Review: 1984 by George Orwell

I know 1984 will rank as one of my favorite book since the first time I had heard it. I know this. But I keep postponing my intent to read it, since I feel like due to my age I will not be able to understand properly, and because I want to work on my English so that I can read it without much difficulty. But one day I was at my local bookstore, window-shopping, and I happened upon a translated copy of 1984 in one of the shelves. I didn't expect it at all and I was so shocked and happy at the same time that I paced around the shelves for some time to calm myself. I was seized by the sudden impulse to grab it and stuff it into my shopping bag, before I saw the publisher. I've read several books by this publisher, and most of them have shoddy translations; I even have to buy a copy of one of them in its original language to even remotely understand anything because the translation is that bad.

But the book haunts me even as I got home. I agonized about it for days. Should I or should I not buy the book? Am I ready yet? Well, I decided finally, if I'm old enough to go to college I'm old enough to read the book. So I placed an order in one of those online bookshops and wait. When it arrived a week ago, I promptly read it.

You must be wondering why it took me almost a week if I liked it so much? Well, because a book like this is like fine wine; you can't read it all at one but rather savor it slowly. And because this book is depressing as fuck, that's why. There were many times when I have to put the book down, draw a long sigh, then took a rest browsing for cute puppies and kittens pictures. The book gets to you. Its worldbuilding is so good that you can't help but get sucked into its world and feel the helplessness of the character. I was there, with Winston in London, trying to survive under constant censorship and squalor, despite the fact that we are separated by the pages of the book.

Orwell has a vivid writing style. He can make his character and his world come to life with mundane words. Every author who thinks that the only way they can write well is by using the most superfluous words needs to read Orwell. Sure, sometimes his paragraph is long and confusing, but like I said, you need to savor it slowly like fine wine. You can't speed-read an Orwell. I usually felt bored upon encountering a wall of text in a novel, but with Orwell, the wall of text makes me feel excited. It doesn't bore me, not at all.

Wow. I really don't have anything to add anymore. What can I say? Everything that needs to be said has been said in this book. You need to read it. That's all I'm going to say.

Final rating:

Book information:

Title: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Edition: New York: Signet Classics.1950

ISBN: 978-0-451-52493-5