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    Up in the Air
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    Up in the Air
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    Up in the Air
    Audiobook9 hours

    Up in the Air

    Written by Walter Kirn

    Narrated by Sean Runnette

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Ryan Bingham's job as a Career Transition Counselor-he fires people-has kept him airborne for years. Although he has come to despise his line of work, he has come to love the culture of what he calls "Airworld," finding contentment within pressurized cabins, anonymous hotel rooms, and a wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks. With a letter of resignation sitting on his boss's desk, and the hope of a job with a mysterious consulting firm, Ryan Bingham is agonizingly close to his ultimate goal, his Holy Grail: one million frequent flier miles. But before he achieves this long-desired freedom, conditions begin to deteriorate.

    With perception, wit, and wisdom, Up in the Air combines brilliant social observation with an acute sense of the psychic costs of our rootless existence, and confirms Walter Kirn as one of the most savvy chroniclers of American life.

    Editor's Note

    An old-fashioned quest…

    Ryan Bingham’s story is in some ways an old-fashioned quest, complete with a glittery chalice equivalent at the end, but the journey is wonderfully convoluted. Ryan’s masterfully wrought voice propels this oddly looping narrative.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 24, 2009
    ISBN9780739384664
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Up in the Air

    3/5

    170 ratings15 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A good read with a turn at the end that is predictable, but not too.
    • 4/5
      I normally don't buy a book that you I see that has been made a film but it just seemed to appeal to me. Another week on the way to Dublin stuck at the airport and trawling the bookshops - seemed like a match made in heaven.The book follows Ryan Bingham as he travels the US for his job as a "Career Transition Counselor" - basically he fires people. However hie target now is not the company, his job or the people he is counselling but his one target in life. To get to one million airmiles - after which he will pack in the job and stop. He has it worked out to the last mile - so much so his resignation letter is on his bosses desk. A letter he is sure he will read when he returns and after the great milestone has been reached.Will he do it? An interesting read to see if he does as you watch him unravel faster than the miles he gains.....but in the end well you will just have to read it and see. Or watch the film I guess.
    • 3/5
      Hola Lily Allen and I am a little bit of a finger in the city of the found
    • 1/5
      Started out dubious, and got worse from there.
    • 3/5
      I loved the movie, so I decided to read the book. The first part was amazing, the writing just oozing with greatness and perfection. The middle lagged but was still okay. But the last part, oh the last part. I don't know if the author just ran out of ideas or kind of gave up on it, but it was just bad. The last twenty pages or so were very confusing, making me wonder if I was still holding the same book that I'd started out with. The ending though was the worst part, just a complete disappointment. But nonetheless, I still respect the novel for the great movie that came out of it. At least the screenwriter had a better imagination and world view.
    • 5/5
      Ryan Bingham, an executive with the ISM corporation, flies all over the country as a Career Transition Counselor, which means he meets with executives immediately after they've been fired. His job is less about helping the often stunned newly unemployed, and more about making sure they aren't angry enough to file a lawsuit. Bingham never wanted the position, and has picked up signs that he's being headhunted, so has left his resignation on his boss's desk and planned out his last week with ISM with precision: his boss will return from vacation the following week, read the resignation and cancel Bingham's corporate privileges immediately, but Bingham will be already be employed with the mysterious MythTech and have his coveted million miles frequent flyer miles, a goal he prizes above everything else.The reader travels the country with Bingham, a man who is isolated, yet seemingly content. He explains his happiness in "AirWorld", a name he gives to the life of the constant business traveler. He enjoys the exclusive airline club rooms, the employees who recognize but don't know him, the mutual understanding that in-flight friendships end when the plane lands, and that he doesn't actually have a home because he isn't anywhere long enough to merit one. While Bingham effortlessly maintains his professional persona in the air, on the ground he comes up against things he can't run from, like the unstable sister or the potential mentor who turns out to be pretentious and weird. The growing feeling that Bingham may not be as calm as he appears, that he may in fact be dangerously paranoid, creeps in very slowly.
    • 3/5
      Read by Sean Runnette. I saw the movie before being intrigued enough to want to listen to the book. The book is way different! Ryan's story meanders and unfolds as he heads towards his million-miles goal, meeting old and new colleagues along his travels. In the book, Ryan is weary and jaded, somewhat rootless except for his goal of publishing a book and getting hired on at Myth Tech (spelling??). No great tension or climax, just a traveling businessman going along doing his thing. The abrupt ending and revelation was odd.
    • 4/5
      Rollicking satire of the business world that reads like a combination of Don DeLillo and Chuck Palahniuk. Entertaining, well-written, and with more edge than the movie adaptation.
    • 4/5
      Up in the Air by Walter Kirn; (3 1/2*)This is a fun book about traveling. At least it starts that way. If you fly on commercial airlines a lot you'll love the main character's flying habits. The book has some laughs. But it seems to wander. The main character is quite a character. I'm not sure, however, what the book is actually telling the reader. Perhaps I am not flight nor corporate America savy enough for this one.I did find it to be funny and yet sad at the same time. Businessmen who spend so much time in the air only have time for fleeting relationships but business is everything to them. It's an interesting look at the behind the scenes living in airports and cities that business persons fly into. For our protagonist the airports and airplanes feel more like home than his sterile home. He finds life on the ground chaotic and steers away from personal relationships.Officially Ryan Bingham, the philosophizing antihero of Kirn's witty and deftly written satire, resides in Denver. There he works as a career transition counselor. In layman's words he fires people for a business management company. But like I said his true residency is the first class cabin of an airplane and the hotel suites and chain restaurants. This is where he is most at home. His hometown newspapers are USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. The climate is always temperate and the currency is frequent flier miles. Bingham's free thoughts usually focus on his ambition of reaching the magical million mile number. It is an interesting but not fascinating read.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book much more than I expected too. It’s inevitable that it will be compare it to the movie so I’ll weigh in there; I really liked the movie but this is a bit different and I may have liked it more. On the surface it’s not as different as some people seem to suggest, but something about the tone gives it a different feel. It’s much more of a satire, a little more frazzled, much less romantic, and less "Lost in Translation" light.

