Around the World in a Bad Mood!: Confessions of a Flight Attendant

by Rene Foss

Overview

This hilarious book confronts every aspect of a flight attendant's absurd world—from the endless array of passenger demands, to the secret language of flight attendants, and a unique version of the Safety Demo Shuffle. Fasten your seatbelt and prepare yourself for a side-splitting perspective on the trials and tribulations of air travel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786890118
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/06/2002
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Rene Foss, a second-generation flight attendant, has been an employee of a major airline for 16 years. She is the writer and star of the musical review Around the World in a Bad Mood!, which has been performed in Minneapolis, New York, and other major cities. A native of Minneapolis, she currently lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Rene Foss shares her tales of mayhem at high altitudes with readers in Around the World in a Bad Mood, a wildly funny memoir of life as a flight attendant. Foss, who has also turned her experiences in the air into a hit musical, relates tales of egotistical pilots, medical emergencies, upgrade-obsessed passengers, and nightmare layovers.

bn.com

A flight attendant for 16 years, Foss developed a musical revue based on her experience, "Around the World in a Bad Mood," which has been performed in various cities since February 2000. In this print version, she candidly describes the inconvenience of flying from the perspective of a flight attendant, who constantly must handle complaints, delays, food service, air rage, customer misbehavior, and confessions from other flight attendants, e.g., one ate the chocolate-covered strawberries meant for the customers. Chapters stand alone, describing different aspects of the culture of airline travel; one includes the lyrics to the "Safety Demo Shuffle." There are also insightful details about living in Manhattan in a small studio with a large number of roommates, about the flight attendant's complicated schedule, and about the profession's inevitable frustrations and exciting benefits. Bound to be popular owing to Foss's upbeat attitude and the appeal of the topic itself, this book belongs in large public libraries. Alison Hopkins, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Humorous (and not so humorous) sketches about the life of a flight attendant, a follow-up to the author's musical revue of the same title. Exposes by members of the service professions, from doctors and waiters to cab drivers and cops, are a publishing mainstay. Sixteen-year veteran flight attendant Foss knows the genre's requirements: (1) insider accounts of training, working, and scandal within the profession; (2) funny stories about encounters with the public. The author is at her best, however, when not trying so hard to be amusing. It's a jolt to learn that flight-attendant training shares much of the discipline and brutality of boot camp. Despite impressive perks (free air-travel anytime), the work itself is grueling; meanwhile, though, readers will enjoy the author's nuts-and-bolts description of her duties. Meal service up narrow aisles is a complex, by-the-numbers team effort quickly thrown into chaos when too many passengers decide to go to the bathroom. And a delightful chapter describes the attendant's interminable chore of collecting trash. Inevitably, the jokes and attempts at humor miss as often as they hit, though there are plenty of zingers ("How does a flight attendant say ‘Fuck you' to a passenger? ‘I'll be right back' "), and the rules for passengers are worth memorizing ("Never poke a flight attendant"). Anecdotes about passengers from hell are a staple, and many are amusing. Unwanted, though, are the lyrics and sketches from Foss's revue; they were probably entertaining when performed but shouldn't have been included here. It was also misguided to add a final chapter describing her in-the-air experiences on September 11, no matter how de rigueur it seems for writersthese days. Not quite as funny as it should be, but the behind-the-scenes peek at the flight attendant's life makes it mostly worthwhile.

Kirkus Reviews