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Penandra's Reviews > Up in the Air
Up in the Air
by Walter Kirn
by Walter Kirn
This is one of those rare times when I am grateful tht I saw the movie before reading the book. Had I read the book first, I probably would not have gone to see the movie. Having seen the movie first, I HAD to read the book!
As someone who was on the road for 40 weeks out of the year for more than five years, I could identify with the Ryan Bingham character, the choices he makes, the way he lives his life, where he gets his mail, his rental cars, the whole enchilada. I loved the movie. Thus, I had to read the novel.
This is one of those times when I am grateful that it was available at my local library and that I didn't have to buy the book to read it. While I enjoyed the novel, I couldn't help but marvel that the screenwriters were able to draw that film from this book.
Having said all of that, the end of the book (no spoilers!) caught me off guard, and I think could have been totally missed had I not been paying attention. I re-read those last couple of pages several times while paging back through the book. That explained so much, and actually salvaged the book so that I could give it three stars. I'm grateful that I read through to the end . . . and also grateful that I didn't just read the last few pages to see how it ends --- as I not only would have not gotten the impact of the ending, I would have MISSED the ending. It was very subtle, but explained so much.
As someone who was on the road for 40 weeks out of the year for more than five years, I could identify with the Ryan Bingham character, the choices he makes, the way he lives his life, where he gets his mail, his rental cars, the whole enchilada. I loved the movie. Thus, I had to read the novel.
This is one of those times when I am grateful that it was available at my local library and that I didn't have to buy the book to read it. While I enjoyed the novel, I couldn't help but marvel that the screenwriters were able to draw that film from this book.
Having said all of that, the end of the book (no spoilers!) caught me off guard, and I think could have been totally missed had I not been paying attention. I re-read those last couple of pages several times while paging back through the book. That explained so much, and actually salvaged the book so that I could give it three stars. I'm grateful that I read through to the end . . . and also grateful that I didn't just read the last few pages to see how it ends --- as I not only would have not gotten the impact of the ending, I would have MISSED the ending. It was very subtle, but explained so much.
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Nicholas
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Jan 18, 2013 06:53am
That is sdort of wierd that you are happy you watched the movie before and I would think you would know everything that is going to happen. Though it sounds as though then you may gain a better understanding after you watch the movie. I haven't read the book book before but now I'm kind of intrigued to read it. And who knows maybe I'll watch the movie too.
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Thank you for your comment. This is one of the few cases where I'm grateful that I saw the movie then read the book. Although, admittedly, when I finished the book I was hard pressed to figure out how they got THAT movie out of THAT book.
The movie (as is the case with most movies made from published books) completely glosses over some things that are in the book, that one might think would give the characters greater depth, however on reflection, I'm not sure that's the case.
I think that had I first TRIED to read the book (and I believe that I would have given up), I would not have read either the book or seen the movie. Having seen the movie first (and enjoyed it tremendously), and then read the book, I had the pleasure of enjoying them both.
