Up in the Air - Hardcover

Walter Kirn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385497105 ISBN 13: 9780385497107

Publisher: Random House South Africa, 2001

Synopsis

Meet Ryan Bingham, thirty-five, corporate consultant, very frequent flier, citizen of the transient realm he calls "Airworld." With his cell phone, his handheld computer, and his wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks and jackets, he's part of a new species: the commercial airborne commando who travels light and depends on no one. A career transition counselor for a Denver-based management firm - he helps fire people for a living, a job he's come to loathe - Ryan has a complicated past, an uncertain present, and a very simple goal: to accumulate one million air miles in his cherished frequent flier account. And once he gets there, along with bragging rights among his peers, revenge for years of humiliations at the hands of airlines, and a sense of completion, he'll quit his job and achieve a long-desired (but ambiguous) freedom.
Now Ryan's on his final push: a fiendishly difficult itinerary of eight cities and countless meetings in just six days mixing business, pleasure, and family duties. He's convinced he can pull things off, conditions permitting - and there, of course, is the catch. Almost from the moment he takes off, they deteriorate. Weather problems. Maintenance foul-ups. Needy seatmates. Mysterious credit card glitches. Deepening guilt for his professional sins. The persistent sense that someone is paging him over the airport loud speakers. Through it all, though, Ryan Bingham points his compass at true north: one million miles. Six zeroes and a one.

About this title

Review:

A dead-on, wry portrait of the life of the road warrior. Rudy Maxa, The Washington Post
[A] hilarious, often ingenious ode to America.. . . . Whip smart yet entertaining enough to rival anything from John Grisham. Julia Dahl, Time Out New York

Kirn s style is as bright and metallic as the shiny skin of a jet airplane. But his underlying point is refreshingly down to earth. John Gallagher, Chicago Tribune"

"A dead-on, wry portrait of the life of the road warrior." -Rudy Maxa, The Washington Post

"[A] hilarious, often ingenious ode to America.. . . . Whip smart yet entertaining enough to rival anything from John Grisham." -Julia Dahl, Time Out New York

"Kirn's style is as bright and metallic as the shiny skin of a jet airplane. But his underlying point is refreshingly down to earth." -John Gallagher, Chicago Tribune

Book Description:

A brilliantly diverting novel tied in to a major film starring George Clooney and produced by Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You for Smoking)

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House South Africa
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0385497105
• ISBN 13: 9780385497107
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 303