1984

 Ive only read the first four chapters of Orwells 1984 but already Im gripped. His no nonsense writing style gets to the point without loosing any menace or detail by doing so. This is literally a " cant put down book ". I was worried by reading his non fiction writing  first I may find myself constantly picking out details in the story that are obviously regurgitation's of his experiences and views and I thought this might get annoying. It passed through my mind that I should have read these non fiction books after the novel, but no his amazing imagination has diverted my full attention to the story.

Boy can he write. His use of commas in a long sentence makes for punchy reading rams home the details in the plot. Although Im only four chapters in the menace is starting to grow and the hopeless situation that Big Brother has the country in is already fascinating. One interesting  idea here is not just the rewriting of history and past news events, but the destruction and reduction of the language. Words such as good and bad become good and ungood and all the words that add a spectrum inbetween are banned making it hard for expressive rebellion without severely incriminating yourself. There is something cold and total about that level of suppression and the novel has only just begun.

I felt very strange watching the news afterwards. Nodoubt I will be posting updates about the novel regular for while. This one is going to good. Fun fact - the main character is not even sure it is 1984 due to the level of suppression !