Review: The Avenue Goes to War

The Avenue Goes to War by R.F. Delderfield
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

One of the things I like about reading physical copies of books is its actual physicality. In the days when I read hard copy books, I choose what to read from the weight of the book, the cover, the synopsis on the back of the book. Now I primarily choose books by their price. Are they on sale? Is the Amazon description of the book intriguing?

Of course I have forgotten that description by the time it comes to choosing a book from the list on my Kindle. And then the list is long. It's like going into a library. I have a list of books I want to read, but I've forgotten why I wanted to read them.

I also have no idea how long they are when I choose to buy a book. I imagine I could find that information, but that is besides the point.

I think I chose this book because of its subject matter, how a neighborhood in England deals with the strain of war. I did not know the book was published in 1958 by a R.F. Delderfield, a British author whose focus on social changes in England made him popular, and I did not know that this was the second in a series of two books.

I also did not realize that the estimated time of reading would be 8 hours and 21 minutes. (Yes, the Kindle will tell you how long it will take you, based on your pace of reading.)

The sequel aspect and the length of the book might have kept me from choosing this book, and I would have missed a fascinating journey into the London suburbs, the culture, synthesized with the stresses, sacrifices, and challenges of war, combined with keen observations of humanity.

As the book closes, Delderfield, speaking for Jim Carver, one of the key characters, observe, "It was not possible to learn about people from books and pamphlets, and therefore it surely followed that it was not possible to learn how to govern from these sources. To understand and evaluate democracy, one had to live in a place like this, and live here for a very long time. One had to see all the penny-plain democrats at their weddings and funerals; one had to watch how they behaved under fire, but most of all one had to understand and sympathise with their dreams."

That's the appeal of this book, I think. Delderfield invites readers to see the war from the perspectives of neighbors who have spent most of their lives living together on a single suburban street, established at the close of the first war to end all wars.

At first, I enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters, thinking of some of the British shows I enjoy so much (Dr. Who, Torchwood, Midsomer Murders, Doc Martin), and then I began to see the world and the war from their perspective, how each "behaved under fire" and I truly began to "sympathise with their dreams," even as I began to see how London and the world changed as a result of this war that I have read so much about but really don't understand.

Delderfield's character development and his commentaries are exquisite. Sometimes I hate when authors take me from one character and point of view to another, but in this case, I wanted to follow all the stories, and with the exception of a few minor characters, I followed easily. Not reading the first book didn't matter except in the first chapter when Delderfield introduced them all rather quickly, and I wondered if I should be taking notes. I might have, I think, but it's hard to go backward and then forward in a Kindle, something else I am not fond of.

The book guides readers from 1939 to 1947, from Dunkirk to the Blitz to the V-1 bombs, from London to Wales to Devon to France and Germany, so that we can see what the victory cost, in lives, in money, in hopes, in dreams. Such a very long war.

Our current war is longer, of course, having begun in 2002, or 2001, if you start it on 9/11, but it doesn't touch us all in the same way. We don't band together to work with each other. If anything, we are polarized, and does seem like the sense of decency on the Avenue are lost in our country, so far away.

If I had seen the book, if I had understood what I was signing up for, I would not have chosen this book, but I'm glad I did.


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