Dear American Airlines

Bennie Ford, a fiftythreeyearold failed poet turned translator, is traveling to his estranged daughters wedding when his flight is cancelled. Stuck with thousands of fuming passengers in the purgatory of OHare airport, he watches the clock tick and realizes that he will miss the ceremony. Frustrated, irate, and helpless, Bennie does the only thing he can: he starts to write a letter. But what begins as a hilariously excoriating demand for a refund soon becomes a cris de coeur of a life misspent, talent wasted. Bennie pens his letter in a voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit, heartonsleeve emotion, and wideranging eruditionall propelled by the fading hope that if he can just make it to the wedding, he has a chance to do something right in his life.