Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Publication Date: June 8, 1949
Publisher: Signet Classics
Pages: 328
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The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell’s prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of “negative utopia” -a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel’s hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions -a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time.
As a lover of dystopian fiction, 1984 is one I’ve heard about over and over for as long as I can remember. I’ve always had some interest in reading it, but classics from this time period usually bore me to tears and I was scared to give it a try. When sales surged after the recent election, I officially added it to my TBR and finally decided to read it a few weeks ago. I should’ve listened to my gut.
This book started interestingly enough, jumping right into the world building. I was intrigued by the disturbing society and attempted to draw the parallels between this world and our society. The main character (I don’t remember his name – was it mentioned?) was a bit of a rebel, which I liked. I enjoyed the little tidbits about the world before, but really wished there was more of it. I definitely would like to know more about how the world got to the state it was in.
The other thing I wished there was more of (or any of) was action. So much of what I read was world building, I would have loved to have seen anything happen whatsoever! The world was interesting, yes, but not interesting enough to keep me turning pages.
Alas, I gave up at under 50% in. It’s very possible that my issues with this book were solved a few pages after I finally gave up, but I just couldn’t force myself to continue. I know that there was a movie made and maybe I’ll give that a try to see what happens after I gave up!
