First of four Orwells from this year read. One thing about Orwell he's gonna write a novel of ideas, that man has no idea how to write plot or characters, he's just here to share some very big ideas. In Keep the Aspidistra Flying, he deals with the ways capitalism corrupts society and individuals, how everything in our societies revolves around money, and how it is impossible for individuals to break out of the money game. He also explores the loneliness epidemic, especially as it pertains to men (even incel culture is exposed to a certain extent). It's a depressing read, to say the least.

I took issue with how Orwell wrote his female characters (a problem that's prevalent in all the books I read thus far by him). He simply can't write women and his misogyny shows. The female characters in this book are inauthentic, not fleshed out, and only present to serve our main male character. It's frustrating. I would've rather read a book about Rosemary or Julia, instead of their respective asshole lover and brother. Whilst I relating a lot to Gordon's issues surrounding not wanting to be a part of the money machine, I hated eeeeeevery scene which revolved around the relationship he has with the women in his life. The fact that Gordon attempts to rape Rosemary and her relationship/ view of him doesn't change afterwards (no, she really pities him?? wtf??) really takes the cake. I was yelling "GIRL, RUN" in every scene she was in.

Big ideas, big thoughts were had. Lots to mull over. Orwell is easy to read but hard to chew. Tentative recommendation, especially if you can see past the misogyny, and don't care that Orwell was a shitty person. If you haven't read Orwell at all and prefer not to read assholes, you should prepare leave him on the shelf. Orwell was an incredibly problematic man in his lifetime, who in all probability attempted to rape his childhood friend, as well as neglected his wife. Add to that that he worked as a colonial policeman in Burma, probably slept/raped Burmese prostitutes, and later in life, worked with the British state as a civilian informant and reported on people's "tendency towards homosexuality", Black men who were "very anti-white", or "communist". Orwell's list of sins is long, and not often discussed in modern liberal circles.

Bu romanı okuyacaksanız bundan önce yazarın Wigan İskelesi Yolu nam eserini okumanızı tavsiye ederim. Böylelikle Gordon Comstock'un şair olmasına rağmen neden bir türlü şiir yazamadığı, onun koşullarında yaşayan ve onun zihniyetindeki birinin sosyalist olması beklenebilecekken neden cömert dostu Raveltson’ın tüm ikna çabalarına yüz çevirerek sosyalizmi reddettiği, neden Raveltson’la girdiği işçi barında herkesin ona züppe gözüyle baktığı vs. daha anlaşılır olacaktır. Çünkü bu meselelerin hepsi G. Orwell'in zihnini meşgul eden tartışmalarda bir yere oturuyor, o meseleleri alıp romana dökmüş. Benim için ikisini tesadüfen arka arkaya okumak şanstı.

Aunque me gustó mucho creo que no es una lectura para cualquier lector. Tienes que saber que es una lectura lenta que te hace reflexionar sobre el seguimiento de las ideologías extremistas.
El protagonista está en contra del capitalismo y por ello deja un buen empleo para malvivir como vendedor de libros de segunda mano. Considera que el dinero es el culpable de la corrupción humana y no quiere saber nada de él. No se da cuenta que en nuestra sociedad hace falta dinero para cualquier cosa básica como comer o para dormir bajo techo.
Hay veces que tenía ganas de gritarle que despertara, que no podía echarse perder por seguir una ideología tan extrema inviable en nuestra sociedad.

Безработным читать запрещается. Депрессивное состояние обеспечено. Но хорошо, что победил фикус, этот вечный символ мещанского уюта, ставший древом жизни и примирение с которым сделал возможным малыш. Гордону повезло с Розмари.

This is why I would dig Orwell up and have him at a dinner party if I could. The man just knows how to write and not just write randomness for the sake of writing or selling a book. He just gets right down to the fundamentals of human existence (mainly suffering). This is one of his few books that actually ends on a high note....if conforming the the norm of society is a high note.

I have to admit that by the middle of the book, I did want to punch Gordon in his testicles for being a douche to everybody, but I suspect that was the point. I can't imagine anyone reading this book and not agreeing with the money money money obsessions of society. It is something very few of us think about but its something that shapes every tiny little part of our lives whether we like it or not.

Like all the Orwell books I've read up to this point, it made me stop and think about where I found myself in my life right now. Like ol' Gordon I realised that I have also declared a kind of war against money, I think anyone who truly appreciates things like art for art sake would feel exactly the same. I've made life changing decisions based on my contempt for the 'rat race' and the pursuit of wealth....but as I get older I'm slowly starting to see that to be part of the human race and live, you need to be part of it, it being the pursuit of money.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Orwell and for those that are searching for a book with meaning and a main character that you love in the beginning, want to harm in the middle, but then love again in the end.

