Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Further Reading: "Pastoral" by Nevil Shute

 Nevil Shute, again

I believe I have labelled several of his titles on this blog.

This novel was called "Pastoral", written in 1944. An edition called a "wartime book". It appears I have a first edition, printed in Kingsport, TN of all places. Imagine, a small city in TN had a viable industrial plant printing books during WW2.

The story of about a skilled young (22) bomber pilot, veteran of nearly 50 long range bombing runs over major cities in Germany, later in the war.

He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young signal  officer, Gervase. His problem is, she is unawakened to the charms of men. She's 21 and was brought up to have a career for a while before (matter of factly) getting married. Plus, she is dedicated to her war work.

So, Peter Marshall, the pilot, has to wear her down, woo her with dates and fun.

Meanwhile, it's not all fun and games: he has two very frightening bombing runs with are described in exciting detail--even as we read about them, nearly 80 years on!  And there are a couple of  interesting twists in the narration.

Yep. Another from the stock pile of books I collected to get me through the current, unfolding emergency.

I can't usually sleep through the night, so I turn on the light and read a while.

Part of this is age: old people don't sleep as well. Part is worry; people say we should not worry: some even say it's a sin to worry. 

I say it's unhealthy to worry, so I try to take my mind off the evil circumstances. 

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