Airport novels represent a literary genre that is not so much
defined by its plot or cast of stock characters, as much as it is by the social function it serves. An airport novel is typically a fairly
long but fast-paced novel of intrigue or adventure that is stereotypically found in the
reading fare offered by airport newsstands for travellers to read in the rounds of sitting and waiting that constitute air travel. Perhaps it will be finished in the hotel room that awaits them at the end of the journey;
perhaps it will be saved for the return trip.
Considering the marketing of fiction as a trade, airport novels occupy a niche similar to the one that once was occupied by
pulp magazine fiction and other reading materials typically sold at
newsstands and kiosks to travellers. This pulp fiction is one obvious source for the
genre; sprawling historical novels of exotic adventure such as
those by James Michener and James Clavell are another source. In French, such
novels are called romans de gare, "railway station novels," suggesting that
writers in France were aware of this potential market at an even earlier date.
Meeting the reading needs of travelers
An airport novel must necessarily be superficially engaging, while not being particularly profound or philosophical, or at
least, without such content being necessary for enjoyment of the book. The reader is not a person alone, in a quiet setting,
contemplating deep thoughts or savouring fine writing; the reader is being jostled and penned among strangers, and seeks
distraction from the boredom and inconveniences of travel. The writer of an airport novel must meet the needs of readers in this
situation.
The realisation that this niche market for mass market
paperbacks had given rise to a new genre was slow in coming. Perhaps a defining moment in the history of the genre came in
1968, when Arthur Hailey published
Airport, an
airport novel that used the commercial flight industry to frame an adventure yarn about a disaster in an airport. Hailey's other
novels, soap opera tales with complex plots of adultery and intrigue featuring
business characters, using a number of other industries as backdrops (e.g. The Final Diagnosis
(hospitals); Hotel (hotels); Wheels (automobile industry); The Moneychangers (banking)) represented an emerging genre.
Format
Airport novels are always paperback books of a small but thick
format. These books are seldom made to last, printed on inexpensive newsprint,
and they often begin to fall apart after one or two readings. This is not a problem for their intended purpose; they are made to
be bought on impulse, and their readers often discard them when finished.
Airport novels are typically quite long books; a book that a reader was able to finish before the journey was done would
similarly be unsatisfying. Because of this length, the genre attracts prolific authors, who use their output as a sort of
branding; each author is identified with a certain sort of story, and produces many
variations of the same thing. Well known authors' names often figure in letters larger than the title on the covers of airport
novels, often in embossed letters.
Themes
A number of literary genres dominate the airport novel market. Complex and byzantine plots involving world-spanning or
multigeneration conspiracies are often found. Spy fiction, political thrillers, techno-thrillers, legal fiction and similar tales of
espionage or intrigue make up a large chunk of the market. Romances, especially romances involving wealthy jet
set characters, also loom large in the genre. Some historical
fiction occurs, especially multigenerational family sagas or tales that
take place over the course of decades or centuries in a colourful location.
Science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction are conspicuous by their
absence, even if the tales of espionage and intrigue often mention fantastic technologies. Wizards and extraterrestrial explorers do not seem to
make the airport novel reader's heart beat faster; spies, government and military officials, and powerful business executives do.
Perhaps as a consequence, airport novel writers tend to be more conservative in politics than other writers do; Tom Clancy,
Frederick Forsyth, and Tom Wolfe are writers within the genre that have been linked with conservative politics.
Whatever the genre, airport novels typically contain pages of explicit description of sexual encounters, often to the point of
pornography; unlike pictorial pornography, an elaborate sexual fantasy that appears only in text can be enjoyed by the reader without
making it too obvious to the other passengers what is being read. The cover of an airport novel is often a painting that depicts
a collage of attractive women and action scenes.
Writers of airport novels
Writers whose work is identified with the airport novel genre include:
Reference
- Junk Food Entertainment (http://www.mxac.com.au/drt/JunkFoodEntertainment.htm) - Mike Rozak contemplates the
difference between airport novels and classic novels.
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