Reading Group Guide

Dear American Airlines

By Jonathan Miles

Introduction

When Bennie Ford’s flight is cancelled, he finds himself stranded at Chicago’s O’Hare airport with the
growing realization that he will miss his daughter’s wedding. Worse, he’s breaking their deal: that they
will spend time getting to know one another before his daughter, whom he hasn’t seen or contacted in
more than twenty years, will allow him to walk her down the aisle. Frustrated, irate, and helpless,
Bennie does the only thing he can: he puts pen to paper. But what begins as a hilariously excoriating
demand for a refund soon becomes a lament for a life gone awry, for years misspent, talent wasted, and
happiness lost.

Discussion Points

1. Bennie addresses his letter to American Airlines as though the large corporation were an
individual. Identify the ways in which Bennie seeks to draw comparisons between himself and
American Airlines. How else does he attempt to put a more human face on the recipient of his
lament?
2. Bennie writes on page 9 that, “to translate a literary work is to make love to a woman who will
always be in love with someone else. You can ravish her, worship her, even ruin her; but she’ll
never be yours to possess…the novelist or poet has the more Godly job.” What do you think he
means by this? How do you think this metaphor applies to other aspects of Bennie’s life beyond
his job? What is the significance of Bennie’s abandonment of poetry to work as a translator for
others’ work, given this opinion?
3. Why do you think the author chose the story of Walenty, a fictional soldier in the novel Bennie is
translating, as a foil for Bennie’s own story? Compare and contrast these two protagonists. For
example, Walenty struggles with the amputation of his leg and its replacement with a wooden
one. What does Bennie say has been amputated from his own life?
4. On page 72, Bennie muses that, “the right word matters…the wrong ones infect, spread disease.
Words are everything.” How have words held significance throughout Bennie’s life? Compare
and contrast the way he has used or abused spoken words versus written words, and the way
each has influenced him.
5. Beyond the unfortunately commonplace scenario of cancelled flights, the novel contains many
references to current political events, cultural phenomena, and familiar brand names. Why
might an author choose to use real names and events rather than make them up or avoid using
them all together? What effect does this choice have on how you experience the novel?
6. Dear American Airlines is filled with allusions to traps and escapes. Identify some of these
moments, both real and metaphoric. Who feels that they are trapped? Who longs for escape?
Discuss how these feelings play a role in the lives of the characters that express or experience
them.
7. On page 163, Bennie relays a passage from the novel he is translating in which Walenty explains
to a New Zealand officer of Trieste: “This is someplace else.” But the colonel replies, “Not
anymore.” What does this exchange mean? Why does Walenty so badly need Trieste to be
“someplace else?” Is Bennie also looking for “someplace else?” Do you think he finds it? Why or
why not?
8. Bennie seems to feel that he has wasted his life and made all the wrong choices—that the
weight of his inactions is so burdensome he wishes to escape it by committing suicide. In fact,
he has tried to kill himself once already. But Bennie’s mistakes seem to be bigger than mere
missteps: knowing his family history [note: alcoholism and bipolar disorder frequently go hand
in hand], how much control do you think Bennie has really had in his life? Are you more or less
sympathetic to his character given the details of his childhood? Explain your opinion.
9. The format of the novel is unique but familiar: a long, continuous letter written by Bennie to
complain and request a refund from American Airlines, whose cancellation of several flights has
left hundreds of people stranded at O’Hare airport. Why do you think the author chose this
format? How does this structure contribute to your reading experience?
10. Bennie ultimately concludes that maybe there are no better fates than the path you’ve chosen.
“You can’t escape what you are be it a possum or poet. Maybe you get what you get,” he writes.
(p. 176). What do you think?
11. The novel concludes with the statement, “There was no Free State of Trieste and there never
could be.” What is the significance of this moment for Walenty, and likewise for Bennie? Do you
think Bennie has changed over the course of the novel? Why does he choose to forego his
refund after all?