While England Sleeps

Rating:
Summary: Touching and Accessible
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A marvellous, touching book with great geographic detail.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A sad and graceful love story.
Review: I have read practically every David Leavitt book and this ranks as his most satisfying novel. Although I read this book 2 years ago, I cannot forget how it moved me. It is first and foremost a love story. That the romance is between two men is incidental, although it does add a different perspective to some of the issues that both men had to deal with. The tragic but inevitable conclusion tugged at my heart like few other novels. Leavitt writes with an eloquence and grace that sets it apart from his other novels (although some of his short stories are equally brilliant in the same way) and reinforces his status as one of the most talented authors writing in the English language.

Rating:
Summary: Sad, yet Truthful
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: a more intimate David Leavitt
Review: This is by far the most intimate and emotionally-generous of David Leavitt's works, a novel that steadfastly and fortunately avoids the emotional detachment and narrative aloofness that can be seen as the major flaw in his other novels. Rather, While England Sleeps is a slender, plainly told and intimate story of love, loss, and regret between two young men in the years before the outbreak of World War II. Coming from two different social strata, Brian from the starchy upper-crust, Edward from the emboldened working class, the two men enact one of the most tried and true formulas in fiction- gay or straight- but Leavitt pulls it off by injecting a certain grace and emotional rawness that lifts the story above platitudes and into the realm of true feeling. The fact that the two men live in a turbulent time- and the grim reality that their future is sacrificed to it- is not lost on Leavitt but rather than launching into an examination of the social and historical background, he allows his characters to delve into it themselves. The writing lacks the artifice of some other writers but Leavitt always seems to understand the economy better than the art of words, but here his restraint is only in the words themselves. Sorrowful, accomplished, and sincere, this is the best Leavitt has produced so far.

Rating:
Summary: Combination of a historic novel and a moving gay love story
Review: This novel is of historical interest since it captures a period in time that many people are not especially aware of: pre-world war II in London, UK. Also, interesting for gay and lesbian readers, it takes the perspective of the world according to a gay man in his early twenties. Subtly intertwined with this, Leavitt writes a love story between two men of a different social class. I found the book moving, funny in some instances and really worth owning.

Rating:
Summary: A gifted writer, but the melancholy's too much to bear
Review: This post-lawsuit re-issue begins with an interview with David Leavitt, exploring his anger and bitterness at having been sued. Leavitt drew heavily on the autobiography of poet Sir Stephen Spender (World Within World), and Spender took umbrage, such that the lawsuit resulted in the remaining copies of the first edition of "While England Sleeps" were destroyed. In this second edition, Leavitt has made what he considers minor revisions, enough apparently to satisfy the terms of the judgment.

But the book is still ponderous. Rather than Sir Stephen Spender's lilting prose, you have Leavitt's self-focused upperclass Englishman who dabbles in love with a working class man. Leavitt insists the unrelenting sexual details are essential, I might agree if they were well written. They aren't.

Read Spender. Skip Leavitt. Unless you're interested in the dynamics of the lawsuit (which is why I gave it two stars, rather than one), this book isn't worth your time or money.

Rating:
Summary: Transcending gender and orientation -- an honest love story.
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: touching love story
Review: What would Brian Botsford's life have been like, had he spent it with his lover Edward Phelan?
A touching and moving story set in London in the 30s when conventions and sexual taboos were the rule.
Brian is a young writer belonging to the English upper-class. Edward is a ticket collector in the London Underground, comes from a working-class family and is a communist.
Their love affair goes on until sexual taboos, class difference and Brian's conviction that he will be able to outgrow his homosexuality and get married to an upper-class girl, impel Edward to leave for Spain to fight against Franco.
Though Brian repents and persues his lover across Europe during World War two, he will never see him again. Edward dies of typhoid while coming back to England.
Brian, as an old man, tells this story with a mixture of regret, fatalism and resignation.
Mr. Leavitt's prose is, as usual, beautiful and poetic. I must admit that admire Mr. Leavitt's books, I have read them all and this is one of my favourites.

Rating:
Summary: Touching love story and period piece
Review: While his novels aren't as good as his short stories, I still find Leavitt worth reading in any form. This novel was surrounded by controversy and as a result, hasn't been given a fair critical reception. The fair critic still could not pass this novel off as brilliant, however. The story is moving and the history is accurate; some anachronisms--especially in the dialogue--are present, however. The story also doesn't have any deeper meaning that I can find; entertainment if not mind fodder.