#682 Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Harvest
Year: 1933/1972
213 pages
Audiobook.
Orwell's first publication, one in which he has yet to find his voice. Since this is exaggerated/fake autobiography, the anti-Semitism, presumably Orwell's though articulated by other characters, is wearisome. The argument that the sentiments in this book aren't anti-Semitic because Orwell later wrote an essay about anti-Semitism is not convincing.
Here is Orwell as world-wise young punk, telling older people about the world he knows about but they don't. It's intended, I think, as expose, but doesn't manage to pull this off. Part of the problem is that though it has a moral theme, the action is picaresque, and since parts are fictionalized, it's reasonable for the reader to ask what the point was and why, if fictionalized, the ;point couldn't have been made through more compellingly structured action.
Read with anything by Anthony Bourdain to compare the life of a plongeur to that of contemporary urban restaurant workers.
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