Review: 1984 by George Orwell

Title: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Year published: 1948

Category: Adult fiction (dystopian)

Pages: 368 pages

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Location: (my 2024 Google Reading map): UK

Summary: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...

A startling and haunting novel, 1984 creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing from start to finish. 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.

Review: Ti at Book Chatter suggested a read along of this book and I was totally game. I haven't read this book since high school and let's just say that means it's been a really long time!

Orwell really had a way with words. He captures the moment ("she had dust in her wrinkles"), the feeling, the oppressive situation so well. To grapple with truth and lies alongside his narrator was a privilege. Orwell is also a visionary. He saw, in 1948, the beginnings of government control (not too difficult after the fascist regimes in the 1930s and '40s), but those same entities using technology that didn't exist yet. He saw ways that lies become truth that really resonate in the US today. The world of double-speak is ever-present in the novel (and, it feels at times, today).

"War is peace.

Freedom is slavery.

Ignorance is strength."

Part 2 of the novel sees our main character falling in love/lust, which gives the reader a sense of those living outside the rules, outside the grasp of the Thought Police and Big Brother. Surely this is a reference to LGBTQ and interracial relationships in the 1940s. Hiding in plain sight from friends, colleagues, and "them." And this part ends with everything crashing down around the main character. A real cliffhanger (mid book).

The final part of the book is just devastating (as if the earlier two parts weren't bad enough). Winston is tortured in great detail--both physically and mentally. I saw so much of the Nazi regime in this section of the novel. The breaking down of human beings, the slogans and propaganda, the destruction of humanity on all sides. And the final line of the book, wow.

Challenges for which this counts: 

• Bookish--Winston keeps a diary that is ultimately his undoing