405. Coming Up For Air

Coming Up For Air
George Orwell
1939
Around 240 pages

George Orwell wrote this after being shot in the throat by a Fascist sniper, when he was recovering from tuberculosis in North Africa. Which is incredibly badass. The only thing I've ever been able to accomplish during convalescence is taking a shower without vomiting. And even that is touch and go. 

Our main character is George Bowling, I guess George is our author's favorite fake name. At the beginning of the book, George is collecting a new false set of teeth in London. I'll refrain from making the obligatory joke about British teeth in favor of commenting on the parallels between this and Proust, which has a similar nostalgic air. Through a bizarre set of circumstances he wins some money, and decides to use it for a trip down memory lane.

World War II is the Big Bad in most of the novels now, I can only imagine how apocalyptic the world felt for people during this time. I think everybody can relate to feeling like "the good ole days" are long gone, as the planet becomes something we don't recognize.

It's a bitter and bleak work, which is fitting for the time, but a bummer read.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Orwell's brother-in-law, Humphry Dakin, the husband of Orwell's sister Marjorie, a 'short, stout, loquacious' man, thought that Bowling might be a portrait of him. I would keep that to myself.

UP NEXT: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck