The Sunday Salon: Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles

There's a reason I don't fly anymore -- well, more than one reason, but I'm not sure I'd survive an ordeal like Benjamin "Bennie" Ford did, spending 24 hours in O'Hare airport after his flight from New York to LA was cancelled mid-air.

Bennie is trying to get to LA for his daughter's "wedding" (he uses quotation marks because he's not sure what to call his lesbian daughter's commitment ceremony). The flight lands in Peoria and passengers are bussed to O'Hare in Chicago where they are forced to wait it out overnight for a flight out.

Poor Bennie; he hasn't seen his daughter since she was a baby. This is his chance to begin a relationship with her. He desperately wants to get to LA for the "wedding." While he's stuck in the airport, he writes a scathing letter to American Airlines, demanding a refund for his airfare. The letter ends up as a memoir of his rather pathetic life.

Miles has written a smart, witty, sometimes hilarious, sometimes sad and moving novel. I started reading this in bits and pieces, thinking it would be a light read, but realized I needed to devote full attention to it as it reached to depths that surprised and delighted me.

Highly recommend.

I haven't felt very bloggy this week, but I've read some amazing books, in addition to Dear A.A. Also read: Restoration by Rose Tremain and March by Geraldine Brooks, both fine works of historical fiction.

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