| Up in the Air | |
|---|---|
First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Walter Kirn |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 303 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0385497107 |
| OCLC Number | 46472260 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 21 |
| LC Classification | PS3561.I746 U6 2001 |
| Preceded by | Thumbsucker (1999) |
| Followed by | Mission to America (2005) |
Up in the Air is a 2001 novel by American author Walter Kirn. It was later adapted into the 2009 feature film Up in the Air, starring George Clooney.
Contents |
Ryan Bingham is a 35-year-old career transition counselor for a Denver-based management consulting company, Integrated Strategic Management (ISM). He flies around the country counseling recently laid off people and preparing them for reentering the job market.
Bingham is trying to get to one million frequent flyer miles,[Note 1] a number only reached by nine other people in the same mileage club (from the fictional airline "Great West") before his boss returns from vacation, finds his letter of resignation and cancels his company credit card. Bingham is positioning himself to be hired by MythTech, a shadowy company based in Omaha.
He is divorced and his disturbed younger sister is about to embark on yet another disastrous relationship.
Bingham inhabits a world of Palm Pilots, rental cars, salted almonds, Kevlar luggage and nameless suite hotels where e-mail and voice mail are the communication norm. He takes a lot of pills and spends time with women in Las Vegas. Bingham fears that someone may be furtively cashing in his precious miles, which would be tantamount to stealing his soul.[1]
Kirn wrote the book in rural Montana during a snowbound winter on a ranch while thinking about airports, airplanes and about a particular conversation he had with another passenger in a first class cabin. That passenger stated that he used to have an apartment in Atlanta but never used it. He got a storage locker instead, since he stayed in hotels and was on the road 300 days a year. He considered the flight crew to be like family, and indicated he knew the flight attendant by name and knew her kids' names.[2][3]
The book's title comes from a line in F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel The Last Tycoon.
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner adapted this into a 2009 award winning feature film starring George Clooney.[4]
The book received some good reviews and initially sold well until September 11, 2001 when sales slowed to a near halt. The cover with a cartoon of flying businesspeople, one of them on fire and hurtling earthward also hurt sales. The positive reviews of the Jason Reitman film revived sales.[5]