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A review by eddie
Darkness Falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin
3.0
One of my reading projects is slightly train-spottery: I’m trying to read at least one book published in each calendar year as far back as I can go (currently aiming for my grandfather’s birth year 1900). I was missing 1942: hence this book.
It inspires thoughts about ‘authenticity’ - how do we define it? This book is undoubtedly ‘authentic’ in that it was written and published during the Blitz; it’s about the Blitz; the author was living in London during the blitz and thus had direct personal experience; and he worked for the government: the war time civil service is another huge theme of this book.
But the book’s faults, and paradoxically, comparisons to more recent novels, undercut for me its undoubted (and somewhat celebrated) authenticity.
It inspires thoughts about ‘authenticity’ - how do we define it? This book is undoubtedly ‘authentic’ in that it was written and published during the Blitz; it’s about the Blitz; the author was living in London during the blitz and thus had direct personal experience; and he worked for the government: the war time civil service is another huge theme of this book.
But the book’s faults, and paradoxically, comparisons to more recent novels, undercut for me its undoubted (and somewhat celebrated) authenticity.