Abstract
At the heart of Airport Novel is a conflict between what we know and what we feel. We know we are in an airport in a certain city in a certain country, but we feel we are nowhere at all. We know we are a person with a body and mind, but we feel misty and unreal. We know we’re flying thousands of feet up in the air, moving rapidly across time zones, but it’s impossible to feel this is true while sitting in an airconditioned cabin, our senses overwhelmed by discomfort, distraction, and entertainment. This is the fundamental condition that Airport Novel explores. The book is rooted in the perspective of the narrator who is and is not named, who does and does not have a past. At times claustrophobic in closeness to his every thought and physical sensation, at times the narrator seems to dissolve entirely in the face of stronger personalities. The story moves episodically from one interaction to the next, never leaving the confines of the airport or the airplane, with each traveler along the way offering new surprises, new challenges, and new opportunities for the narrator. He’s a willing listener, but there’s a selfish desire at the heart of his willingness. The narrator is always looking for escape, sometimes only a momentary diversion from the work of self-reflection, and sometimes real rescue, someone to come along, take him away from the airport, and give him a real life. If the narrator still has hope that things could change, the reader knows better. We follow him from one airport to the next not to see if he will break free, but to see how he will manage to keep going.
