the airplane with the overflowing toilets [3]. Ms. King says the endless loops of passengers recalling the smells and the sights reinforces our fears that we are just a few blips away from the awful conditions which existed in the timeframe Ms. Cockayne's book explores.
"Our obsessive need to talk about s--t and our compulsion to see it as a symbol of death exposes with merciless clarity what is really on our minds. We are aware of our national regression and harbor a deep fear that the country is breaking down. Among the many intriguing quotations in this book is one by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who said: ‘A lack of personal hygiene excites an uneasy sensation in others.' We live with that uneasy sensation every day. Water shortages, low-flow shower heads, sluggish ever-shrinking toilets, blackouts, brownouts, and now food scares that become the subject of two-hour documentaries so that all the reporters get to say ‘diarrhea' in every other sentence.
"Americans in the Age of Terrorism live with the dread certainty that one day soon we will be stuck indefinitely in some airport for weeks, with no possibility of showering or even washing, without clean underwear but with diarrhea, our toothbrushes confiscated, and all women forced to surrender every sanitary napkin and tampon they packed so that Security can rip them open to see if there's anything inside.
"The uneasy sensation we feel is not fear of another 9/11 per se, but a fear that another 9/11 will be the Day the Plumbing Stopped."
Had I seen this book in my local store, I would have ignored completely; but after this review, I think it will be a fascinating read. Well done, Florence King!
