Bennie begins his letter sounding like any old angry, ripped-off customer, but then realizes that to convince the company to refund his money, he must give them more reason besides just a cancelled flight. Bennie starts to tell American Airlines why this flight is so important to him. He starts by giving the story of his mother, Miss Willa Desforges. A possibly schizophrenic painter, Miss Willa met Bennie's father, Henryk Gniech, and within three weeks, she was pregnant. Bennie also describes the verbal abuse he received from his mother. Miss Willa says, of her father killing a rodent in their attic, "'I'll never forgive you or anyone ever again.' (Ah, typical Willa Desforges hyperbole. 'If you continue to bite your fingernails,' she told me when I was a boy, 'you will never be loved. No one will want you and you will die alone.')" (Miles 25). Bennie showing the love-hate relationship he had with his mother shows that he had been dealing with pain from the very beginning of his life, and gives some insight as to why he handled his future relationships the way he did.
Bennie then describes, in elaborate detail, his relationship with Stella. Stella and Bennie were never married, but they had a child, Stella Jr., aka Speck. Bennie and Stella's relationship starts off beautifully. Bennie describes his happiness, "In those months we were the planet's happiest residents. If I was no longer the poéte maudit, well, pbbbbbt, I didn't give a damn. I stopped drinking alone and suicide was as improbable a concept for me as joining a Kiwanis Club" (Miles 31). Then, the happiness of the relationship begins to dwindle away. Bennie begins drinking again. Stella finds his empty fifths and vodka bottles hidden in bookshelves, and she kicks Bennie out. Bennie's drinking again is symbolic of his happiness going away; the more the happiness leaves, the more Bennie begins to drink. Bennie shows little emotion when he gets kicked out; only shock, and no traces of hurt or sadness. At the point I'm at in the book, Bennie just drops off at Stella kicking him out and then goes into a completely different story. He begins to elaborate more on his relationship with his daughter, and also tells us more about a character named Walenty. Bennie is also a translator, and Walenty is a character in a book he's translating. Bennie seems to relate with the stories of Walenty, and as Bennie's life evolves, so does Walenty's.
6 comments:
This book sounds really interesting and really good. This also sounds like he will be writing a long letter to american airlines. Anyways, I start to feel bad for bennie when you quoted his mother "if you continue to bite your fingernails you will never be loved. no pne will want and you will die alone" thats so sad, and no mother should ever tell there son that no matter the nasty habit. Plus that also explains his relationship problems or at least apart of his issues. Im interested to see how Bennies life is told through his letter.
Why in the world does he have to explain his whole past life to the airline company, solely to get his money back? This guy sounds a little eccentric and way too dramatic. And what good is this letter going to do in regards to attending the wedding? It's not like he can get there any faster by writing a long letter about his life problems and possibly receiving a refund. Sorry, I might be over-analyzing this character, but I don't like the first impression I got from him.
Brendy I'm reading this book too and I must have to disagree. He is writing a letter to the airlines at first to complain about the money, but it turns into a story of how his life went wrong. Kayla, I disagree with you because I think that the reason he starts the letter is to get his money back, but he soon forgets about the money. I think the later parts of the book is all for Bennie to help him figure is own life out. He has a lot of things that lead to his character, and by writing about them he is in a way finding these things out for himself.
I really like this book, it's really really good.
I am somewhere in between Brenden and Mara on this character. Writing a letter about his life to the airlines seems quite unproductive, but at the same time, he could be using the letter as a way to get past burdens off his shoulders. Perhaps he is writing the letter for the same purpose as people keep diaries. It seems a bit odd, but when you're waiting at an airport with nothing else to do, you might as well write a really long autobiographical letter to someone you don't know.
I agree with Alex. At first I agreed with Brendan and thought writing his life story in a letter to the airlines was a little much. Bennie needs to tell his story to someone. Writing this letter is his release, and he has to get everything off his chest. Instead of telling it to someone he knows, why not write it to a stranger. He won't be judged because he'll never see them.
This sounds like a cool book. It seems kinda random that he's writting the letter the the Airlines like he is but I think it's an interesting way for the author to tell the story. It's a unique idea which could rly work or really not. Spilling his life story to random Airline people could really change the story and I think theres a reason for everything authors do, hopefully. I think his life story sounds interesting too, especially the schitzo mom! And he seems to experience his relationships pretty realiticaly like how everything is amazing at the beginning but sometimes end up fading out. Nice job!
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