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Summary
Summary
What if a miraculous plane landing was no miracle? In the vein of Christopher Buckley and Gary Shteyngart, Jon Methven reimagines such an event as a PR stunt in this biting, hilarious satire on the culture of hero worship and celebrity.
A PILOT, A JOURNALIST, AND A SEMEN TRAFFICKER WALK ONTO A PLANE . . .
When flight AW2921 crashes into the Hudson River and all 162 passengers survive, it's a Monday morning miracle. What the rapturous public doesn't know: the whole thing was staged as a last-ditch attempt at resurrecting the Air Wanderlust stock price.
Captain Hank Swagger piloted the miracle plane into the river. Disgraced TV news anchor Lucy Springer was "luckily" the only reporter on board, and the first to capture the story. Con man Normal Fulk recently faked his own death to escape the consequences of his barely legal career as a celebrity semen trafficker. Toting his last big score--the "John Lennon"--Normal has to leave it behind on the sinking plane or risk being identified and arrested.
In the aftermath of the crash and the chaotic week that follows, Lucy, Normal, and Captain Swagger are all about to discover what it means to be at the center of a miracle that is anything but.
Author Notes
Jon Methven has worked as a paperboy, a dishwasher, a Ponderosa meat cook (everything medium well), a pizza deliverer, a golf course grounds crewman, a barbecue seasoning filter employee, an illegal barbecue seasoning filter employee since he was living in Australia without a work visa at the time, a bartender, a mascot at Yankee Stadium (Mr. Popcorn), a journalist, a taste tester, and a cubicle dweller. He knows things you can only dream of knowing, or can learn if willing to work for minimum wage. His work has appeared at Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency, n+1, The New York Times , and New York magazine, and he currently writes the "Analytically Speaking" column that appears Mondays at The Awl. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Methven's buoyant debut fictionalizes Captain "Sully" Sullenberger's emergency water landing, the renowned Miracle on the Hudson, and asks "what, if anything, it has to do with celebrity ejaculate," specifically John Lennon's. Fugitive semen trafficker Normal Fulk has smuggled a vial aboard the Air Wanderlust flight that Capt. Hank Swagger water-lands off Manhattan's Pier 66, bringing Fulk back into the viewfinder of Rory Genius-Temple, a violent thug and producer of the reality show Semen Pirates. While Swagger's heroics may reverse the airline's financial nosedive, his evacuation ass-slapping draws the suspicions of another passenger, Celebrity Twitter Beat anchor and Sandra Bullock look-alike Lucy Springer. Noting that the rescue is too orderly, the boats too swift, and the passengers too good-looking, Springer smells a hoax. As Fulk, Swagger, and Springer execute-and sometimes botch-their missions, a man called Blackie Spin sits in the shadows, pulling the strings. Fans of McSweeney's Internet Tendency will relish this frequent contributor's snappy farce about publicity, celebrity culture, and a ne'er-do-well's attempt to save some crippled orphans by way of one Beatle's frozen swimmers. Agent: David Patterson, Foundry Literary + Media. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
What if the "Miracle on the Hudson" were completely faked by an unscrupulous airline company in order to boost prices? And what if we got a guy to write the whole thing up just like Carl Hiaasen? Frequent McSweeney's contributor Methven employs a very familiar menagerie of misfits, misanthropes and damaged goods in his episodic debut novel. Told over the course of seven days, the book chronicles the epic story of Air Wanderlust Flight 2921. In the midst of a routine flight, the plane loses both engines in a "birdstrike," and Captain Hank Swagger brings the flying brick to a miraculous halt in the Hudson River, saving all 162 souls on board. Except that it's all a ruse, an invention designed to save the company and turn its alcoholic cowboy pilot into a national hero. To lend the book comic heft, Methven follows two additional passengers. The first, Normal Fulk, is a con man who recently faked his own death and is mourning the loss of his most prized possession--a vial containing the frozen sperm of John Lennon. "And really, passengers, was it not inevitable that it would come to this--the general citizenry, those with a little cash left and looking to burn it on a new vice--wanting to own the genetic code of their most beloved celebrities?" Methven asks. Where the book ratchets up the absurdity is in the story of Lucy Springer, a media darling whose two loves were her banker husband and a doppelganger named "Ava Tardner," the puppet costume she was wearing when she shot up her cheating husband's office. This leads a judge to sentence her to wear the puppet at all times, even on air. It's Lucy who begins pulling at the frayed edges of the Swagger story, unraveling it bit by unhinged bit. Don't miss Methven's psychotic, if interactive, reading group guide at the end. A quick-witted comedy about celebrity a bit too tongue-in-cheek for its own good.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In his scathing debut, Methven offers a Pynchonesque, offbeat parody of American media coverage and celebrity. After staging his own death, Normal Fulk haphazardly chose Air Wanderlust flight 2921 in an attempt to flee his complicated career as a semen trafficker and the TV mogul who wants to make him a reality star. Unfortunately, AW2921 crashes into the Hudson River. Everyone survives, but things seem a little off. There's the overly prepared crew, the unusually beautiful passengers, and the calm pilot, who seems to instantly know he's a hero. But Captain Hank Swagger doesn't feel like a hero because he knows the truth the crash was staged in order to boost airline stock prices. And then there's passenger Lucy Springer, a washed-up celebrity-gossip journalist who may have found her chance to reclaim her career. As Normal desperately attempts to retrieve a prized vial of John Lennon's semen from the plane's flooded wreckage and disappear forever, the characters' lives tailspin into a smart, fast-paced farce in which Methven ably satirizes America's signature take on reality and culture of greed.--Fullmer, Jonathan Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Flight AW2921 is leaving New York when it has a sudden engine failure. Capt. Hank Swagger, ignoring available runways and open fields, chooses to land on the Hudson River, where a fleet of ferries just happens to be waiting. His perfect landing saves the lives of 162 surprisingly beautiful people. Disgraced TV reporter Lucy Springer is onboard and immediately senses that the perfect landing feels staged. Passenger Normal Fulk also notices that something is wrong, though it could be his own tragic luck. Lucy wants a story, Swagger wants the glory, and all Normal wants to do is save the semen of John Lennon he was illegally trafficking when the plane went down. These unlikely characters come together to unravel the conspiracy behind Air Wanderlust's miraculous landing. Verdict Debut author Methven has written a fast-paced, fun, and thought-provoking satire. While at times crass, the deeply flawed characters pull the reader in until one can't help cheering on their foibles. This will strongly appeal to readers of Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore.-Jennifer Beach, Cumberland Cty. P.L., VA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
