Around the World in a Bad Mood by Rene Foss: book review

Around the World in a Bad Mood: Confessions of a Flight Attendant by Rene Foss (2002) is the memoir of an American flight attendant from 1985 to 1998.

Rene Foss wrote the novel after 16 years as a flight attendant, which is based upon her 1998 musical revue of the same name. That’s because she really wanted to be an actress, but the airline interview and job got her to the first stop on her way to an acting job: New York.

She begins with her youthful ambition and her father’s urging for her not to pursue acting, but to get a job with benefits. She writes about the airline interview, the training, and the job – from the first four years as a reserve flight attendant to her seniority in a ‘set schedule.’ She uses the fictional airline name WAFTI.

She uses a lot of humour to describe the attendants’ use of a secret language, inconveniences, delays, and layover, as well as phobias, medical emergencies, and trash. A lot of trash.

I like the chapter called “Boarding A Shakespearean Tragedy” about the desperate measures passengers take to get a first class seat.

She also writes of lessons in life: excess baggage, expecting the unexpected, and having an exit plan.

While slightly dated, there are still many anecdotes that are relevant in today’s international flight travel. The humour and style provide a funny, witty, interesting, and quick read.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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