1984

By George Orwell
Lexile = 1090

I graduated from high school in 1984. OF COURSE we were assigned to read this classic novel. And.. I didn't read it. I skimmed. Finally got to it this summer. Leaving out the political rant I feel bubbling inside my soul, 1984 is truly a book for our times.

Orwell wrote this in 1949; it grew out of the horrors of WWII and was aimed at the regime of Francisco Franco in Spain. However, it feels so prophetic and timely for our time and place. The main character, Winston, begins a prohibited affair with Julia and records his nonconformist thoughts concerning society in a diary. Big Brother (the government) is always watching and as Winston searches for freedom, the reader can tell this isn't gonna end well.

Orwell's imagined "Newspeak" where offending words are just dropped from the vocabulary, completely reminds me of "Fake News" that we hear of today. If we disagree what happened, let's just say over and over that it didn't happen and eventually THAT will be the truth.

Sometimes I avoid "classics" because I think they are "hard". 1984 isn't a difficult read; just a difficult think!

This has been made into several movie adaptations. HERE is a trailer for the one made in.... wait for it.... 1984.