All dressed up and nowhere to go.

I really, really enjoyed Alain de Botton's book A Week at the Airport.

The book is based on such an enjoyably weird premise that I couldn't help but be charmed by it. De Botton, best known for his nonfiction books How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Consolations of Philosophy, and The Art of Travel, was invited by one of the owners of the newly refurbished Heathrow Airport* to hang around the airport and its connecting hotel for a week and write a book about the experience, as a sort of airport "writer in residence."

The result is a slim narrative divided into the sections of Approach, Departures, Airside, and Arrivals; and containing fantastic photographs by Richard Baker.** De Botton describes the airport, shares the stories of travelers and airport workers he interviewed, and muses a bit on the nature of travel and transience in our modern world. As always, his text is just a little bit full of itself ("The mighty steel bracing of the airport's ceiling recalled the scaffolding of the great nineteenth-century railway stations, and evoked the sense of awe--suggested in paintings such as Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare--that must have been experienced by the first crowds to step inside these light-filled, iron-limbed halls pullulating with strangers, buildings that enabled a person to sense viscerally, rather than just grasp intellectually, the vastness and diversity of humanity"), but his text isn't what I really enjoy de Botton for. I really just enjoy his ideas and the way his prose is a little bit ridiculous but still does a great job of making you feel you're in the situation he's describing.

So yeah, I liked it. Mainly I liked it because just looking at it made me remember the few airports I've had the good luck to visit,*** and the excitement I felt at being there and going on trips. I'll never forget Mr. CR's and my first morning in London--we got off the plane at Heathrow and stumbled our way, exhausted, to the attached Underground station to King's Cross, where we were going to have to catch a train for our five-hour ride to Edinburgh (on pretty much no sleep, mind you). Before we got on the subway we popped up to a surface exit where we could use the restroom, and London was waking up, with the sky just lightening, traffic starting to move, a bit of a brisk nip in the fall air, and airport and Underground workers taking a smoke break. It was all so different and sensually overpowering and I felt so untethered, what with being off my home continent and all. And I felt ALL of that again when I read this book. Fantastic.

*in London, England, another reason I was destined to like this book. And: it's only 107 pages long. Sweet!

**I love his photography, and it makes the book so much more enjoyable. Tons more adult nonfiction books should include pictures or photographs.

***I LOVE airports. I'd feel differently about them if I had to travel for a living, but once I had to kill like five hours by myself in the Detroit airport, and rarely have I had such fun.

Comments

[Venta]

You're a genius, CR. I was trying to figure out what to get my husband for Valentine's Day (I would prefer to skip it, but Rick thinks my feelings will be hurt if we don't "celebrate" the day.) Since he travels so much, this would be perfect. I gave him Dear American Airlines, and he enjoyed it. I was a little worried about De Botton's writing, because it's not really my or my husband's style, but you convinced me. I'm sorry I can't buy it through Powell's. Not enough time.

I agree wholeheartedly with you about photographs in nonfiction. When they are in the book, they are the first thing I look at. They are valuable for setting the tone and context. Love the photographs!

[Citizen Reader]

Venta,
I'm the farthest thing from a genius, sadly, but I'm so glad it sounds like this book will work for Rick. I hope he likes it, or at least finds it interesting. Will you let us know what he thinks? I get a real kick out of De Botton but I'll admit he's not for everyone. The photographs really added a lot, though, so hopefully that will make it worthwhile!

[Olduvai]

I'm coming out of lurkdom to say, I love airports too! I've never admitted that to anyone before, but since you're a fellow airport lover too, I feel comfortable enough to come out with this little secret :). It's been quite a while since I've been at Heathrow but I wouldn't mind wandering through an airport through de Botton's eyes for a while! I've just requested this from my library, so thanks for the recommendation.

[Citizen Reader]

Olduvai,
Always glad to have lurkers, and glad when they come out of lurkdom. There's no shame in liking airports (although I could see how they could get very, VERY old if you had to travel for a living)--they really are fascinating places for their very, for lack of a better term, "devoidness." I don't own a cell phone and I don't travel with my laptop, so airports are these delicious places where I'm completely untethered, even if I haven't yet made it to my destination.

Hope you like the book--do pop back in and let me know what you think.

[Pam]

I am so excited to find your site. I have a nonfiction book site too, and am always looking for other cool blogs that love nonfiction. I'm adding you to my blogroll, and I'm also going to post this review as part of my "Nonfiction on the Web" feature. I will have to come back and check all of your reviews out. What fun!

[Citizen Reader]

Pam,
Thanks for alerting me to your site, as well, and for collecting nonfiction links around the web! I agree...the more nonfiction the merrier. What fun indeed!