Customer Reviews

While England sleeps

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Leavitt is one of the most easily accessible authors writing about gay life these days. While England Sleeps is especially interesting because of its setting in England, Spain and Germany during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930's.The love story is touching and the characterizations are deft, although the characters do sound like refugees from Saki when they open their mouths (complete with interfering aunts).Another interesting aspect of this book is its history. Its hard cover publication led to a bitter law suit and the withdrawal of the book from publication in England as part of a settlement. The book was revised in paperback and Leavitt's thoughts on this experience are added as a preface. A reader would have a hard time forgetting this book once read.

Visiting my local library to hopefully pick up Arkansas (David Leavitt's latest collection), I found this book instead. I'm not gay or male, but I love reading love stories of all types. This one is so pure and heartfelt, it transcends gender, orientation, time, place, etc. Taking place both in present day Hollywood and Europe during the Spanish Civil War, it tells the universal story of, basically, being ashamed of your lover--and realizing too late that nothing matters but how you really feel inside. The book has both funny and tragic moments and even though terrible things happen, in the end I just felt a great reward. Now I'm looking forward even more to reading Arkansas, which has received great reviews. While England Sleeps should not be missed if you like this author's work

I read this novel in a day and a half because I found that I could not put it down. Brian, to me, seems like an average guy who is a bit shallow and only interested in fast sex. Edward, on the other hand, is more sensitive and committed to their relationship.

Brian has a lot of fears because of his homosexuality. He thinks that it's just a phase that he'll pass, and that of course, he will marry and live happily ever after with wife and children. So he screws just about anyone he finds, in bathrooms, restaurants, while at home, Edward is waiting for him.

Brian also sleeps with a woman, whom he plans to marry, once he gets over the lies he has told paractically everyone. But he keeps the charade and comes back really late at home, and sleeps on the couch saying that he doesn't want to disturb Edward. More stuff like this happens, but I will not go into it, cause it's really sad.

Anyway, Edward leaves but later sends a note to Brain for help, and Brain goes to England to rescue him.

You know from the other reviews what happens to Edward and to Brain. It's so depressing that I can hardly write about it.

But even if Brain continued his life with Edward, I think that it still would not have worked out. Brain is teribbly unfaithful by nature, while Edward is not. Their relationship would have ended again, despite Brain's attempts to committ. He just can't do it.

Maybe I expected too much, but I really doubt that Brain truly loved Edward. I know that he cared about him a whole lot, but the reason he wanted to rescue him was more beacause he felt responsible for driving him away. He didn't want someone he cared for to die or be unhappy beacause of him.

The reason why he always remembers Edward is because he is there no more, and when something could have gone differently, we always wonder and wish that time could be reversed.

But Brain says that even if time could be reversed, he is not sure that we would want it to be, therefore he couldn't have truly honestly "loved" Edward. The passion that they shared was kind of lost due to Brain's infidelity.

Overall, this book was very insightful. It's a study of the mind, though it might not seem so. By analyzing Brain's thoughts and feelings we can connect and understand what we sometimes wish to ignore. We can learn from his mistakes, so that later on we won't have regrets. Overall, it's important to think about what you are doing before you do it, and consider what consequences your actions might produce.

Despite the (ridiculous) controversy, you will find this book is gripping, interesting, informative and captures a certain place in history. David Leavitt is an excellent author and I find his work particulary instructive for my own creative writing. Having spent time in Spain and England I enjoy his vivid, accurate descriptions of topography and culture.

Subject of a literary spat (and lawsuit) between Leavitt and the famous English poet Stephen Spender, "While England Sleeps" is a sensitive portrayal of gay life in the late 1930's in the U.K. Brian Botsford, a young upper class Englishman of no particular distinction at the time of the story, finds a gay lover "beneath his station." Edward, a ticket taker on the Tube, is innocently happy with their relationship, but Brian suffers from the scruples of his class and the belief he'll "grow out of it." And of course there's Aunt Constance, who supports Brian and would be delighted if he were to marry a suitable girl.

