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A review by asolorio02
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
2.0
Not Orwell's best, but still good. The protagonist, Gordon Comstock, a struggling poet, is quite the dumb-ass and even though Orwell wrote the character to be a dumb-ass, it still get's annoying reading about the dumb-assery of a dumb-ass. Gordon is selfish, stubborn, and overly proud and his motivations for being so are a little flimsy. I felt just as confused as the side characters in the book, Julia and Rosemary and Gordon's rich friend, in trying to puzzle out Gordon's self-destructive behaviors. Definitely not the type of dude you'd want as a relative, lover or friend.
Outside of that, Orwell once again takes us into the grimy, dirty world of London's poor, this time through the lens of a poet whose abilities don't measure up to his ambitions. Throughout the book the reader is given a vista into the social issues of MONEY, class, and sex & gender during the time period. I found these explorations interesting, as I always do with Orwell.The English from this period seemed especially obsessed with class and the appearance of what's "proper".
A strong feature of Orwell's writing and storytelling was missing in this one. Orwell often has one or two major dialogue rants in his stories that are distillations of truth on some aspect of the world. These are usually delivered to the protagonist by a side character or antagonist who finally breaks things down and gives the reader and main character a heavy dose of reality. Unfortunately, there was none of these truth bomb moments in the story. If there had been, I would have given the book a fourth star. That's how powerful these moments of dialogue can be.
If Orwell is your man, I'd say you can't go wrong with this one. If he's not, you're better off sticking to his more well regarded works.
Outside of that, Orwell once again takes us into the grimy, dirty world of London's poor, this time through the lens of a poet whose abilities don't measure up to his ambitions. Throughout the book the reader is given a vista into the social issues of MONEY, class, and sex & gender during the time period. I found these explorations interesting, as I always do with Orwell.The English from this period seemed especially obsessed with class and the appearance of what's "proper".
A strong feature of Orwell's writing and storytelling was missing in this one. Orwell often has one or two major dialogue rants in his stories that are distillations of truth on some aspect of the world. These are usually delivered to the protagonist by a side character or antagonist who finally breaks things down and gives the reader and main character a heavy dose of reality. Unfortunately, there was none of these truth bomb moments in the story. If there had been, I would have given the book a fourth star. That's how powerful these moments of dialogue can be.
If Orwell is your man, I'd say you can't go wrong with this one. If he's not, you're better off sticking to his more well regarded works.