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A Canceled Flight Helps To Clarify Life

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By THEODORA LEAVENS SCHMID

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 8, 2008

"Dear American Airlines," by Jonathan Miles (Houghton Mifflin, $22)

This book is like a carry-on bag: small, but packed with all the essentials. It has outrageous laugh-out-loud humor, tragedy, wit, love, frustration and redemption. The author is the New York Times' cocktail editor, and this is his first book.

Bennie Ford is a 53-year-old former poet who translates Polish novels into English. He is traveling to the "commitment ceremony" of his estranged daughter and is stranded at Chicago's O'Hare airport due to canceled flights. The possibility of not making it in time to the ceremony weighs heavily on his mind. It will be one more major example of all the ways he has screwed up his life.

In his frustration, Bennie writes a letter to American Airlines requesting - no, make that demanding - a refund. In his hours at the airport, he has time to revisit all the mistakes in his life, and there are many reasons for massive regret. Bennie's letter to American Airlines reveals a man consumed by the fact that he has wasted his modest talent, alienated those who once loved him and frittered away a life that once held promise.

Along the way, he reveals a tragic yet scathingly funny background and a present that is not so satisfying. The author presents these sordid truths with more than a measure of tenderness and humor, some of which are exceptionally funny.

In short, Bennie is a person who wants to right his wrongs. If only, if ONLY, he can make it to the ceremony on time, there might be a chance for redemption. The reader will want to make the touching journey with Bennie.

Theodora Leavens Schmid is a counselor at Monroe Middle School in Tampa.

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