
Dear American Airlines
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Narrated by:
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Mark Bramhall
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By:
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Jonathan Miles
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 the cri de coeur of a life misspent, talent wasted.
Ford pens his letter in a voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit, heart-on-sleeve emotion, and wide-ranging erudition, all propelled by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he has a chance to do something right in his life.
©2008 Jonathan Miles (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
Would you consider the audio edition of Dear American Airlines to be better than the print version?
The reader is perfect! This is a very sad and beautiful story. (Ted, you obviously missed the point!! ) The story is much deeper than the title implies. Well worth listening.
Who was your favorite character and why?
What is this? An english assignment?What about Mark Bramhall’s performance did you like?
Deep understanding of the material. He actually READ the material BEFORE he did the performonce!!! This is FLAWLESS! Mark's reading MADE the book for me. This is a very moving book, I don't think anyone else could make the telling better.Any additional comments?
One of the best readings I have ever experienced. I have been listening to audio books on any available medium for almost two decades.Sad story....well written
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But overall, this is a great book, humorous, sad, ironic, wonderfully told, wonderfully narrated. I do highly recommend it.
I loved it!
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Rather like a really, really, really long lay-over in an airport.
Coincidence? I think not.
Story starts off well, drags.. then ends decently.
Rambled a bit...
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A feast for language lovers
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It's hard not to love someone who takes aim and fires his wit at the airlines, but Bennie weaves his helpless fury through his tale of missed chances and regrets, and between the author and the reader, I couldn't help but be on Bennie's side. He's a world-class screw-up, but sweet and sad and never malicious, and I came to understand and forgive him.
I must say that having it read to me so engagingly has left me wondering how I would feel about this book had I read it myself. The writing is wonderful, but the performance put it over the top.
Hard to put down
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Bennie's a flawed character, but he knows that. He keeps trying despite decades of indication that he's going to fail, and virtually every failure is of his own making. Yet, somehow you root for him.
Also, the narrator does a beautiful job with the accent. There is nothing distracting in the narration and you can relax and enjoy the vivid vocabulary and the way the words all fit together.
Love song to language
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Loved it!
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Excellent
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Loved the book, bad narrator
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Let's dispense with American Airlines first. Because of overbooking by American Airlines, Bennie, the book's protagonist, is stuck in O'Hare Airport on the way to his daughter's wedding. He uses his many hours there to write a letter to the airline, but the letter is little about his dismal air trip, and all about his past life. Thus, a somewhat original, but contrived, literary device gives the book its title "Dear American Airlines."
Bennie has been in an alcoholic haze most of his life, but has been admirably sober for sometime before this trip to the wedding of a daughter he abandoned at birth and hasn't seen since. He recounts the events of his past life, which I found neither illuminating nor particularly interesting. Although not a bad sort, Bennie's natural talent as a poet, and his life choices were all marred by his alcoholism, which resulted in one failure after another. I found their telling tedious and predictable, and Bernie's now sober self-criticism and awareness of his shortcomings and behavior, did not seem particularly enlightening on any level. As I read about them, I asked myself: "What is the meaning of this sad narrative?" I couldn't find enough worth to justify the time spent.
As for the reader, although the protagonist, Bennie, was born in Louisiana, and the reader's southern accent was appropriate, I still found it annoying.
Fooled by the NYT Book Review
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