One of the reasons that I love reading fiction is that so many times I am transported to a place and time in history that is completely unknown to me. I learn through the characters what it was like to live during that era.
Joan London’s book, “The Golden Age” was just such an experience for me. This fascinating story takes place in 1950s Australia, during the polio epidemic. Frank and Elsa, ages 12 and 13, meet at a children’s polio convalescent home.
Frank’s family had emigrated from war-torn Hungary in the 1940s, where his father had spent years in a labor camp. They’d lost everything, including most of their family members, to the horrors of war. Frank knew that he was his parents’ hope for the future.
Elsa’s family had their own history of loss and heartbreak and their hopes were pinned on Elsa. When she was at her sickest in the Isolation Ward, she knew that she could not die because her mother would die as well.
As the two children deal not only with their own loss, but their sense of responsibility for their parents’ losses as well, they seek comfort in their ability to talk to each other about anything and everything. Much to the befuddlement and indignation of the adults around them, they fall in love.
“The Golden Age” is a beautifully written story. London is able to bring each of the characters to life with her engagingly simple descriptions. To those of us who were born after the polio vaccine had been developed, London gives insight into how that epidemic affected children, families and communities. She also gives us a sense of how formative these experiences are for children and how kindness can soften heartache.
