Keep the Aspidistra Flying

I remember reading 1984 when much younger and being surprised at how readable it was. A simple story, well told, disguising some more thought-provoking ideas and clever satire.

So I should have been prepared to find the same with this book: also very readable, straightforward and funny, but discussing some darker truths.

My reaction to the main character kept veering wildly from frustration and annoyance to sympathy and affection, but this meant I was always engaged in one extreme passion or another. This is not a boring book. Add to that some comic moments and a general, overall amusing tone and rarely was the smile not on my face.

Orwell's writing is just so beautiful and controlled: it takes a lot of skill to make writing look this damn easy.

My favourite image is a description of a nursing home wherein the inhabitants have nothing to talk about except their diseases:

“All over the darkish drawing-room, ageing, discoloured people sat about in couples, discussing symptoms. Their conversation was like the dripping of stalactite to stalagmite. Drip, drip. ‘How is your lumbago?' says stalactite to stalagmite. ‘I find my Kruschen Salts are doing me good' says stalagmite to stalactite. Drip, drip, drip.”

Genius.