About the Book

Book Synopsis

"On the last leg of our flight back from Vietnam," writes the author of this scintillating collection, "I check my watch and do some fast math: twenty-eight hours since we left the hotel in Hoi An, three flights, five hours of dead time in the old Saigon Airport, three hours lost in a diversion for a medical emergency somewhere near Reykjavik--and still another two hours to JFK. Then waiting for the bags, lining up at Customs, and watching anxiously for our limo before crawling along the Van Wyck Expressway and over the GWB. The body rebels, and the psyche deflates. Crankiness out-muscles common sense. I write in a notebook, This is the end of world travel for me.
Whether it is actually the end or not isn't the issue. It's the intensity of those feelings that interests me. After fifty years of frequent flying--outside of the continental U.S. and often to exotic Third World locations--I am losing my appetite for adventure. Let me rephrase this: Perhaps what I'm losing is my tolerance for frustration. What's happened to my flexibility? Sense of humor? Curiosity? Perspective? How do I account for feeling so grouchy and entitled?" The book itself richly provides her answer.

Review Quotes

"A moving collection of short pieces filled with provocations and insights drawn from a life of engagement in the world. Friedensohn offers us a way of seeing from an appreciatively privileged perspective filled with poignancy and wisdom. Her sharp insights into every encounter reveal universal themes of love and death, flavored with food and laughter as well as tears. This book will convince you that pen and paper can capture more than a camera."

--Alice Kessler-Harris, author of A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman

"As a tourist and itinerant American Studies and Women's Studies educator during trips to Tbilisi and Tunisia, Guinea and Guatemala, Nablus and Nuremberg, Havana and Ho Chi Minh City (to name just a few of the places she takes us) for over half a century, Friedensohn helps us ponder the meaning of travel and tourism; of art, artifact, and authenticity; of globalization; and of human connection. Her curiosity and openness, her self-critical introspection, and her gentle and refreshing sense of humor make her a boon traveling companion indeed."

--Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities and Professor of English, Stanford University

"Strikingly written, Friedensohn's internal and external journeys stimulate the reader's sense of exploration throughout, delivering the joy of discovery. What a fascinating trip!"

--Nan Bauer-Maglin, Editor, Widows' Words: Women Write on the Experience of Grief, The First Year, The Long Haul, and Everything in Between

"Doris Friedensohn's captivating travel essays mingle incisive appreciation of cultural mores with revealing personal moments, providing a fresh lens with which to view the world. She captures the essence of each location with a perfect travel writer's eye for telling detail, infusing each piece with intelligence and humor. I can't think of a better armchair traveling companion than Airports are for Waiting."

--Rita D. Jacobs, author of The Way In: Journal Writing for Self-Discovery

"As a cosmopolitan feminist and Americanist keenly alert to the dynamics of gender, class, and power, Doris Friedensohn here celebrates the extraordinary resilience and creativity of people in a wide variety circumstances as they cope with a rapidly changing world. She asks penetrating questions of her hosts, students, and others. She listens carefully. She closely observes their--and her own--interactions with the societies they inhabit. And on her return to the U.S., she produces vivid, memorable reflections. A terrific read!"

--Michael Cowan, Professor Emeritus of American Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz