Christopher Priest - Airside

In 1949, the massive Hollywood star Jeanette Marchand landed at London airport. She got off the plane, the only passenger in first class for that leg of the journey, the crew watched her walk into the arrivals building, but she never left. She was never seen again. Her disappearance was the subject of a few weeks of intense newspaper discussion, and then she was forgotten. Her career a footnote in Hollywood history.

A couple of decades later, Justin Farmer begins to dig into the mystery. As a youngster he saw Marchand in several old films, then as a film student he looked back into her career and later, as a world famous film expert and critic he, though a series of chance encounters, starts to uncover the secret. Farmer is obsessive - he documents every film he has ever seen in minute detail, and he has a strange and uncomfortable relationship with air travel. Airports, partly related to his own childhood in a primary school near Manchester airport, and partly related to his film interests, become a focus for this obsession. They are strange places, intensely time focused, but also timeless. Farmer begins to see airports as places that are the focus for disappearance, and on a global work related trip, jetlagged and tired he has his own strange experiences.

Airside is an unusual book. It reads like a work of non-fiction, with staccato prose, factual and pointed. Marchand is, of course, invented. But her career is depicted in the obsessive detail that a film buff like Farmer would produce. Her life, loves, and films form the focus for an intense account which jumps back and forth as Farmer unravels historic events. The book is compelling. At times its not really clear what is happening, and Priest adds to the mystery and the feeling of non-fiction by inserting invented reviews by Farmer about films - these add to the concepts of the airport and a strange space, give us insights into the tension of Hollywood in the pre-Hays era and also give us a sense of Farmer himself - obsessive, but devoted to film and those he loves.

Sadly the strange premise and compelling, intense novel are let down by a weak and somewhat obvious conclusion - though Priest handles the ending in a rather surprising and enjoyable way. The feeling of unsettling, unreality that is Priest's trademark is heavily on display here. Readers should enjoy this for the journey more than the ending- though if you find airports and air travel anxiety inducing, you might well want to skip this. 

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