Airport stories

Why would anyone want to live in an airport They are after all mere points of transition, way side stops between one plane and the next, one country and another. Nowhere places, that fill an idle hour or two with duty-free shops, Burger Kings, and the company of strangers who tell tales of dubious authenticity. But what do you do if you&rsquore stranded at an airport&mdashif you&rsquore application for asylum gets rejected or your plane delayed You tell stories that try to fill the gap.

23^rd May 2004 I am sitting on my red bench from the Bye Bye Bar in the middle of Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting to leave. I am waiting for a green card so I can go to America. I am waiting for a British passport so I can go to England. I am waiting for my documentation so I can go anywhere,&rdquo are the dazed opening lines of Terminal Man (Corgi Rs356), the &lsquotrue&rsquo story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri&rsquos aka Sir Alfred Mehran, who has lived in the Charles de Gaulle airport for the last sixteen years. Why is Sir Alfred living in an airport His story is complicated&mdashmore so by the neurotic self-obsessed delusions that he suffers from. He was brought up in Iran, and came to England in the 1970s to study. One day his grant (from the Iranian government) stops, and he returns only to be arrested. Someone had apparently seen him protest against the Shah. He is deported to England, where his asylum request is rejected. He shuttles from country to country in a tragicomic limbo till he arrives at the Charles de Gaulle airport&mdash&lsquohome&rsquo for the next 16 years. &ldquoEvery day,&rdquo says Sir Alfred, &ldquois exactly the same.&rdquo Almost. Fact and fiction merge in this disturbing (and dead-pan) book, as Sir Alfred disintegrates into the an identity-less nowhere person.

Rana Dasgupta&rsquos Tokyo Cancelled tells a different and lighter tale. Thirteen people stranded at an airport decide to spend the night telling each other stories. The alienated blandness of an airport lounge come alive with bizarre tales. Some of which like the &lsquoThe House of the Frankfurt Mapmaker&rsquo, the story of a Turkish girl given shelter by a German cartographer, are badly written, and forced. Others like &lsquoThe Store on Madison Avenue&rsquo, about the adventures of Robert de Niro&rsquos child from a chance encounter in a laundromat with Isabella Rosselini&rsquos daughter, are implausible but fun. These are stories which don&rsquot belong to any place or time. An enjoyable book&mdashbest read in an airport.