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It's the long summer of 1940, and in the skies over England the Battle of Britain
rages. If the German Luftwaffe succeeds in wiping out the RAF, Hitler will launch
"operation sea lion" --- an amphibious invasion of England. Meanwhile, an RAF
fighter pilot named Len and a radar operator named Stella fall in love. And while war has
brought Len and Stella together, it can also separate them forever. That's the basic
premise of Scottish poet Andrew Greig's wonderfully written and thoroughly engaging new
"novel of love and war."
The novel centers on four major characters: Tadeus is a Polish fighter pilot and also
Len's best friend; Maddy is a flirtatious nurse who becomes Stella's best friend. Tadeus
and Maddy also fall in love. As one might expect in a novel set during wartime, violent
death lurks around every corner. Many of Len's fellow RAF pilots are shot down and killed.
The radar installation where Stella works is bombed, and some of her coworkers are killed.
Yet the love between Len and Stella survives and even thrives in an atmosphere of
sacrifice and an uncertain future.
Both lovers realize the possibility of each other's sudden death. Stella in particular
tries to pull back from Len because she understands the outrageously high mortality rates
for RAF pilots. Len is torn between loving Stella and wanting to do his dangerous duty for
England. He wants to live and love but he's committed to the war. He risks his life every
day. So does Stella. This heightened sense of each other's mortality gives the love affair
a greater urgency and intensity. Both lovers know that they are gambling with fate:
"He [Len] thought of what Stella had said in her last letter, how the more you care,
the more you lose. It was hard to argue with that. But what's the alternative? The
alternative is closing yourself off, and you die anyway."
As the Battle of Britain reaches its crucial hours, in late August of 1940, the casualties
increase. Greig vividly portrays what it's like to engage in aerial warfare. The scenes in
which Len engages the German bombers are masterfully done. Maddy is killed during a
bombing raid on London. A distraught Tadeus dies soon thereafter in a plane crash. Greig
has made these characters come to life, skillfully fleshing out their motives,
backgrounds, hopes, and dreams. Thus, when they die, the reader feels the pathos of it. As
the war intensifies, Len and Stella's love for each other deepens. In the end, the odds
catch up with Len, although the reader hopes against hope that he will make it through.
Len is killed in action, leaving a pregnant Stella behind to grieve the terrible loss.
THE CLOUDS ABOVE is a novel about personal sacrifice, about doing one's duty in the face
of horrible circumstances. Greig never overdoes it --- he's never corny or mindlessly
patriotic. The characters are three-dimensional --- real people who are forced, almost
against their will, to play the role of heroes. They understand the dangers, they know the
risks of trying to love amidst the rubble and chaos, yet they press on anyway. What else
can they do? Greig uses a highly effective narrative device: he tells the story in the
alternating voices of both Len and Stella. We see the same events from the perspectives of
both lovers, which truly fleshes out the doomed relationship.
Greig has also brilliantly recreated a specific historical period, bringing the reader a
real sense of the tensions and deprivations of wartime England. Overall, THE CLOUDS ABOVE
is a wonderfully rendered story of love and sacrifice.
--- Reviewed by Chuck Leddy
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