      It’s really well written, funny, and food for thought.
    • 4/5
      Ryan Bingham is chasing one-million frequent flier miles as he travels peripatetically as a Career Transition Counselor. He’s also chasing a new job with an elusive company called MythTech. He gave up his apartment and lives in what he calls Airworld. He needs to rack up his remaining miles before his boss returns from a vacation and finds Ryan’s resignation on his desk. And make it to his sister’s wedding. And meet with a publisher about the business parable he’s trying to get published. And make a speech at a convention. And make a date he has with Alex, a fellow traveler.The novel has little in common with the film. It’s darker, less romantic, and more intelligent. Ryan is a witty, hyper-verbal narrator. As he travels through the Midwest chasing strings, the trip, through his eyes is invigorating, and actually meaningful.
    • 2/5
      I picked up this book because the promos for the movie looked interesting. I have to say, though, that the book was a major disappointment. It started off well, but then the author appeared to be telling a different story. I later saw the movie on a flight and have to say it was a major approvement. It took the basic premise of the book...a man of today's specialized corporate world who is always on the move and has no real attachments, and made it the basis for a very good story. In comparison, the book just got more and more bizarre. I rarely like a movie better than the book it was based on, but this was the rare exception.
    • 1/5
      The book bears little resemblance to the movie, except for a man who forms few material attachments and likes flying.I did not like the writing style at all. Kirn tries too hard to be shocking, and as a result ends up with slightly absurd analogies that kind of make the reader roll her eyes and think "Oh, barf." The book is filled with such overbearing and slightly nonsensical sentences as the following: "Danny proves to be one rare monster, stout as a hog but nimble as a lemur yet something else as an itty-bitty kitten flung down a basement staircase by its tail" (p. 257). That's not art, that's drivel. I found this habit tiresome after a while but I had already invested in reading most of the book so I had to finish it.I didn't find Ryan Bingham particularly likable or consistent either, but I don't think I was supposed to. After reading Up in the Air, I found that I didn't care for Kirn's writing style. It's positively amateur! I won't be reading any more of his novels.
    • 3/5
      Up in the Air isn't the gem that I was hoping it would be, but that being said it was still a quick, enjoyable read. Ryan is a fairly average character that even a light reader would recognize. He doesn't form lasting attachments, reminisces about his childhood and has odd qualities that makes the reader relate to him and think he is a bit odd all at once. The real momentum behind Up in the Air is the Airworld Ryan lives in. It is vibrant and something that I have rarely seen explored in fiction. Even Ryan's job is interesting, and watching him read people is fun and engrossing. However, about 3/4 of the way through the book everything slows to a glacially pace and the ending leaves a lot to be desired but overall a decent read. Looking forward to seeing the film.Story:**1/2Structure:***1/2
    • 4/5
      A very sharp and extremely well-written satire on modern corporate culture and its affects on those who try to stay human within it's conformist environment and cynical world-view. The observations are acute and often quite funny. The protagonist, whose goal is to rack up 1 million frequent flier miles and then quit his job, is sympathetic and mostly rings true. Some of his experiences start to become repetitive after a while, and there is more than a touch of cliche in his dealings with his mother and his siblings (naturally, he is divorced). But overall, a very enjoyable read. It passed one of my main enjoyability standards: when I wasn't reading it, I looked forward to getting back to it.