A Week at the Airport

June 15, 2010

An unfiltered meditation on the airport, a space that de Botton (The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, 2009, etc.) argues is representative of humanity's philosophical outlook.

While spending a week in London's Heathrow Airport as its first "writer-in-residence," the author was given a desk positioned in the departures hall, generous access to the airport's nooks and crannies and a room at the adjacent hotel, all with the expectation that he would compose a book on-site. The result is this slim, lighthearted volume, which is often punctuated with wry observations about things most travelers don't think twice about—e.g., the assembly of in-flight meals or the popularity of thrillers at the airport bookstores ("High above the earth, [passengers] were looking to panic about being murdered, and thereby to forget their more mundane fears"). The author synthesizes hundreds of these small details into a sociological report, concluding that the airport encompasses many of the tenets of modern culture. Whether it's our increased reliance on technology—from the automated check-in to the fantastically complicated management of coded flight patterns—the simple comfort of being greeted at the arrivals gate or the erection of a new, aesthetically adventurous terminal designed by Richard Rogers, the details of an airport reflect human ambition and desire. De Botton also doesn't miss the opportunity to include a few witticisms about the contrast between the life of an author and that of an airline pilot: "I would never be able to acquire the virtues that I so admired in them...and must instead forever remain a hesitant and inadequate creature who would almost certainly start weeping if asked to land a 777 amid foggy ground conditions in Newfoundland." In addition to the author's musings, each page is adorned with an accompanying full-color photograph by Richard Baker, lending visual evidence that is especially welcome when de Botton explores the areas of Heathrow that are off-limits to the average traveler, like the corporate offices of British Airways' CEO or the middle of an airstrip at midnight. Not surprisingly, it is often in these behind-the-scenes moments that the author's perceptions are especially keen.

Enjoyable and informative—perfect in-flight reading.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2010

Fans of de Botton's brand of extrapolating large truths from small details will consume his new book with pleasure. While an all-too-extended stay at the airport induces in most of us feelings of frustration and boredom, for de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life) the setup and the results were different. He accepted the invitation of Heathrow Airport's owner to serve as writer-in-residence at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 for one week, sitting at a special desk in the departure hall and staying at an airport hotel, with security clearance to roam at will. Second, he knew it was all in order to write a book of his impressions. Sometimes he simply observes (e.g., lovers who must part), and sometimes he interacts (with the shoeshine man in the basement or the CEO of British Airways), but he is always accompanied by Baker, who provides color snapshots. VERDICT Whether ruminating on consumerism, currency exchange, the control room, or Raymond Carver, de Botton can set you to thinking in new ways as he finds the transcendent in the ordinary. Some serious readers may find his approach facile. It should be remembered that he wears his learning and his own sense of self lightly. Recommended for all who appreciate the de Botton touch.--Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2010
Travel writer de Botton sees the airport as the nexus of all that plagues and fascinates us about modern life: environmental destruction, high technology, constant movement, glittering distractions, consumerist temptations, and social interaction and isolation. Having accepted an invitation from British Airways to spend a week at its home, Terminal 5 of Heathrow, he is given unprecedented access to all the parts of the airport that travelers dont generally see. So, along with the shopping areas and arrival and departure and baggage-claim areas, he wanders into the huge stations for airplane repairs, the vast storage areas for rejected samples for cabin paraphernalia, the behind-the-scene offices, and the massive food-preparation areas. From a desk announcing his position as writer in residence, de Botton engages in conversations with business travelers, parting lovers, vacationing families, and the myriad workersstationary and passing throughfor whom the airport is workplace. Author of the best-selling The Art of Travel (2002), de Botton is amusing and lyrical in his observations of our modern comings and goings. Photographs add to the allure of this engaging look at air travel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)