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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7613.Animal_Farm?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Animal Farm" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165637301m/7613.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7613.Animal_Farm?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Animal Farm</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3706.George_Orwell">George Orwell</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4941057?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>Wow.  It took maybe a couple of hours to read this book - talk about a couple of hours well spent.  I always thought I knew the story well, but reading its presented a wholly different experience.  After a speech by wise Old Major , the great pig (read Marx/Lenin), in which it is noted that the life of an animal is misery and slavery and than man is the only creature that consumes without producing, the animals rise up and throw off the yolk of their oppressive master Jones (read Romanov family).  Two pigs Napoleon (Stalin) and Snowball (Trotsky) lead the Revolution, supported by the animals of the farm and the hard work of the horse, Boxer.  The only one that seems unconvinced is Benjamin the donkey who notes that donkeys live a long time and that life will go on as it always had gone on - badly.  Moses the Raven (the Church), who always speaks of Sugarcandy Mountain, somewhere up in the clouds, a magical place, also leaves for awhile.  The animals fight back an attack of Jones (Russian Civil War) to retake the farm and all seems to be going nicely.  Things go well, or so the pig intelligentsia says, until a schism between Napoleon and Snowball regarding the building of a windmill.  Everything falls apart.  Napoleon eliminates all traitors and whenever anything goes wrong, it is Snowball that did it.  Pigs become oppressors using dogs (KGB, etc.) to keep order.  Sheep constantly note - two legs bad, four legs good; until pigs walk on two legs when it is four legs good, two legs better.  Truth and imagined truth are blended. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.  It goes without saying that this book highlights the notion that totalitarian propaganda can control opinion, a notion very true today.
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/130981?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Steven's review
rating:
bookshelves: 1001, class, politics

Wow. It took maybe a couple of hours to read this book - talk about a couple of hours well spent. I always thought I knew the story well, but reading its presented a wholly different experience. After a speech by wise Old Major , the great pig (read Marx/Lenin), in which it is noted that the life of an animal is misery and slavery and than man is the only creature that consumes without producing, the animals rise up and throw off the yolk of their oppressive master Jones (read Romanov family). Two pigs Napoleon (Stalin) and Snowball (Trotsky) lead the Revolution, supported by the animals of the farm and the hard work of the horse, Boxer. The only one that seems unconvinced is Benjamin the donkey who notes that donkeys live a long time and that life will go on as it always had gone on - badly. Moses the Raven (the Church), who always speaks of Sugarcandy Mountain, somewhere up in the clouds, a magical place, also leaves for awhile. The animals fight back an attack of Jones (Russi...more

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