BOOK REVIEW #3 THAT BURNING SUMMER

Setting during the World War II, in which Britain receiving an invasion threat from the Germany. The people getting anxious day by day, getting worried over the fact that the dreaded day can come any moment.

I am a falcon. A peregrine, a traveller. Yet godlike. Alone in an azure obstraction. Air purer than danger. Like a heartbeat my engine throbs as I soar above a sea of cloud. Canvas and metal, these wings are my wings. A thought. A muscle. They lift, and tilt. We are one. A break in the whiteness. The sea below me glints. The horizon shifts. I see my prey. My heartbeats quickens. I move in for the kill. Not yet. Not yet. When they see me it will be too late. Now.

     Peggy, a British saved a Polish pilot named Henryk when he crashed down to her hometown. Seeing the broken state of the lad makes Peggy felt sorry toward him. So, Peggy sneaked food during mealtimes to feed him. They became friends, which later blossomed into love.

     Ernest, Peggy’s brother found out about the meeting between Peggy and Henryk. He is a very active boy, wanting to make a breakthrough so people in town will recognized him. He wanted to prove that he is a grown-up now and not a little boy anymore. So when he noticed that his sister is acting weird, he followed her. When he met Henryk for the first time, unlike his sister, he is suspicious towards Henryk. He accused Henryk as a spy from German coming to pry on their country.

Little did they know, there was a spy.

      From this novel, in my opinion, the main issue is LMF. LMF stands for Lack of Moral Fibre. This is a psychological casualty in the Royal Air Force in which the aircrew refused to fly without reason.  In the medical perspective, the men broke down due to stress during flying in battle resulting unfit to fly. The family background, genes and characters are put at fault. Henryk reached his ‘breaking point’ and showed battle trauma. There was a moment when he felt anxious as he recalled what had happened to him. From this, we can see that not only the people are suffering during war but soldiers also. The bad experiences while he was serving as pilot may trigger his battle trauma.

     Apart from that, the issue revolving in this novel is the role of Polish in the Battle of Britain. In this novel, the Nazi German invaded Poland and took the citizen as their hostages. The Polish pilots were promised spots in the army but they were treated nothing less like the war hostages. Only when they were needed, they were called. To make it worst, the German gave them the planes of poorest conditions. Later, it is said that Polish helped Britain to gain independence.

     In the last chapter, it is portrayed that everything back to normal. War has stopped. Ernest went to help their father who was being held captive as the human guinea pigs in the scabies experiments. Henryk stays in Britain, keeping himself close to Peggy, who had her own job and life. There’s nothing left for Henryk at Poland as all of his family member were sacrificed during the war. Henryk finally recovered from his trauma. The key to his LMF is due to him becoming hopeless and heartbroken due to his ill-fated family members. Now that he had Peggy by his side, he can now fly.