also got was a wrenching recitation of
the failings of one's own life, an owning up to the responsibility
of how the protagonist has hurt himself and others. If that's not
your cup of tea -- if you only like positive thinkers who are
focused only on the glorious future and don't waste time wallowing
in the past -- then by all means avoid this book. The navel gazing
will only annoy you.
On the other hand, if you enjoy beautiful, evocative writing, and
are moved by brutal, self-reflective honesty from someone who has
not always made the best choices (e.g. you're a fan of
non-self-aggrandizing memoir), then this is for you.
Dear American Airlines is a compact book that nevertheless manages
to hold you riveted to several storylines: the protaganist's past
as a young adult, the history of his parents' marriage, his current
predicament, and the story within the book he's translating. Note:
if you find yourself simply scanning over the translated story, as
I did early on, go back and really read it. You will be rewarded
with a moving tragedy as compelling as the main novel.
The author does a great job of balancing these storylines, avoiding
the sensation of jumping too frequently, but always leaving you
wanting more from the story you have just left. At the end of the
novel, you are left yearning to know what happens next, and yet you
don't feel left dangling emotionally.
This is a book that will stick with me.
Tough to get throughReviewed by Daniel Holland, 2009-12-04
I finished the book but it was a struggle. Miles is definitely a
very skilled writer with a lot of wit and humor and great skill
putting together sentences. But that does not a good book make. My
problem is that DAA is too loaded with first person narrative
without any interludes or other topics or characters to grab ahold
of. The Polish writer translation stuff doesn't work as a relief
and really didn't add to the book in my opinion.
I'd like to see what Miles could do a novel in a different format.
I know he does drink writing for the NY Times and that sounds like
a good short format for the type of witty fast paced writing he
gives in DAA. I need some space/dynamics in books, and this one has
none. I was lucky to get through it and I totally understand why
other reviewers scanned a lot of it. Probably should have done so
myself.