The more Orwell books I read the sadder I become when I realise that there are only a few of his writings left; what will I do when I have read them all?? Hmmmm I may seriously need to consider the digging him up, after all modern technology has progressed to the point where it can fossilise wealthy old hags from NY or LA, why not bring back to life a man of substance and intelligence?

Apparently Orwell himself didn't think much of this, and kept Keep the Aspidistra Flying from being reprinted in his lifetime. The mixed reviews come as no surprise then. While it isn't a bad novel, the plot does feel a bit puny, and the message he is trying to send out is delivered without any real drive and potency. Even the metaphors don't really stand up. It's something - unlike 1984 or my fave Down and Out in Paris and London - that's not going to hang around in my head for too long. Also, I don't know how on earth the novel can be seen as satire, because for me it isn't. Just too depressing and straight-faced. The contradicting second-rate poet Gordon Comstock - a character I didn't particularly like - makes the decision to quit his advertising agency to take up a dead-end job in a small bookshop. Basically he is sick to death of the blighting consumerism on society. Just about getting by with his uncomplaining girlfriend Rosemary, leads to an unexpected pregnancy and he is suddenly faced with the choice of whether to conform or to compound in regards to his hardship way of life. It's safe to say that Comstock incorporates some of the difficulties Orwell experienced himself. The person trying to live morally in a capitalist society for example. When it comes to the actual subject of finances, then I'd say Gordon is more on the side of wanting to simply shun adult life and responsibilities than he is bothered by the money-god and capitalism. He sees his own self-inflicted poverty easier to take rather than have it thrust upon him by outer forces. Orwell’s own life of poverty does mean Gordon’s is written with authenticity, but, I'd simply take Orwell all day long writing about himself rather than a fictitious version. Like I've said before - apart from 1984 - I much prefer his non-fiction/essays. 2.7 stars.

For the most part I really enjoy George Orwell's writing and it's still quite good here. Although the characters and plot did nothing to keep me invested or enjoy it. The book just wasn't my cup of tea but I'm still hopeful that I'll enjoy most of his other works I got left to read

A novel of London life and the search for integrity in the 1930s. It conjures up the oppressive atmosphere resulting from self inflicted poverty and features the shabbier side of life to the extent that the one brief excursion that the hero and his girlfriend make out of London feels like the explosive escape from a crushing environment.

The story follows a young man who gives up a comfortable job in advertising to work on a not very good poem about how rubbish and tawdry modern life and its amusements are. It is slightly unsatisfying as a novel I think because it can't resolve the problem that it sets up in a satisfactory way, but maybe you might shrug and find that is simply realistic.

Money, always money!

When I showed my girlfriend the blurb on the back of this book she exclaimed "Oh, Orwell wrote a book about you!" Whilst I wouldn't go so far as to say my existence is quite as grimly frustrated as that of Mr Comstock, I have to admit there were (are) certain parallels- I was working a part-time job, struggling for money with the vague hope I would turn the extra free time into productive "studio time". In reality, my inner city existence with its high rent and living costs forced me into a mire of misery, during which I would moan to anyone that told me off for not achieving my "artistic potential" that they didn't understand and blah blah blah.

When reading this book you really feel for Gordon, especially because from the readers' perspective you really feel like reaching into the book and shaking him hard, shaking him into the realisation that an equal amount of his misery comes from his own brooding as he piles all this pressure on himself. I personally found all of the sections where his sweetheart is telling him that it doesn't matter that he has to borrow the train fare back to London, and money really isn't the problem again and again to be really heartbreaking. It's a great book for shattering cliches a few cliches about what being "an artist" is really about, too- this is no starving genius in his bedsit, this is a man who isn't even sure he should be a poet at all at times. Convinced of his own genius one moment and despising every word scattering his squalid desk the next, I found reading about the poor bastard to be a real comfort. One of my favourite parts was his lowest ebb, a night of burning embarrasment culminating a police cell..

The only thing I was unsure about was the ending. I won't spoil it for you, but I found myself vaguely disquieted at the decision Gordon made about his life-it's almost as if in a backward way he's let his fatalism extend even further.

It's also a very English book.

Think George Orwell and 1984 and Animal Farm come to mind because those are the books he wrote the schoolteachers know to teach. I've read them of course and you know what? Keep the Aspidistra Flying, which I had never heard of and only recently come across, is a much better book than 1984 or Animal Farm. Sure, those other titles are unique and special, but frankly, not real. Keep the Aspidistra Flying is hugely realistic, and captivatingly well written. It's a story anyone can relate to, feel, and get angry and frustrated over.

