tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post907747437170459866..comments2024-03-28T12:00:55.653-07:00Comments on FURROWED MIDDLEBROW: WORLD WAR II BOOK LIST (2 of 6) (updated 5/15/2016)Furrowed Middlebrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-57022834506528818192015-05-08T06:35:32.439-07:002015-05-08T06:35:32.439-07:00Good point, Jerri. It's easy to forget that s...Good point, Jerri. It's easy to forget that some of the authors who were concerned with morale-lifting or inspiring a fighting spirit in their readers as part of their war work would have felt it as a real matter of life and death for themselves as well. And the looming war, the stresses of the Blitz, and the expectation that both she and her husband were on the Nazis' liquidation list were, if I recall correctly, factors in Virginia Woolf's suicide as well.Furrowed Middlebrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-35204816505218745972015-05-08T06:29:17.996-07:002015-05-08T06:29:17.996-07:00Thanks, Susan and Jerri. I'm going to tweak m...Thanks, Susan and Jerri. I'm going to tweak my description of English Air--you can tell that it's one of the DESes I haven't gotten round to yet.<br /><br />Jerri, I'll also tweak this list and the next one, because I had for some reason placed Toast to Tomorrow on the "thick of it" list, but that's oviously an error. I'll correct that.<br /><br />I went back and forth with N or M, but ultimately decided to put it in the next list. It's not an exact science, obviously, but my logic is that the war is in full swing and there is a sense of urgency to catching the spy. I'm basically considering the beginning of the Blitz to be the dividing line, and N or M sort of straddles that line--probably written before, but published during.Furrowed Middlebrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-67044059899720820092015-05-08T06:24:39.441-07:002015-05-08T06:24:39.441-07:00Thanks for that, Tom. You've pointed out many...Thanks for that, Tom. You've pointed out many of the qualities that I love about CBI, and also some of the reasons books from the earliest days of the war are so interesting and so distinct from those written later on. And despite the war looming over everything else going on in the novel, AT managed to make it thoroughly entertaining and hilarious.Furrowed Middlebrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12065110409019861653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-5490225746028515042015-05-06T07:42:06.818-07:002015-05-06T07:42:06.818-07:00I want to agree with Tom, to me one of the major i...I want to agree with Tom, to me one of the major issues between books written during the early days of WWII and books written about that time, but written later, even by people who lived through the war, is that they wrote these books not knowing how the war would turn out. In many cases, expecting that invasion was possible or even probable. Just one factor, think of what an occupying Nazi force would have thought of the authors who had written some of these books! I remember reading a letter from Dorothy Sayers to her son, who was not publicly known at that time as her son, advising him, in case of invasion to keep their connection quiet so that the Nazi's wouldn't have reason to punish him for her views.<br /><br />JerriAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-49193517527328086042015-05-06T07:18:58.187-07:002015-05-06T07:18:58.187-07:00To add to the complexity of The English Air, we al...To add to the complexity of The English Air, we also hear quite a lot about the impact of WWI, especially on Frank/Franz's English mother living in Germany, but also on Sophie, etc.<br /><br />I think there really needs to be at least one Manning Coles title on this sub list. Depending on where you make the break between this and the full war, others could be added. But at minimium, A Toast to Tomorrow, which starts in 1933 and ends as the Nazis prepare to annex Danzig. It watches the growth of the Nazi party and preparations for war. As I recall, Without Lawful Authority has characters watching and waiting for Chamberlin to comment after the Munich Crisis, so that is still build up to war.<br /><br />Is N or M? by Christie coming on the Thick of It List? It feels early war to me. But I am not sure exactly when the division point is in your listing.<br /><br />JerriAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-84254692191658585302015-05-05T05:41:35.817-07:002015-05-05T05:41:35.817-07:00I'm enjoying these sub-lists, Scott. Thanks f...I'm enjoying these sub-lists, Scott. Thanks for sharing all of them in their various arrangements. :^)<br /><br />I am familiar with only a few of these (Pigeon Pie is around somewhere, but I haven't read it yet.) so I can't really express my faves based on any semblance of extentive reading. Even so, The English Air would be on the top 5 list. (I love MrsTCO too). <br /><br />I wouldn't, however, describe it as a light romance. Yes, there is a romance, two in fact, in the story, but I think the real thrust of the story is the depiction of an ordinary English family (all right, middle-class English family) and how they deal with the end of peace and the beginning of war, set sharply against the reactions of their visiting German cousin. And all written just as it was taking place.Susan Dhttp://www.susandaly.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595702824833504762.post-37044180677990542802015-05-03T10:37:50.230-07:002015-05-03T10:37:50.230-07:00Cheerfulness Breaks In (well, you KNEW I would wri...Cheerfulness Breaks In (well, you KNEW I would write about a Thirkell novel, eh?) amazes me - it starts out rather light heartedly with Rose's wedding, although people keep talking around the possibility of war. Mrs. Morland finally bites it in that she actually says if anything does happen......and of course it does. We see the beginnings, people done, even a first casualty (off the page) and evacuees beginning, and then - leaves, embarcartion leaves, and finally Dunkirk, and it ends with Lydia receiving a telegram - the contents of which we don't learn. The Thirkell group has discussed this, and agree that the tension lies in the fact that Mrs. Thirkell is writing this as it is happening, so no one knows the future - it is almost as if she wants to gather everything together - in case there are no future novels. Chilling, even in hindsight. Scott, you are doing yoeman work - applause and kudos! <br />TomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com