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1984

George Orwell

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Jan 29, 2021 Bailey Crawly rated it it was ok · review of another edition

1984 is one of those books that you’re “not allowed” to not like. Whenever someone says they don’t like 1984, the criticisms are almost consistently met with excuses, such as “you were too young when you read it,” or “it must not’ve been the right time for you to get the material” or, somewhat frequently, “it requires a certain level of intelligence to understand the plot.”
I found 1984 to be a slog of a novel, not to mention completely underwhelming. It had its positive moments that were genuine 1984 is one of those books that you’re “not allowed” to not like. Whenever someone says they don’t like 1984, the criticisms are almost consistently met with excuses, such as “you were too young when you read it,” or “it must not’ve been the right time for you to get the material” or, somewhat frequently, “it requires a certain level of intelligence to understand the plot.”
I found 1984 to be a slog of a novel, not to mention completely underwhelming. It had its positive moments that were genuinely entertaining (the beginning when they first set up the dystopian world, before the topic was overdone to the point of being redundant, for example; and, of course, the ending), but those parts were surrounded by so much filler, so many unnecessary bits of dialogue and never-ending paragraphs that barely expanded upon the plot and ultimately offered nothing positive to the overall experience that it was a real chore to sit through.
It’s the first book I’ve read in a while that I had to alternate between reading the book myself and listening to the audiobook, because it just droned on and on and on. There’s even nearly an entire chapter of the book wherein we’re treated to a political book within the political book, which is where a lot of readers, from my own conversations, have dropped off.
It would be wrong to not mention the things 1984 does really good, and I’ll do that as well. The initial creation of the world ruled by Big Brother is really well done, and it creates a truly compelling world from a writer who was clearly way ahead of his time. One of the more eventful sections is the secret relationship between Winston and his love interest, Julia, which is interesting, even if it doesn’t particularly go anywhere. Likewise, the whole final part did a good job of creating a little bit of tension, and the ending was fantastic.

But again, after what you have to get through to reach that point, you just have to take a step back and ask yourself: is it worth it?
In my case, I really don’t think it is. ...more

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