IMAGINE A CITY

Come fly with me, beckons the author of Skyfaring in this beguiling tour of cities both real and imagined.

As a young boy surrounded by model planes, Vanhoenacker fell under the spell not only of aviation, but also of far-off destinations. His own city—Pittsfield, Massachusetts—had its attractions, including an airport that “stands a little higher than Ouagadougou’s, and a little lower than Geneva’s.” More mysterious was Boston, over the horizon, and beyond it a city of his own construction: “My city is where I travel to when I’m sad or worried, or when I don’t wish to think about what I don’t like about myself….It’s also where I go when I want to escape my dawning awareness that I’m gay.” As an adult, more comfortable in his own skin, Vanhoenacker began piloting long-haul jets all around the world, and he takes readers to Kuala Lumpur, Cape Town, Brasília, Jeddah, Sapporo, and numerous other places that may be exotic or familiar but that he views through a singular lens. One of the things that captures his attention is the quality of light, as when, coming into Los Angeles, he marvels at the “profligately lit” viewscape; or when, admiring one of countless sunrises, he lowers his gaze away from the reds and oranges along the horizon to exalt in his favorite color, blue, and its appearance in “the mirroring realms of the ocean and the heavens.” The author is as eager to learn about his whereabouts as was Barry Lopez. Vanhoenacker is a collector of sumptuous details such as the “imperfect radii or broken spokes” of London’s layout and the difficulties he faced learning Japanese. Philosophically rich without being ponderous, belonging on the same shelf as books by Saint-Exupéry, Markham, and Langewiesche, Vanhoenacker’s book is unfailingly interesting, full of empathetic details on faraway places and lives. It’s an absolute pleasure for any world citizen and a trove for any traveler.

A sparkling addition to the literature of flight.