Tuesday, April 5, 2011

BOOK REPORT: Animal Farm by George Orwell

Title:                                           Animal Farm   
Author:                                       George Orwell
Original Copyright Date:          1946

My Rating:     3 out of 5 stars  ( interesting )



Backcover Description
This remarkable book has been described in many ways -- as a masterpiece...a fairy story.... a brilliant satire...a frightening view of the future. A devastating attack on the pig-headed, gluttonous and avaricious rulers in an imaginary totalitarian state, it illuminates the range of human experience from love to hate, from comedy to tragedy.  "A wise, compassionate and illuminating fable of our times...The steadiness and lucidity of Orwell's wit are reminiscent of Anatole France and even of Swift. 

My Thoughts
Animal farm is what it is:  a short political cautionary fairy tale of power, greed and corruption.  It is laid bare just like any other fairy tale from your childhood, down to the anthropomorphic farm animals who talk, each having a distinct role in a black and white world of innocence and corruption.   It is meant to scare you, in this case, into not trusting those in power.

But that's all it was to me, which is why I only gave it 3 stars.  Animal Farm didn't have any depth beyond the words on the page.  There were no lines to read between.  Just the one line, and it was the moral, and the moral is clear.  Don't trust those in power. Don't believe their propaganda.  

I'm glad I read Animal Farm, but it left me wanting more substance, more subtlety. 

In the end, this is a simple book report for a simple, but interesting book.

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