REREAD UPDATE (1 YR LATER)

After finishing the book for a second time I'm glad to notice that I haven't changed my mind about rating this mind warping tale a full 5 stars!

It isn't so out of grasp a story as to make you feel completely unable to understand what is going on but it doesn't allow you to feel quite comfortable with it either. It's definitely an interest (and gloomy) approach to what a totalitarian society could look like today (or at least in 1984) with quite a few references and even similarities to modern day's society.

The book touches up on a lot of social issues like class equality, human rights, freedom of thought and freedom of speech, rebellion. Others are more personal and psychological as is self-doubt, loneliness, betrayal, anxiety, insanity and even, love.

Winston's story converts him from an individual with clear and logical deductive thinking, albeit insecure of himself and his place in society to a pathological, ambition-less "shell of a human" as Orwell would put it. A person with hopes and dreams, even ambitions turned into a deceived and helpless character with broken principles, all in the range of some very emotional few pages.

Winston's past, his train of thought and his actions all make help you understand what living in this society feels like yet at the same time don't help you really relate to the character which is perfect because the book is about individualism and part of the appeal is to make you feel like you've been left out! Of course a lot of what he does and thinks, specially in the initial part, is very acceptable. That is until it's not...shhh.

All in all I could easily recommend the book even through its somewhat milder 1st and 2nd parts which are basically a build up for the third part of the book. The latter contains one of the greatest climaxes I have read in a book over the past years. It is an incredible literary piece, full of raw descriptions and detailed images for your head to dwelve in for hours at end.

It has been a lot of fun reading this again. If you want my opinion, don't think about it, just do yourself a favor and open this book to the first page already!!

Panos.

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Hands down a book for everyone's to-read, to-own, to-ponder-over, etc.

This book isn't necessarily a bull's-eye on my taste but I really appreciate the complexity in Orwell's thought and the issues the book deals with, the messages it gets across to the reader and the dystopian society in which the book dwelves. It talks a lot about politics, civil liberties, human rights (or the lack thereof) and the human's animalistic - almost thoughtless - behavior.

The story takes our main character from one life circumstance to the next in a manner which makes the reader's soul chill. Right when you think the protagonist's life is at it's worst it only keeps getting worse and the one moment he catches a break and starts improving his day-to-day life (Section 2 of the book) is only to throw you into a pit of despair and agony along with Winston Smith during the last Section of the book. This last section was the most haunting and striking I've ever read.

The book's end was what the author hinted at since the very beginning of the book. But no matter the end result, the message I saw unfold under his story was to follow what you truly believe. NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE TELL YOU 2+2=5. Winston was an every day man. He didn't have power, he didn't want an extravagant lifestyle. He only wanted to understand the world around him and used logic to do so. He was punished severely for doing so by a political system that cared more about eternal power than the people it ruled. The political party's values went as far as to devalue the individuality of every human's existence excusing their lack of morality as collective wellness for the country continent they ruled over.

All of this may be a bit too much to think of but the book presents it in friendly thinkable chapter-sized chunks so contrary to the book's main slogan

"ignorance is power"

knowledge is power so read this book and become powerful!

It's gonna be the first book I give a 5-star rating to. At the end of the day it's got to be.