Up in the Air

Rating:
Summary: Ok Book, But Would Have Liked More Airline Jargon
Review: Being a frequent flyer, and one who really gets in to the miles and points game, I eagerly bought this book and read it.

I liked it overall, and appreciated the insights in to the travel lifestyle. However, some parts would go on too long that were not interesting.

Also I would have hoped that the character would have given out more airline jargon, and educated the general public on the special favors that a million mile flyer might get from ticket agents, etc. The book should have examined both the printed frequent flyer rules, and compared that to what actually happens at airports as agent and passenger have one on one interactions.

However, I still would recommend the book, and cannot think of anything better that is written in a book. For travel advice and for information about the frequent travel lifestyle, would also suggest you see the web site:
http://www.flyertalk.com

Rating:
Summary: Losing altitude
Review: The first 30 pages of this book are wonderfully clever. If you travel much in the U.S., you're bound to meet some version of Ryan Bingham. You know, the well-mannered but slightly odd investment banker, management consultant or lobbyist who spends way too much time on airplanes. In his opening chapters, Walter Kirn does a great job of introducing us to this ultimate frequent flyer, getting us to laugh at Bingham's countless odd mannerisms and obsessions -- and hinting artfully that there is a seriously dark side to this guy's life.

But after this great start, the book just plain runs out of gas. Kirn doesn't know where he wants to take Bingham -- either as a character or even as a traveler visiting various cities. From about page 100 onward, the book meanders without any clear purpose. Yes, we've still got the literary device of wondering whether Bingham will achieve his long-held goal of 1,000,000 frequent flier miles. (He does.) But there's no real sense that Bingham is going to do anything significant with his own life -- let alone make a difference in anyone else's.

That void gets to be more and more annoying, until what began as a great comic novel becomes outright tiresome. Around page 150 or so, I stopped caring about Bingham's adventures, because it was becoming annoying clear that he really wasn't going anywhere. The low point was the drawn-out tryst in Las Vegas near the end -- I think I was reading that chapter at 11:30 one evening and it left me muttering: "I just wanna go to sleep and I wish Ryan would, too."

It's a shame, because this had the potential to be a very fine book. Chris Buckley in his exuberant but misleading review in the NYT captured the great potential of "Up in the Air." Unfortunately he didn't own up to the book's serious problems in resolving its own story.

Rating:
Summary: if you liked white noise...
Review: Walter Kirn's "Up in the Air" is absolutely brilliant -- think Delillo's "White Noise" updated for the 21st century. But while Delillo's protagonist got lost in a barrage of advertising and pop culture, Kirn's character, Ryan Bingham, is awash in a sea of corporate jargon. Bingham's ostensible quest is to obtain 1 million frequent flyer miles. Like his obsession with a mysterious PR company called MythTech, which he builds up to a supernatural status, the heart of this quest is intangible -- emptiness and air. With an unfulfilling job as a "career transitions counselor" and calling "Airworld," the world of airports and flying, his home, the reader can sense Bingham's subconscious search for something real becoming more and more desperate, finally climaxing in his unannounced arrival at MythTech and the question of whether or not he will acquire his millionth mile. I wanted more of this book -- I happily would have read 300 more pages. If you've ever experienced the absurdity of corporate America, or even if you just fly a lot, "Up in the Air" is a tremendously good read!