Book Review: While England Sleeps

What a beautiful tale - The perils of love as it blooms, unfolds, and ultimately withers away. Love, love confused, love lost, and love long lost and the lives of two young hearts as it follows these stages in the backdrop of the Spanish revolution.

While England Sleeps is set in Pre-World War II London, UK, and the author David Leavitt does a very good job in recreating the scenes and sounds from that era. It almost feels as if the book is written in that time by someone from that time, rather than 50 years later which is actually the case. It is actually much to my surprise later that I found that David Leavitt is an American by birth and upbringing. It requires a strong literary nerve for a non-English writer to set a story in the England of the late 1930's. And the efforts are totally laudable. The language is so lucid, yet so classical and lyrical in its approach that it immersed me in the era, without too much information overload. I particularly liked the numerous scenes set in the London underground train system. It's a brilliant pictorial representation of the London underground train system in words, I could almost smell the steam engines as I sped through the pages. Take for example this beautifully written piece, the first few lines from the book:

"It began like this: a bird flying through the chambers of the underground, like a fly caught in a nautilus. No one noticed but me. First the wind blew - that smoky, petrol-smelling wind that presages the arrival of the train - and then the twin lights pierced the darkness, and then there it was, gray and white, a dove, I think, chased by the train's smoking terror. It fluttered and hovered above my head for a moment, as if trying to figure out where the sky was, then sailed up the exit stairs and was gone."

This and many more glum scenic descriptions of the 1930s London, paint a bleak picture of love in the times of war. Set against the rise of fascism in Europe at that time, While England Sleeps tells the story of a love affair between an aristocratic young British writer Brian Botsford, who thinks homosexuality is something he will outgrow, and Edward Phelan, a sensitive and idealistic working-class employee of the London Underground and a Communist party member. It's a romance separated by class, and the separation is further exacerbated by world events during that period of time. When the strains of class difference, sexual taboo, and Brian's ambivalence impel Edward to volunteer to fight against Franco in Spain, Brian pursues him across Europe and into the violent chaos of war. What happens henceforward is a heart-breaking tale travelled across countries that tells about lessons learnt, but a tad too late. The final scenes of melancholy where you can see that no matter how much Brian tries, he has to let go of Edward is too vivid in its description and the strain of melancholy is too much to bear. So much that you almost begin to ache for the author to euphemize his words.

Sorrowful, accomplished, restrained and yet so romantic, While England Sleeps is an entertaining and easy read. Here's looking forward to reading more of Leavitt's works.