She sets the scene as a novelist would while not straying from the facts. Just did a shoot there a month or so ago. 0000001984 00000 n The best selling author, Erik Larson, set the stage for books that take two disparate events/people and weave them into a story that illustrates how events connect them into a fascinating synchronicity. I picked up this surprisingly good book because it was in the thrift store, I was about to go on a trip, and I thought the movie was okay. This is the fascinating history of London in 1952, when a killer smog led to the deaths of thousands of people. There is one ray of sunshine, however, and his name is Beck Weathers. %PDF-1.7 %���� I haven’t flown since. No one was breathing well in December 1952 London. We should know by then.” The plane, I believe, was an old converted army cargo plane. Suddenly that goal seems the only thing within reach--more important things slip out of his grasp in inverse relation the closer he comes to his millionth mile. I cannot say this is a book that will delight the reader, but I will say the anxiety it begins to create is palpable as you press on toward the end. I've got to say that I was really excited to read this book. Now I am not sure if Chetan Bhagath was compensated properly but the acriminous tussle with the movie makers post "3 idiots"' release has revealed how much of catching up the Indian entertainers have to do in the legal front of adapting books. In almost all previous experiences when a book was turned into a movie, the book was SO MUCH BETTER than the movie. Kirn is a graduate of Princeton University and attended Oxford on, Walter Kirn is a regular reviewer for The New York Times Book Review, and his work appears in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Time, New York, GQ and Esquire. I have had several people telling me about it though, and they made it sound so interesting, like such a clever satire of American corporate life and the emptiness of the modern business world, that I knew I wanted to read it. by Anchor. “Up in the Air” takes the trust people once had in their jobs and pulls out the rug. He is divorced and his disturbed younger sister is about to embark on yet another disastrous relationship. I hate flying. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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. They should be telling you you're out of a job. The protagonist (Ryan Bingham/George Clooney) is such a bitter and inwardly wizened c. Like most, I'm assuming, I have both read and watched the movie adaptation of this story. UP IN THE AIR screenplay by Jason Reitman Sheldon Turner from the novel by Walter Kirn There is no “I” in team. Did he enjoy the rat race and was running for higher status in it or was he running away from it? Here perhaps is a GREAT example of shit lit spurting out okay/above average cinema progeny! […] Reading departure signs in some big airport Reminds me of the places I’ve been. His life is devoted to visiting other people's offices, and firing them. I can only assume that this is a story preservation tactic, as I trust my imagination and interpretation over some Hollywood producer, and have witnessed the butchering of one too many great books. Hasna. it just got so boring to read the same thing over and over again - i get that the smog was deadly, can we talk about something else now? They have taken the essence of a novel and spun their o. I start my review with a digression. He begrudgingly allows us to tag along with him as he struggles to obtain his lofty goals of acquiring one million airline miles achieved by strategic manipulations of all the systems established to take advantage of our hopes and dreams. He was focused on making a certain number of flying miles but I was never sure why or what that exactly represented to him. Perhaps a truly ingenious & novel form of the Novel. First 200 pages, five stars. Those nice people at Netgalley are doing their level best to keep me supplied in a genre of book I am pleased to call “event microhistory”, wherein an obscure historical event is often shown to be more interesting and significant than commonly thought. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. There are many people who seem to love this story and I won’t disagree with it’s ability to paint an accurate negative picture of modern American work life … but, everything else about it was just sort of sad and not in a good way. The book received some good reviews … the author would start writing about the murders committed by christie, start ramping up to something interesting, and then immediately change the subject back to the fog, whether it be the science of it, the governments response, or rosemary sargent and stanley crichton who were affected by the smog. Very funny look at the modern corporate sensibility. Both of these help the film. The professionalism with which the book to movie adaptation has been done with "Up in the Air" puts the Bollywood junta and Bhagath in bad light. Author Kirn implicates us all, but with good humor, and since he skewers everyone, with fairness. You must read this book. This is a pretty good book about the lethal London fog of 1952 (estimated 12,000 deaths attributable to the fog and, no, I did not mistype that) welded to an okay-ish book about the serial killer John Reginald Christie in that structure that's become so popular lately of "Phenomenon A + Murderer B = Book C." This, This is the story of how the fog in London in the early 1950s, combined with emissions from factories and vehicles, and especially thanks to the unrationed and inferior coal dust nuggets known as nutty slack, killed thousands of Londoners and made life miserable for millions more. So often true crime books strip all that away and focus on the crime in isolation. (The sections in my local library branch aren't hard and fast rules so much as general suggestions, largely ignored.) I am told this isn’t the strongest of Walter Kirn's books and maybe a read of some other works will really highlight his true abilities … but I can’t find a good reason to recommend this to anyone, particularly anyone wanting it to read it based on liking the film. nK&� ��p��Ov7�M�Ƿ���>[:�&N���&$�:�#�^��|Oş��A�N� ��pF.� ���s������{k|��׏�S-}���γ���l��}��7{T If you want to see me again, give me a call." For five long days in December, a slow moving front generated the fog London is known for but at this time, it doesn't move away. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Sadly, its original 3-star rating didn't hold up - it's even more of a mess than I had remembered. It isn't DeLillo's best, but it isn't embarassed by the comparisson to good DeLillo. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK—Scriptsnotes, Ep 73: THE 'RAIDERS' STORY CONFERENCE—Mystery Man on Film, THE SCREENWRITER'S GUIDE TO MOVIE VILLAINS—Screenwriting Spark, THE TOTAL FILM-MAKER BY JERRY LEWIS—Cinephilla and Beyond. 0000005461 00000 n He never comes to the office. A seasoned documentary producer, news writer and TV news producer, her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, United Press International in London, WCBS News, ABC News Ra. I had a hard time determining whether to give this more than one star. It's winter of 1952 in London, England which is still struggling to recover from the financial drain of World War II and two killers are stalking the city. Hey, wasn't there some, like, Oscar-nominated film by the same name with George Clooney? For those thinking of extending a pleasant movie experience, put this book away. Perhaps a truly ingenious & novel form of the Novel. That part of the story is so well known that it was more interesting to read about it against the backdrop of everything else that was happening in the capital at the time.