Don't Look Back In........ At All! (Coming Up For Air - George Orwell)

Member Name: jatkinson100

Product:	Coming Up For Air - George Orwell
Date:	21/02/02 (452 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Orwell at his best, filled with feeling and emotion, a must read book

Disadvantages: A little dated, but don't let that put you off

Coming Up For Air - Orwell's description of the dangers of reminiscing for a Golden Age, a time that existed only in the mind of he who reminisces, never truly existed, and will only bring dissappointment if visited in reality.

George Bowling, the protagonist, has managed, through sheer luck, to acquire £17 that no-one else knows about (a stroke of luck on an outsider in a horse race). The first part of the book is taken up by his trying to decide what to do with it - thoughts of a new dress for his wife, paying the school fees for his kids, or putting it aside for a treat are only mentioned in order to be instantly dismissed. They are only noted to tell the reader what obligations he has - to say what he should do, but won't, and won't even entertain the thought of "wasting" his money on something sensible like that. The more likely avenue is to spend the money on a woman, and it wouldn't be the first time.

Fate, however, steps in, and the top story on a news stand grabs his attention, and forces him to remember his childhood in Lower Binfield, about fishing, cutting school, his parents, the "fact" that it was always sunny, and the idyll before domesticity, responsibility and obligation interfered with his life. He thinks about his childhood in the little village, his mother "always" cooking, his father "always" reading the paper, or working in the shop, his brother "always" up to no good, and the fact that it was "always" sunny. He reminds himself of church on a Sunday morning, the starch on the collar and the smell of the building (and some of the parishoners), hunting down birds' nests, dodging the cane at school, but most of all - fishing.

Fishing was George's passion as a child, and he would, at every opportunity, escape to the canal, river or lakeside in order to fulfil his needs. He speaks of many different episodes in his life, and fishing is
a factor, if not the sole factor, in most. From the time he first cut school in order to join his brother's gang, to the time he lost his virginity (no, not to a carp), fishing is involved. His one big regret, too, is that he never fished the pond at the rear of Binfield Hall. Secluded by trees and shrubbery, he had discovered the small pool by chance, and had seen the biggest fish of his life, basking in the ever present sun-shine. His mind was set that he would raise the necessary monies to get himself a decent line and hook, and take one of the enormous beasts that lurked under the surface. In the end, life didn't have that planned for him, and a mixture of teenage hormones, girls, and eventually working away from the area stopped him from fulfilling his dream - but now he had a chance to return, with the £17, and stay in the village of his childhood, and, most importantly, fish that pool.

George sets about his plans with the enthusiasm of a child, and the experience of a seasoned adulterer, and is soon on his way, leaving behind his wife and children and a concrete alibi. Up to this point, he has described his life, as a salesman, a father, a husband, and one of the lads, as well as his life as a child. It is this latter portion, however, that he remembers with fondness, and Orwell's gift with words shines through, literally, as the reader almost feels the sun shining on Lower Binfield, and George, reflected onto their face. His adult life is described with little feeling, merely recounting facts and tales for the most part, but the childhood is recanted in all its glory, with the usual embelishments of memory and the Golden Age.

George pulls over the brow of the hill, expecting to see Lower Binfield nestled, small and snug, in the valley below. George pulls the car over as he sees a sprawling, middle-sized town where his childhood once existed. Lower Binfield was not that far away from London, and in the years of the cit
y's growth, Lower Binfield had been chewed up and swallowed by migrant workers from the poorer parts of the country, and others moving into his home to work in the new industries that had sprung up as if from nowhere. George had known that the little town must have changed in the time that he had been away, but had never realised that it could have changed to this extent. Not quite reluctantly, he pushes on, memories, sometimes true but often false, of the roads that he has to take to get to the centre of the town return, and he straggles to find the market place, the epicentre of his childhood's Lower Binfield. He asks passers by for directions, getting mixed and confused answers in dialects and accents foreign to him, and to Lower Binfield. He eventually finds the market place, and the pub, at which he rents a room. No one recognises him, and he recognises no-one. His name, Bowling, an uncommon one in that area, and one steeped in local history, goes unremarked at, and he becomes a stranger in the town he once called home - a stranger to these new strangers.

He investigates the town, to a certain extent, noting that none of the old shops were there - indeed, his father's old seed shop is now a posh tea-room, and he forces bown a cup of bad, warm, brownish liquid in what used to be his front room. Whilst walking he sees a face he recognises - Elsie - his first fumble and serious girlfriend, if not his first love. He follows her to her shop (it transpires that it is a little tabaconists, and is owned by her husband, also called George). He follows her at a safe distance, but then enters the shop, and buys a couple of things, holding a conversatin with her, and she never recognises him, not one bit. He had lived with her, and is both annoyed and relieved that she didn't recognise him.

Eventually, he sets about the trip's main event - fishing the pond. He buys a rod and line, and goes up to Binfield Hall. The memories
of this place were so strong, so sweet, that it could not have changed at all. George is wrong - Binfield Hall is now an asylum, with a large wall keeping any visitors out, and the permanent inmates in. Houses have also been built in this area, Upper Binfield. He strikes up a conversation with a near-by resident, noting that the walls do not extend as far as the pool. Still believing that he can, and will, take one of the treasured fish, he discovers that the pool was drained, and is now a rubbish tip for the residents of Upper Binfield.

Disheartened and disgusted, he returns to the pub for the last time. He turns his back on his shattered childhood, relishing the memories, but hating the present state of the town, and returns home. His alibi, as he half expected, didn't hold water, and his unauthorised trip had been discovered by his wife. She fully believes that he has been wasting precious money on wine and women, and the truth is so unbelievable, that he went off fishing, is so unbelieveable that he simply has to take his medicine and put up with several weeks in the dog house - deservedly, he notes.

Orwell combines so many different stories so well - the approach of World war II, the onset of middle-age, and the desire, the need, to feel as he did as a child. The writing is exquisite - one can feel the soap on the neck that George forgets to wash off properly, the sun on the face of childhood George, and the sweat on the back of adult George. Orwell manages to tell a story, but includes so many deep feelings - parental love, in its many guises, and love for ones parents - schooling that, whatever your era, you will empathise with - the realisation that you are grwon-up, and, no matter how hard you try, or how hard you want it, you can't have your childhood back. This book is funny, and very sad.

You'll smile, that I'll guarantee, and you'll see at least little bits of George in you - generic traits that O
rwell makes you see, and believe that only you and he have witnessed. You'll also be upset, and feel sorry for George - he is an adulturous middle-aged man who spends his money on a childhood whim instead of doing the right thing - but you'll see his dreams shattered, his fears grow, his life change from childhood onwards, and the fact that he won't be able to tell a soul about it.

Read it, and enjoy!

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