The penultimate book in my challenge, which I read a month or so later than planned, is Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford. I picked this up somewhere, at some time, for two reasons. Firstly, I had read his book Golden Hill which I enjoyed, although it wasn’t a favourite, and secondly, I liked the premise of the story. The copy I have is a hardback, complete with dustcover, which is a little tatty around the edges and has the persistent residue of a sticky label on the cover. The cover design is not enticing, in my view, and maybe they have improved it for newer editions.
The story starts in November 1944 when a bomb drops on London and, among others, kills five children. The author then tells the story of the lives they would have had if they had lived. I thought that this was an interesting idea but the author didn’t develop it in the way that I had expected. Instead, what he does is jump in instalments of fifteen years at a time through the lives of the children until they are seventy. The two girls are sisters but apart from their link the children don’t meet each other, except by chance, and don’t play a role in the stories of the others. None of the children becomes very famous or achieves anything really special in their lives but the author follows them in some detail and the reader shares in their ups and downs. The bomb and the near miss in their childhood is not a part of the story, although it makes for a brilliant first chapter.
This is, therefore, a story about five people growing up and living their lives in the second part of the last century. They come from working class homes and experience the big changes of that time, including industrial action, property booms, the development of the music scene, the changes in teaching, different approaches to mental health, the rise of racism and more. The snippets we see of the lives are detailed and full of period references. At first I thought that this meant that the book was overwritten, but as the stories progressed I enjoyed becoming engrossed in the experiences of the five people and, of course, it brought back memories for me of living in Britain during most of that period.
I was tempted quite early on to abandon this book as I wasn’t quite sure what was the point of the story. I did, however, begin to grasp that it was about everyday life and changes which aren’t important in the grand scheme of things but which make up our lives, all of which are valuable. This is a celebration of ordinariness whilst being clear that no one’s life is ordinary and that all of them matter. By the end of the book I was completely engaged and had enjoyed the story immensely.
My copy of this book will go on to the free book table at Sainsbury’s and I hope that the next reader will give it enough time to appreciate fully what the author is celebrating in this story.
Anne Is Reading 