Helpful Score: 5
This short book is a gem. While Bennie's flight to his daughter's commitment ceremony is delayed in Chicago, he writes a letter to American Airlines to demand the money he paid for this flight be returned. What begins as a rant soon digresses into observations about his life that is alternately very funny and very poignant. I love Jonathan Miles' writing style - his words are precisely placed for maximum effect on, and reflection by, the readers of this novel. I hope he has another book in progress.
Helpful Score: 4
i have been looking forward to reading this since i became a flight attendant over 3 years ago. i have been on the waiting list for my book swap group since then and finally recevied it.
my excitement dwindled after getting it and i learned two important lessons- never judge a book by its cover- or its title!!!!
i thought this was ging to be a book of letters to the airline from unhappy customers, or just one letter ranting about all of his awful experiences flying. i was so wrong.
its a fictional book about a guy on his way to his daughter's wedding. he gets stuck in chicago and decides to write a letter to american airlines. of the entire book- maybe a page is about his bad experience. the rest is his life story. and a not exciting life story at that. i kept waiting for the good stuff to come- and it never did.
the main character is also a translator so throughout this very long letter he includes translations of his current project. which bored the heck out of me.
at points it was painful to read (but i can never not finish a book). maybe if i knew what i was getting into i wouldve enjoyed it, but i had expectations which were not met.
such a disappointment.
my excitement dwindled after getting it and i learned two important lessons- never judge a book by its cover- or its title!!!!
i thought this was ging to be a book of letters to the airline from unhappy customers, or just one letter ranting about all of his awful experiences flying. i was so wrong.
its a fictional book about a guy on his way to his daughter's wedding. he gets stuck in chicago and decides to write a letter to american airlines. of the entire book- maybe a page is about his bad experience. the rest is his life story. and a not exciting life story at that. i kept waiting for the good stuff to come- and it never did.
the main character is also a translator so throughout this very long letter he includes translations of his current project. which bored the heck out of me.
at points it was painful to read (but i can never not finish a book). maybe if i knew what i was getting into i wouldve enjoyed it, but i had expectations which were not met.
such a disappointment.
Helpful Score: 2
Yep, we've all been inconvenienced by airlines, and sometimes too long, but that lament in the form of a letter turns to a life story of a drunk. Sorry, I have no real interest in listening to a self-destructive drunk who screws up his own and everyone who loves hims lives. Funny and tragic, and heart warming as some lines were, it kept hitting me that this is a drunk, lamenting one more time, poor me, if only! I did not enjoy this book
Helpful Score: 1
Odd little book. First of all, it is fiction. It begins as a rant about how a cancelled flight causes a man to miss his estranged daughter's wedding. It rather quckly becomes a lament about his life and many choices he made. There are large sections about a book the main character is translating, which rather bored me. I'm sure there was material there that related to the main story, but I just couldn't stay interested in that side story. I did find the book interesting, in an odd sort of way.
One of the best books I have read in a LONG time. Benny is stranded in the airport, trying to get to his daughter's wedding. He has not seen her or been part of her life since she was very small. He begins writing a letter of complaint to the airlines and it takes us back through his life. I LOVED this book.