Brian's reaction to these pressures borders on the despicable, which no doubt is one of the underlying reasons for Stephen Spender's reaction to this thinly disguised story. Brian is shocked to discover that Edward has gone off to fight the Fascists in Spain, and Brian's efforts to rescue him lead inexorably to a tragic end.

Leavitt's rather graphic descriptions of Brian and Edward's sexual relationship may offend some, but I didn't think any of it was gratuitous. And his picture of working class life in London at the time was wonderfully done through his rendering of the characters in Edward's family, especially the mother and sisters Sarah and Lucy. It was an odd time, when public standards of behavior were very rigid while private behavior very much resembled life today in some circles. Leavitt's characters were prudish only in public. These conflicts between the private and public still exist today, but at least the gap is narrowing.

Ironically, the lawsuit sparked a renewal of interest in Stephen Spender, and his autobiography was republished. World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender (Modern Library) With minor revisions, "While England Sleeps" was republished too. Newer editions carry an interview with Leavitt about the incident.

Leavitt handles issues of human sexuality in a time removed from our own in a very adroit manner. I could picture the style of dress and the streets of London as the story unfolded.

I highly recommend this dearly bittersweet, romantic novel.

I've been a great admirer of David Leavitt's writing since I first encountered "A Place I've Never Been" in one of my literature classes in college over five years ago. Since then, I've devoured pretty much everything he's written because they are _that_ good. With "While England Sleeps," in addition to his eloquent writing style (in English syntax, no less), he effectively incorporates historical notes, but only insofar as to paint the backdrop for the real subject of the story - the tumultuous love affair between two English boys - which he captures quite beautifully. I should warn, however, that I have had to limit myself to re-reading this book only once a year because it really is heart-wrenching; if you've ever been in love, or realized (and agonized about) it only after the fact, proceed with caution. You may find yourself inconsolable after the last page.

I can really identify my last relationship with this story, therefore in many places I could not help crying. I am like Edward, coming from an ordinary family, pure, committed to the relationship and wanted a marriage; my ex is like Brian, grown up in a rich English family, hanging out with millionnaires, and did not introduce me too his nice friends. He betrayed my trust and lied to me constantly, and I forgave him again and again. He wrote everything in his diary, which I read. He lives in constant regret but can never change himself. The root cause of his behaviour is he wants everything in his terms and is extremely selfish. Such a person does not deserve to be in a relationship, they should not waste other people's time by giving them the impression that they could have a relationship.

I hated people like Brian. They live a superior materialistic life but have no integrity, and no human decency.

I've been studying queer novels of WWII of late, and I picked this up to continue with the war theme as part of ongoing literary research but mainly in the hopes of finding something a touch more uplifting.

This was the wrong novel to pick up.

That notwithstanding, it's still a surprisingly weak piece of work. The narrator is completely self-absorbed and doesn't change throughout the course of the novel; his working-class lover is dispensed with, as if the hand of some god was trying to teach the narrator a lesson he is doomed not to learn, and because of this, the lover takes on the role of many women in literature: that of the convenient plot twist away from the main male character. The descriptions of Spain are vague, and the "natives" in Barcelona speak Castillian Spanish, not Catalan.

There's also the overwhelming issue of voice. This is meant to be a novel of WWI, yet the narrator speaks with a flawless 21st Century tone, using patterns of speech and narration that would never have been used by a young man of his (supposed) class in the 1920s.

Pick it up and read it for the sex-against-the-wall scenes, if you must, but if you seek something deep rather than just purposefully heart-wrenching, please move on, and keep in mind that the sex really is just that rather than any attempt (at least on the narrator's part, and the working-class lover is reduced to animal metaphors and a bestially "innocent" passion) at something truly intimate.

The first time I read this book I cried. Definitely Leavitt's best material and when I read the story about the copyright court case it only intensified my appreciation for this work. I find most gay fiction cheezy, too sappy, needlessly racy, unbelievable, etc. etc. This one's different. It truly belongs in the category "literature" first of all and it was very thirtieseque. I only hope and pray someone out there with money and connections makes this into a movie with Jude Law and Rupert Graves.