Animal Farm - George Orwell ~ Review

14/8/18 17:06



SO.

FIRST OF ALL.

I started reading the foreword and it straight up spoiled that one of the characters dies, what the heck? Why would you put that as a foreword and not an afterword? If anyone reads the edition with a foreword by Ann Patchett, don't read it if you don't want spoilers! So stupid.


The story essentially details a farm where the animals, inspired by a wise old boar, conspire to take over and rule the farm human-free. They successfully do so, running drunkard Farmer Jones and his wife out of their house. The pigs, being the smartest of all the animals, take the role as leader. They come up with a constitution, as follows:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

However, soon the animals notice some of the pigs breaking these rules, such as when Napoleon, the head pig, starts to sleep in the bed formerly belonging to Mr Jones. The animals read the rules again to see:
    
     4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.

"Oh," the animals think. "We must have remembered incorrectly." A few days later they see the pigs drinking whiskey, found in the farmhouse. The animals go back again to the rules, and they see:
   
     5. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.

"Silly us," the animals think, "I forgot to excess." Not long after that, the animals witness the pigs murder an animal who disagrees with an idea they came up with. The animals think "That's not right, the rules definitely said no animal shall kill another!" They go to the rules once more, and read:

     6. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.

Slowly, the pigs start to become more human, more nefarious and the animals end up worse off than when Mr Jones was in power. It's a perfect example of an attempt at communism, but just like many similar events throughout history, it's just an illusion. The plot is based on the Russian Revolution in 1917, and all of the characters are based on real people/social groups (you can find a list of who is representative of who here).


I really enjoyed reading Animal Farm. It was short but sweet and much easier to read than 1984 was, which I was surprised by as it was written by Orwell two years previous (although it is a satirical children's book so I don't know what that says about my reading abilities!). I always like to take a little while to digest what I've read before writing a review of a book such as this one, where it's definitely written as a political statement and it's glaringly obvious that it's not just a tale of some talking animals. Often I get epiphanies days after finishing books like these on how it's relevant to today's society. This time it came to me while at a dinner party at my Aunty and Uncle's house and after some gins got the best of me, I started bleating* on about how communism is a lie and everything is corrupt.


I also realised that Animal Farm is essentially Trump's America. Trump is literally another Napoleon and I don't know what to do with that information considering Trump's ties with Russia. If Orwell had written 'fake news' coming out of the pig's mouth, I wouldn't even blink twice. Plus, he does lives up to the description of a corrupt pig! :) :)


5/5 - I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who studied Sociology or Philosophy at GSCE or A-Level - the Marxism is heavy with this one. It made me really quite existential when I was reading it, I just kept going on about how communism is the dream but nobody on this earth will ever be able to fully achieve true communism and that is so sad. I got thinking about this and lost all hope for humanity, all I wanted was to go home, get under my duvet and sleep until the world ended :) :) :) Why must we be controlled by corruption and greed? If there's anything to scare young people into voting in elections, it's Animal Farm - nothing like a bit of totalitarianism to show how important being able to think for yourself is!



*Pun intended. Bleating.. get it? Sheep? Animal Farm???? No?

The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris ~ Review

3/8/18


The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the unbelievable true story of Lale Solokov and his life as a Tätowierer in 1942-1945. It was his job to tattoo the 6 digits used as a form of identification on to the arm of each and every man, woman or child who came through the gates of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a combined concentration and extermination camp. Lale kept his story a secret for many years and was frightened to reveal many of the darker parts of his story, as his job of Tätowierer gained him extra food rations and certain privileges - he suffered from survivors guilt, and feared people would view him as a Nazi collaborator. It was only after his wife, Gita, died that he freed himself from the tale of his concealed past. This book was published on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018.


Heather Morris spent three years with Lale documenting his story. She claims that despite it being listed as "Historical Fiction", the finished book is 95% true. Morris' commissioning editor, Angela Meyer, stated the following in response to a question on Goodreads:

"...creative or dramatic license was taken, such as when she..." (Morris) "...had to fill in small blanks in time, or delve into characters' thoughts. At one point she puts Lale and Gita together, when they were not (when the planes fly over the camp), and some of the names of smaller characters, while representative of real people, are invented."

She also goes on to say that the conversations Heather and Lale had were usually recorded in some way, and having seen the footage, many of the conversations are word-for-word as Lale told them. It also seems Morris may have had researchers look into certain aspects of the story, as Meyer then says that researchers have confirmed that Lale's story is accurate with what they know to be true from that time.


Having found all of the above out prior to reading it, I was fairly surprised at how much of an easy read this book was for me. I was expecting it to be jarring and gruesome, but it was more like a journal of a love-sick young man. Intertwined with his somewhat PG* account of day to day Auschwitz was a seemingly doomed love story, which in any other setting would be described as beautiful. I found it quite amusing that, Lale lived through some of the most abhorrent, horrific circumstances known throughout history for almost 3 years of his life, yet his memory of it was completely drawn to the aspects relating to Gita and how she made him feel - that was the story that Lale told. It just goes further to show how accurate Morris' depiction of Lale is - a real ladies man.
Despite the above, there are moments that are horrible to read. I was specifically hit hard while reading a chapter involving a character named Leon which shook me to my core, and as soon as I saw the name Josef Mengele, my heart sunk so fast that I think it may have resided in my foot for a while. I do think this is worth reading, even if only to make you think, how could this have happened? How could so many human beings have so little mercy? 


My only criticism of The Tattooist of Auschwitz is that it wasn't long enough! I finished it in 3 days while I was on holiday but then I missed Lale and his cheery optimism. I do understand why it wasn't longer - I certainly wouldn't have wanted to taint Lale's story, but I do wish it had delved a little deeper and had been a little more descriptive. Having said that, Lale had to actually live through this hellish experience and was re-telling it all 60 years after it had happened, so I can hardly be mad at him for not wanting to go deeper into the details. I'm pleased to rate this a 4/5, and I hope Lale and Gita are happy together, finally at peace.




* As PG as an account of a horrendous concentration/extermination camp can be.