Posted: February 24, 2023
Airport
I enjoyed Arthur Hailey's "Hotel" so much that I looked forward to this read of "Airport" - and it did not disappoint.
This novel met my expectations of an Arthur Hailey novel. First, that it would ba an easy read, check. Next that I would come off it knowing a lot about a particular subject matter, in this case, airports, check.
Reading some reviews before I dipped into the book I got the idea that it was more exciting than "Hotel" and it is. The first two thirds of the book was merely interesting; I read a chapter or two then would come back again to read a chapter or two. The last third of the book is a different story, I had difficulty putting the book down - the last eighty pages are particularly exciting.
"Hotel" gave us a week in a hotel. This book just gives us a day - a very long day - at an airport. Lincoln International in Illinois is presented to us on a particularly trying day. There is a snowstorm and one of the airport runways has been blocked by a stalled airliner. We are introduced to the main character of the book, Mel, the airport manager. Aside from Mel we meet everybody else that has to do with airports and airliners, including some very eccentric passengers. I'm hard put to think of any industry-related role that Arthur Hailey has missed. Everyone from air traffic controllers, pilots, stewardesses, maintenance crews, airport concessionaires, just everyone becomes a part of this story.
Looking at some of the reviews of Hailey's books, I am well-aware that some critics have been fairly brutal and dismissive in their opinions. Such harsh critiques are totally unjustified. The two books of his I have read are great examples of the storytelling art. A big plus is that they are also educational, informing readers about a particular industry. I don't have the books yet but I'm keen on someday reading both "The Moneychangers", a book about banking, and "Wheels", a book about the automobile industry.
Arthur Hailey is an author that does not deserve to be consigned to a particular era and treated as a "flash in the pan". His books are well crafted and worthy of constant readership.