“Light Perpetual” by Francis Spufford – The Infinite Value of a World

 

Francis Spufford really distinguished himself from the crowd recently with the publication of Light Perpetual, a novel which has garnered much acclaim in its short time on the shelves. 

It's a work of historical fiction, tracing the infinite possibilities in the fates of five young children who tragically lose their lives in a bombing run on London in 1944.

Francis Spufford Opens Infinite Possibilities

So long as we're prisoners to the laws of time and whims of nature, none of us will ever experience a timeline different from the one we're currently walking. This limitation has served to fuel our imagination over centuries, if not millennia, and most recently, it served as the main topic for Francis Spufford's latest novel, Light Perpetual.

The story begins by taking us to southeast London in 1944, still subjected to constant bombings by Nazi Germany despite their defeat already being in sight. More specifically, we're shown a crowd gathering around for a new delivery of aluminum saucepans, an exciting affair since everything had been melted down for the war effort.

In less than an instant, the entire crowd is incinerated and practically vaporized in a flash of annihilation. Among all the victims were five young children who never got the opportunity to live their lives out with all the joys and pains promised to them.

From there on out, the novel turns the clock back a little, and we're presented with an alternate timeline, one which imagines the lives these five children might have led had they survived the event. Among the sea of infinite possibilities their fates are traced as they live on through the end of the war and enter a brave new world in which they can blossom.

From their minor daily dramas to the greatest achievements and failures, we witness in great detail the lives of these children as they pass through the next decades, marked by technological and social revolutions across the world. We witness all that could have been had the tragic day which claimed their lives never come to pass.

The Exponential Heft of Loss in Light Perpetual

Loss is something virtually every human being has to deal with at some point, in one way or another. While we can feel profoundly for the losses affecting us personally, we have a tendency to improperly ascertain the losses of others by virtue of our detachment from them. It's a natural and even necessary part of being a human, but as a downside, it makes us lose focus as to how hefty a loss of life can be.

Personally-speaking, this was the main theme of the book, or at least the main point I took away from it. By following the lives of the afore-mentioned five children, we are exposed to worlds upon worlds of potential for them, for the things they would have been capable of learning and accomplishing in the future.

Most importantly, we are shown how their lives could have affected the people around them, how much of a difference their mere presence in the world would have made. It's quite difficult not to feel the weight of their loss when we are shown how happy they could have made other people, from their own parents to unrelated strangers.

With this being said, Francis Spufford doesn't veer off into an idealization of their lives, also taking the time to note the negative experiences in life they would have had to endure. If anything, he makes a good case here for life being worth appreciating for both its beauty and horror, each carrying an integral half of the experience.

One thing I ought to note is the amount of love and care the author put into the main characters and their would-have-been lives. It almost seemed to me as if he treated them like children of his own, which ultimately led them to being better-developed and interesting, as well as increasing the palpable weight of their loss.

London Over the Post-War Decades

The bulk of the story is told through fifteen-year intervals during which we follow the different characters through their relatively regular lives in post-war London. The setting itself makes for a character in a certain sense, being rather quick to shift and transform as the years go by and the country recovers from the war.

Francis Spufford has obviously done quite a lot of research on the subject and his descriptions of British life in those years carry the precision and detail you'd find in history textbooks, rather than a work of historical fiction. Personally, I love this level of minute accuracy, and it played a fairly large role in really drawing me into the author's world.

He doesn't skip any beats in exploring the lingering after-effects of fascism and the more savage elements of society which prevailed in the years following the war, but he doesn't go all out in painting a picture of despair. He contrasts and balances it by also shedding light on those who would eventually reign the society back in towards a more peaceful and spiritual climate.

The lives of the five children in question are, in and of themselves, not too remarkable, even feeling somewhat mundane for various stretches. At first, I'll admit it threw me off a little bit, but as I continued to read and events piled onto their biographies, I did see the point in it: even the most seemingly regular and unassuming lives can impact the world beyond our suppositions.

I also quite enjoyed the fact we are never really shown how the children's deaths impacted the world around them, but are rather left to imagine it based on how their lives ended up. Whereas many other authors would have felt it necessary to lay it all out, I always appreciate it when a writer respects his readers enough to push them to make some reflections of their own.

The Final Verdict

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford is a magnificent and profound novel, taking us to an accurate and detailed post-war Britain to explore the tremendous weight a loss of life can have by seeing what could have happened had said life been preserved.

If you're looking for an intelligent work of historical fiction set in post-war London, one pushing you to think about more universal topics and carrying true emotional weight, then I strongly suggest you give this book a chance.

---

Francis Spufford Francis Spufford is an English teacher and author who started out dabbling in non-fiction, and eventually transitioned into the realm of fiction with the publication of his first novel, Golden Hill. It received the Costa Book Award, the Desmond Elliot Prize, as well as the Ondaatje Prize. He published another novel in 2021, titled Light Perpetual, which also earned its share of critical acclaim.