Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “Sample passage (p. 83): "Art thinks I crave information about this fellow, but his secret life bores me. I'm not the bloodhound type. That's why detective novels are lost on me. Somebody did it- that's all I need to know. The who, the how, and the why are just details. To my mind, there's...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Quotes: |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“Quotes:
Libby H wrote this review 18 hours ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Though I've never seen him before, I know his story. He's a lifetime employee who lives for strikes and sick-outs and spends his evenings figuring his pension on his home computer. He's an officer in the union, undismissable, who sleeps through his annual performance reviews and savors the frustration of his customers, cheerfully forwarding their written complaints to his impotent superiors. He lives for some strange, consuming, pointless hobby--playing King Arthur in medieval fairs or collecting vintage outboard motors--and has come to believe that if not for certain health problems brought on by his stressful work environment, he might have been a man of influence. (154)
We talk about our father as though we loved him, but that was something we only discovered afterwards; while he was alive, he mostly worried us. He'd taken on so much--the house, the trucks, the loans, our mother--and we could see him sagging. His business was our protection, all we had, but nothing protected his business, and this scared us. We reserved our love for one another, brother and sisters, because everything else seemed borrowed against, at risk. (173)
I don't want to put my feelings in a coma, I want to vanquish them. Blast the vampire with sunlight. // In low doses it gave me confidence, pizzazz. At highter doses I was fairly sure that the King James Bible could be improved upon and that I was just the fellow to do it. Then my tolerance grew and I felt nothing. // The feelings exist, as we say in CTC, and you can either ride them or let them flatten you. I believe it's only fitting ... that I take my own advice today. (235)
”
“I bought this because I heard great things about the movie. This might be one of the rare instances where the movie is actually better than the book.”
Chris K wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I have not seen the movie, But the previews prove that it strays far from the book.”
Sherry B wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Hope the movie is better than the book.”
melissa b wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“About a guy who is unsatisfied with his job which is counseling executives when they've been fired. He's going to quit as soon as he hits the 1,000,000 milestone in air miles. As he obsesses about that, he has conflicts with his family, women and other people he's met in his travels and work. I liked the way this book started but then it got wierder and wierder ... he has strange conversations in his head and with others and strange interactions with people that I just didn't get a lot of the time. Perhaps he was dropping too many pills to be coherent but it didn't make for very good reading.”
delmargal wrote this review Sunday, November 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Hated it. Couldn't finish. ”
Kevin J wrote this review Friday, November 14 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“Sample passage (p. 83): "Art thinks I crave information about this fellow, but his secret life bores me. I'm not the bloodhound type. That's why detective novels are lost on me. Somebody did it- that's all I need to know. The who, the how, and the why are just details. To my mind, there's nothing drearier than a labyrinth. It's just a structure whose center takes time to find, but if you make an effort, you'll find it. So? The only mysteries that interest me are, Will I land on time? Will the pilots strike? There's enough uncertainty just moving through space."
Laura and Eric wrote this review Wednesday, August 20 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The events in "Up in the Air" take place in 'Airworld,' the narrator's pet name for the 'true America,' which is the always-on networked world of airports, airplanes, shuttle buses, rental cars, business hotels, and chain restaurants that he, I, and so many other business people spend over half of our adult lives navigating. The first time I picked up this book was on my way to catch a plane. I cringed when on the opening page I saw the narrator's itinerary spanned 9/08-9/13 and that the (paperback) edition of the book was published by Anchor in September 2002. I put it back on the rack: I was travelling for business during that timeframe in '01, and Airworld on 9/11 was not yet a place I was ready to revisit through the sardonic eyes of Walter Kirn while I was sitting on a plane. (As it turns out, in that respect I was much like the narrator of the book -- the only way I kept moving forward was by repressing the past -- but so be it.)
Five years later, and back on the ground, a little research set me on my way past the opening itinerary; the first (hardcover) edition was published by Doubleday on 3 *July* 2001 -- and so it is a simpler, less jittery, Airworld that we tour in these pages. Perhaps others were like me and the timing of the publication prevented them from giving this book the attention it deserved back in 2001/2. But I would recommend revisiting this book now; I found the contents all the more relevant and compelling in hindsight. It's like getting a chance to vividly revisit the very last days of the Antebellum South in the full knowledge of the changes the Civil War is about to bring. Walter Kirn perhaps did not have the prescience to predict September 11th, but he did have the foresight to vividly describe all the other forces that were in place to make the Airworld bubble burst, and it alternately poignant and funny to see the rats make their final maneuvers on the sinking ship.
There are a few flaws that prevent me giving "Up in the Air" a 5 out of 5 on my personal ranking. The first-person point of view is a bit technically skewed, with the narrative style drifting inconsistently between a self-revealing conversation and a sort of interior monologue. Some of the passages drift too far into hyperbole to sustain a consistent internal world. These faults left me unsure whether the narrator's elusive grasp of self-knowledge was intentionally left open-ended, or was an after-effect of the narrative muddle. Perhaps it just needs a second read on my part.
Overall the tone is sharp, and the book is dead-on funny. If you have ever sat on a plane and wondered how you could travel so many miles while getting nowhere, then this book is the perfect seatmate for you on your existential journey. ”
Displaying 1-8 of 8
