In the late 1930s, tubby middle-aged George Bowling is an insurance salesman who lives like the average English man in suburban London with his wife and two children. This is until he has an epiphany.

After a dentist’s appointment for a new denture and reminders of his past, the protagonist starts to think about his memories ‘before the war’ and this thought evolves into a longing to escape from the monotonous, colorless life he has been living in modern times during the now called post-war period and in fear of the imminent World War II that he knows will come with internal conflicts, scarcity of resources, tyrannies, and the list goes on.

Facing all of this, George draws a plan to trick his family into thinking that he is going on a business trip when in reality he is going to reconnect with his childhood in the small town of Lower Binfield — just to realize that after all the peaceful refuge the protagonist had always imagined didn’t stay immune from the passage of time.

With a tad of comedy, the novel is a poignant account of one’s attempt to recapture childhood innocence that is lost when growing up while the world continues is in constant change.

Predominant Themes
Keeping in mind that the novel is set in 1938 — a year when the impact of World War I was still present and War World II was foreseen — Coming Up for Air explores several themes. The main aspects are the following:

Nostalgia: Looking at the past
Throughout the novel, George’s thoughts and actions revolve around his desire to go to his childhood town where, although he is conscious that it wasn’t perfect, he had good memories such as the first time he went fishing and reading adventure books.

During World War I and then the post-war period, he had forgotten about these memories like they weren’t his but suddenly he feels this yearning to come back to this place in the illusion that it is still the same as before.

Escape: Finding a way out of our normal lives
The protagonist wants to run away from his dreadful life — where he has to work endlessly for a mere salary, his wife Hilda is only concerned about mundane matters, the obnoxious kids he has, and the feeling that he doesn’t belong to modern times.

Moreover, the changes that are about to come with the upcoming war — the arrival of Hitler, Stalin, vigilance, conflict, famine, lack of money — makes him believe that every bit of evidence in his mind of the times “before the war” will cease to exist and therefore, he desperately tries to hold on to them for as long as he cans.

Everyman: Relatable and not different from us
Even though the book was published 85 years ago, Bowling is not different from you or me or any other person. He is a middle-class man who has a common job and a compulsive thrifty wife with two kids.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

He, like us, has the feeling that he can’t do what he actually wants to do because of any obstacle that comes in his way. He has a dull life that is also the case of the people around him. As he remarked, society lacks vitality.

War: The background of the novel
We see how fast the passion for war and to fight for their country is lost by the people in the frontlines during War World I as well as how ex-soldiers are received when they come back — most had the hope that they would find a job fast but it wasn’t the case, many didn’t even found a job.

In the context of the story with World War II around the corner, you can see that the changes people undergo seem to be out of their hands, with nothing to do about it but to put up with the consequences.

Final Thoughts & Rating
To conclude, the story’s real value lies in the juxtaposition of the past with the contemporary world in which our protagonist lives, as well as how society has changed over time following the effects of war. However, there are some downsides. The novel is sometimes dense when explaining a lot of details that are sometimes irrelevant and certain characters are two-dimensional.

Despite this, for a lesser-known novel by George Orwell, I still recommend it for everyone who wants to dig deeper into his works.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5