[4] Robert Bingham, founder and then-editor of the New York literary magazine Open City, had already published a few of Berman's poems.

[5] Publishers Weekly praised the book, comparing parts of it to the poetry of John Ashbery and Thomas Lux and writing, "Berman's debut [announces] the discovery of great American poetic storytelling by a new generation.

"[3] In his review for Spin, Joshua Clover praised the book, writing, "his instrument is his own; very few of the poems fail to find a finger of mystery, a ring of familiarity.

"[7][8] Writing for Boston Review, poet Ethan A. Paquin called Berman a "master collector of American miscellany" and praising Berman's ability "to examine the pathos underpinning banal scenery and situations [...] with eyes trained on beauty and transcendence," producing "a lush and poignant portrait of "the view from falling behind.

In conversation with Mason, Billy Collins said the poems of Actual Air "are full of complex turns and tricks and conceptual hijinks, and yet there's this surface clarity.