The Airport Novel

The Airport Novel is by far an interesting genre. At a glance, books which can be put under this classification may be seen as something which is merely meant to make an otherwise boring experience a bit less boring, by offering a superficial, engaging, and lengthy story to pass the time whilst one is waiting for a delayed flight, waiting in a baggage line and the normal fare of an airport's monotony. While to a certain extent the Airport Novel is merely a vehicle for the passing of otherwise boring hours, as a genre it is an integral part of American literature which cannot be ignored.

The most famous of all Airport Novels is Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code, an, at the time, controversial book which put forth backless claims about the Catholic Church within the pretext of an exciting treasure hunt throughout the English and Norman countryside. It is the finest example of the genre, and because of that it is rightly among one of the best selling books of all time. It shows some of the finest characteristics of the Airport Novel, and Brown masterfully created the perfect Airport Novel with everything that should be there and adding a philosophical challenge which is generally absent from the genre. If an individual were to read it before noting how many pages in length it was, such would require a double take, for its 359 pages seem like less then a hundred during the process of reading it, for it is so engaging and so well written that it and the hours it takes to read it pass away like a vapor. It maintains the level of superficiality which is required from it and its brethren, for even after reading it five or six times, it is still difficult to have a clear picture as to who on Earth the protagonist, Robert Langdon really is. Altogether, it is being very engaging, long and yet maintaining an almost comical superficiality that make the Da Vinci Code the best example of the Airport Novel that there can be found in print.

Other examples of fine Airport Novels include the Firm, by John Grisham; a Time to Kill, also by John Grisham; and Mary Mary by James Patterson. All of which are shining examples of the genre, each of which produced with a formula not unlike that which produced the Da Vinci Code and each