Coming Up for Air

“But I’d been a good husband and father for fifteen years and I was beginning to get fed up with it.”

The catalyst for the action of the novel is Bowling’s secret windfall of £17, which he keeps a secret from his wife, Hilda. The revelation that Hilda is consistently concerned about the family’s finances suggests that Bowling may not be as good a husband as he thinks.

“Merely because of the illusion that we own our houses and have what’s called ‘a stake in the country,’ we poor saps in the Hesperides, and in all such places, are turned into Crum’s devoted slaves forever.”

Bowling’s remarks here come right after he has explained that Sir Herbert Crum has sold land adjoining the housing development where Bowling lives to the credit company to build more houses on. Since this land was supposed to be left as is—as a bit of countryside for recreation—the phrase a “stake in the country” is fraught with irony. Further, since the houses there aren’t sold—they’re leased—what the new residents are buying into is the upper-class conservative notion that property ownership brings with it loyalty to and responsibility for the country—an idea that serves Crum’s interests not theirs.

“A little below us you could see the roofs of the houses stretching on and on, the little red roofs where the bombs are going to drop, a bit lighted up at this moment because a ray of sunshine was catching them.”

The interjection about bombs in the middle of this sentence reflects the constant, intrusive anxieties about war that haunt Bowling, even as he seeks to hold them at a bay—and himself at a remove—from the scene “below.”