Reviews

Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

loran27's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

annatses's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

lynecia's review

4.0

Senior-itis and a way too busy schedule prevented me from finishing this book when it was assigned to me in a college English course -- I most likely used Cliff Notes to get me through my exams. Such a shame I was too above it all to enjoy it then, I really missed out on a delightful, rich, and funny satire about the sometimes meaningless of middle-class life. The protagonist, George Bowling, a middle aged insurance salesman in pre war London is bored to death with his job and home life and decides to "come up for air" by stealing away to the small village he grew up in only to discover its not quite the place he remembered. Narrated by George himself, in his early 20th century English, with his hilarious observations and witty opinions about his society's values and culture are spot-on. It's a bit uncanny (or maybe just prescient on the part of Orwell) that those same critiques and predictions that Bowling had for his society, apply to 21st American life today.

proudwing's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

ed_moore's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

‘Coming Up For Air’ is a story of the deceptions of nostalgia and follows a down-and-out, red faced and overweight George Bowling who us unhappy in his marriage and his life in the building estate houses of London. In the wake of the Second World War he reminisces on his childhood in Lower Binfield in the Oxfordshire countryside, his life in the greengrocers shop and days alone fishing, and then decides to return to find a village struck by industrialisation and development, everyone he once knew having died or left, and a loss of the childhood he looked back so fondly upon. 

 

Orwell really didn’t play to his strengths here. Bowling was an unlikeable protagonist who had an awful superiority complex and belief all would stay the same for him, where frankly he had lived a very mundane life which in recounting such resulted in quite a mundane story. Orwell’s criticisms of capitalism and the building societies, in addition to his ridicule of fascism as the periodical context of the rise of Hitler and the perception of such from the everyday Londoner was explored, was in Orwellian fashion absolutely brilliant and written so well, but such made up very little of the story. The main plot elements were boring and also Orwell did himself no favours in his reputation with female characters. Bowling’s wife Hilda is entirely dismissed and antagonised just for wanting her husband to stop sleeping around, and depictions of other women in their brief appearances are extremely derogatory. The descriptions of the tide of war were also interesting, but hindsight is a blessing in that the “predictions” made and how obvious the coming state of the country was perhaps wouldn’t have been as obvious to the people of London in 1939 as Orwell made it out to be with hindsight on his side when writing. 

 

Where Orwell was good in his writing, anti-capitalism and anti-fascism, in addition to a wider literary appreciation discussing the role of books in ‘Coming up for Air’, he was brilliant. However, where Orwell faltered in both the engagement of the plot and his presentation of character in this case, he was far from commendable. This one of his works really disappointed me. 

a_welch's review

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

imaginarytiger's review against another edition

funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

daniel_wood's review

reflective medium-paced

4.25

etivepmc's review

3.0

3.5⭐️
Work embarrassingly got in the way of me reading this, however, it was quite pleasant. It made a change for me as my usual genre is horror, so something filled with nostalgia for a better time in somebody's life was quite refreshing for me.
Although George Bowling doesn't half complain all the time, no wonder his poor wife is so full of anxiety - he's a fat, disgusting letch with (thankfully) the self-awareness to recognise it.

witchkin's review

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5