Up in the Air: “George Clooney Saved my Novel”

I loved this piece by Walter Kirn, author of the novel Up in the Air, and his journey with that book. Fascinating. Yet another example of how you just never know what will happen in life, you have no idea what the outcome may be – but the point is to keep working. Keep “putting it out there”. Luck certainly plays a part in some of this, but it’s not only about luck. Fortune favors a prepared mind and all that. Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. Etc. The book was dead in the water upon arrival, due to terrible timing (September 11th – a book where the cover depicted men in business suits plummeting through the air on fire was not going to be a crowd-pleaser at that particular time!) – and so that was that. Kirn had to move on, chalk it up to bad timing, and keep working. The story of how this forgotten novel then became a hot Hollywood property is riveting, and also goes to show you that there are good people out there, and when they believe in something, and stand by it, wonderful things can happen. (I saw the film. It’s wonderful.) I especially loved this section, about the screening:

I was giddy, insanely giddy, it was true, but I had a perfect right to be just then. As my Depression-tempered grandfather used to say whenever he had the chance, “Things are tough all over, Walt.” And nowadays things are tough indeed for novelists, especially for we who won’t do vampires and don’t embed mystical codes in our plots. Yet somehow, like Ryan Bingham, I’d come through. There I was up on screen for a long few seconds, in fact: an author seated just inches from one of his characters—one that he’d both written and written off. Reitman had stuck me there to tickle my vanity, and Clooney himself had made sure I’d stay put, even after the movie was edited. “You sit close enough to me, you won’t be cut,” he’d said. And the man knows his business. Watch the movie: You’ll see.

Oh, Clooney. I love you so. One degree, man, one degree.

(I also love the bit about Kirn’s girlfriend immediately turning her blackberry back on after having sex … such a funny detail.)

I have not read the novel, but now I really want to.

Go read the whole thing. It’s a great piece about process.