Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles
Sometimes the planes don't fly on time.Bennie Ford, a fifty-three-year-old failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughter's wedding when his flight is canceled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of O'Hare airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter. But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and happiness lost. A man both sinned against and sinning, Bennie writes in a voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit, heart-on-sleeve emotion, and wide-ranging erudition, underlined by a consistent groundnote of regret for the actions of a lifetime -- and made all the more urgent by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he might have a chance to do something right.
A margarita blend of outrage, wicked humor, vulnerability, intelligence, and regret, Dear American Airlines gives new meaning to the term airport novel and announces the emergence of major new talent in American fiction.
Miles, Jonathan: - Cultural historian Jonathan Miles has a personal engagement with St. Petersburg and its people that dates back to the Soviet era. Born in a trunk, Jonathan spent his childhood in America and Canada and currently lives in Paris. Graduating magna cum laude from University College, London, he received his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. Early books include studies of British artists Eric Gill and David Jones. His Wreck of the Medusa--currently under option for a full-length motion picture--is a voyage through the artistic, political and moral clashes of Restoration France. The New York Times called it 'enthrallingly recounted. The narrative is brilliantly meted out. His Nine Lives of Otto Katz--the tale of a flamboyant Soviet intriguer and spy--was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as unique among accounts of that world. Visit him at jonathanmiles.net.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780547054018 |
| ISBN 10 | 0547054017 |
| Title | Dear American Airlines |
| Author | Jonathan Miles |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Year published | 2008-05-01 |
| Number of pages | 180 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for Great Lakes Book Awards (Fiction) 2008 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |