Despite really liking 1984 (I was about to write “enjoying”, then realized it wasn’t the best of terms for the book!) I’ve never really been a fan of Orwell. Honestly, I’ve only read this book because a few weeks ago I picked up Penguin’s complete Orwell novels.
Turns out, I really did like Coming up for Air too. After the first few
pages on the dullness of the main character’s life I thought I was in for
another Keep the Aspidistra Flying
(and that would have been a big, big disappointment), but I was wrong and this
book is quite a lot more than that. The bleakness of the setting actually
reminded me of Graham Greene’s It’s a
Battlefield, and the novel is overall remarkably insightful in its observation
on the impending Second World War.
I enjoyed both the flash-backs
and the present-day narration, but the one issue I had was with the main
character’s disillusion with the present and his attempts to go back to the
good old values of early 20th century rural England, because more
often than not that’s the kind of person that would very much like to see me
leaving the country.
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