Post Word War young George Comstack seeks a life free of the worship of money. He wants to live simply, even in poverty, on an honest if simple job, that pays just enough to live while he devotes himself to writing poetry he is actually very good at it. Young, idealistic, he takes it a bit too far and gives up a decent paying job that makes use of his natural writing ability to toil in poverty at a used book store.

He gets a surprise check from a publisher for one of his poems, but instead of spending the winfall wisely, he succumbs as many not used to money do, to treating his girlfriend and best friend to a night of drinking and an expensive meal. He ends up drunk with a prostitute who steals what is left, and loses his menial job over it and ends up essentially destitute. All the while he is frustrated that his loyal if simple girlfriend won't have sex with him unless they marry but he can't marry without making more money which is in principle against doing.

Everyone who reads this great book will be able to relate to George's rejection of the chase of the money god, yet can only get frustrated that he doesn't bow to reality and so hurts himself.

I know 1984 and Animal Farm may be better known and lauded, but I found this book superior to them. My only criticism is that anyone who doesn't understand the older British money system may have a hard time following George's discussions of his money at hand but you can easily look the terminology up online.

This is a great novel and I wish I had come across it years ago and I wish it were better known and more read!

biraz spoiler'lı olacak, baştan uyarayım.

karşıma çıkma ihtimali olsa eşek sudan gelene değin döveceğim roman karakterleri listesine üst sıralardan giriş yaptı gordon. "sistem" karşıtı olmakla, paraya düşman olmakla çok problemim yok. ancak karakterin derdinin bundan ziyade arkadaşı ravelston gibi olma arzusu olduğunu düşünüyorum. paraya onun kadar rahat erişimi olmamasıyla bir sorunu var. elbette her şey maddiyatla ilgili, buna katılmamak elde değil. ama bu konudaki tüm sıkıntılarını çevresinde ondan daha avantajlı olmayan -özellikle- kadınlara kusması, bu yaşam tarzı ve gelir düzeyiyle hamile kalmak istemeyen sevgilisini "sistem bizim böyle düşünmemize sebep oluyor" gibi saçma sapan gerekçelerle azarlaması beni çıl-dırt-tı. üstelik eline üç kuruş fazla para geçince de ne hale geldiğini görüyoruz. karakter tutarsız değil, bu açıdan bir eleştiri yapamam; fakat benim tahammül sınırlarımı fazla zorladı. bir de erken yazılmış bir roman olduğu belliydi. alegorilerdeki, anlatım tarzındaki acemilikler fazlasıyla hissediliyordu. ben 1984'ü türkiye'de yaşanan hype'a çeyrek kala okumuştum. bütün bu kör göze parmak referanslar biraz uzaklaşmama sebep oldu orwell'den. taa 2008'de aldığım aspidistra'yı da bu sebeple öteleyip durdum. storytel'de karşıma çıkınca ani bir kararla dinlemeye başladım. bu aralar hep bir "geç kalmışım" romanlarıyla kesişiyor yolumuz. kötü değildi, ama mümkünse 1984'ten önce ve biraz gençken okumak daha faydalı sonuçlar verebilir. 30+ olunca gordon'un varoluşsal bunalımı insana boş geliyor.

Finishing the book within a day, I have a feeling that I just experienced something profoundly beautiful. Keep the Aspidistra Flying is the story of a very likable anti-hero and a very outstanding heroine. That story between the two characters is almost too sacred to give out in a book review. You have to read it yourself.

Yet there is still something to talk about: the author's message. You can't read and put down Orwell's novels without rearranging a few of your beliefs.

Only Orwell can speechify so effortlessly the concepts of love and the accompanying hatred, of wealth and the necessary poverty. He can break your heart with paragraphs about coins in your pocket, of bread and margarine in your stomach, of the cost and loss of self-respect, of not being able to afford friendship. It seems like it's less painful to withdraw from the world than struggle within it. You're convinced of it, anyhow.

Orwell feeds you every argument for hating the world -- you're nodding with every argument for hating the world -- but then purges this emotion away.

No, it's not enough to hate the world for the rest of your life, Orwell seems to gently tell you. For in return for showing you the absolute worst in earth, he gives you reasons for forgiveness, reasons for redemption, reasons for optimism. Life is not unlivable; living is worth it.

Why is such a process necessary? Destruction and reconstruction of beliefs is required to be a fully human being, because only the renewed belief is not the default nor the destined kind, but desired and determined. It is the contribution of choice; you choose to be a flawed part of a flawed world, and only then are you relieved. No longer an impostor nor traitor, but finally the human being you, unapologetically fulfilling the human destiny.

Once again, I can't find fault in George Orwell.