I signed up for the Clifton Springs Library book club the other day. We meet Thursday to discuss this month’s book, The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin. The early chapters of the book are set in Nottingham, England, in 1939, where residents are preparing their houses and persons for a war they hope will not come. In Chapter 5, however, England declares war on Germany, and the prospect of wartime catastrophe is suddenly no longer theoretical.
I had never thought about England’s domestic actions before entering World War II, a disaster that was both anticipated and prepared for. On this day when President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on our nearest neighbors and biggest trading partners to extort actions from them he deems desirable, it was difficult not to feel the sort of dread felt by Ms. Martin’s characters. Like them, I was fearing a second Trump administration before January 20, but that catastrophe is now upon us and will be for some time to come. Without reading the rest of the book, of course, I know that England survives. I am less certain about the the United States.
