Coming Up for Air

Set against the backdrop of impending war, the narrative follows George Bowling, a disillusioned insurance salesman yearning for the simplicity of his childhood. At forty-five, he grapples with the pressures of family life and societal change, symbolized by his physical decline and existential dread. As he reflects on a lost idyllic era, Orwell poignantly captures the tension between nostalgia and the harsh realities of modernity, making it a powerful commentary on the anxieties of pre-war Britain.