I scored a free copy of 1984 in the laundry room the other night. Somebody had left stacks of old paperbacks and Orwell was the diamond in the rough. I’d never read the novel and thought Oh it’ll be pretty good. I’d remembered when I read Animal Farm in middle school and it totally blew my mind.
It is really good! You know how people say that a classic book is alright and it’s good and they understand why it is a classic but it doesn’t hold up that much to modern scrutiny.
Holy crap: it is excellent. If you have never read it. You have to get a copy today! I’m about half-way through and it is amazing. I love novels that offer a complete worldview. And Orwell’s is uncanny, unnerving and unflinching. From the Junior Anti-Sex League (today’s Focus on the Family) to the Two Minutes Hate (what we would call a press conference), Orwell nails it. Totally nails it. Every page has detail after detail that echoes across nearly sixty years to the surveillance society being built today.
Orwell remains a contemporary. I’ll post a more detailed book review when I finish it. Gotta go, I’m late for the Physical Jerks.
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