Book Review of Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

Hello everyone

Time for another book review and this time it's a George Orwell book that has themes of conformity, nostalgia and change.

I LOVED this book - but then again, I'm a huge fan of George Orwell. Let me know what you think if you've read this book!

Error: The book was published in 1939. I mistakenly said 1950.

[EhrenG]

One thing that I appreciate about Orwell's writing is his ability to portray an environment which is now foreign to us due to the passage of time. It really gives an impression of what day-to-day life would have been like during "interesting times". One specific example is from Coming Up for Air is when he describes the interior of a "middle-class" home. If these conditions were to exist in a current-day developed country, the occupants of the dwelling would be considered destitute. Makes one wonder how people who were actually poor at the time lived. We don't have to wonder, though, because Orwell wrote non-fiction about that too, notably, Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.

[nadakataw]

I have just finished the book .It IS very enjoyable indeed it touched me in many ways since I am away from home and have experienced war
I love his style, sometimes humorous,
Great review thank you

[kathrynlroh]

This is one of my top ten favorite books. Glad to see someone else knows what it is, lol!

[johnstewart]

Hi Helen. When I finish reading a book I always check this channel to see if you've reviewed it, as I like to hear your thoughts. I've just finished reading Coming Up for Air and was pleased to find this video. I really enjoyed the book myself, and found much dark humour in George Bowling's world weary attitudes to his wife, children, home and situation in life. Not for the only time in Orwell's books we have a flawed main character who is presented warts and all (I'm thinking of Burmese Days as another example), which makes them seem more human to me. Thanks for your insightful review.

[JCHSU]

Wonderful to see someone, anyone, appreciate this novel. When I was 16, I wrote my RPR (Recommended Personal Reading) on Coming Up for Air and 1984, comparing and contrasting thier themes of conformotiy and rebellion - despite never having read either of them.
Of course I read them both as soon as I could, as well as Down and Out.., Keep the Aspidistra Flying, etc and became a fan for life.

[trumptonshirenationalist]

The book was not written in 1950, he was dead by then. Orwell through the character George Bowling (pronounced as in a bow and arrow) was questioning the accepted "positive" gains of the modern world. He also questions selfishness of action caused by consumerism, materialism and such like.

[ryan_in_film]

Thanks for this. Just finished the book and you've done an excellent job going through it

[filipemachado]

I've seen Christopher Hitchens talk about this book so many times that I felt I should give it a go. Needles to say I loved it. Your review on the book is awesome!

[conceptobject]

I read this 30 years ago. Just yesterday something reminded me of the book. How places change over time and how we idealized the good old days.
My conversation was with a 15 yr old kid and it was interesting to speak with someone who was the same age as when I read the book.

[expressoric]

I read it about nine years ago, but I remember only bits of it. I liked "Keep the Aspidistra Flying", which I thought was a quite serious but humorous novel about social mores in England during the 1930s. I've recently read his very interesting non-fiction book, "Why I Write".

[DefaultName-nttk]

I just finished "The Second Place" by Rachel Cusk - a Booker long-listed novel. I am very interested in your take on it. I am not sure whether you'll like it or hate it. I have some contradictory feelings with some reoccurring images after I closed the book and put it up on my bookshelf.

[ANTIKOURGHOULIS]

Thank you madam for this interesting introduction...

[TheMrkaro]

Just read this brilliant book, all I can say is that all of the motifs in there are really interesting. I specifically liked the parts about mortgages and how Binfield changed after 20 years - today we talk alot about gentrification of neighbourhoods and I think Orwell's work precisely captures the feelings of people from gentrified environments

[electricleg]

The book is Orwells best novel, very Dickensian in parts .

[camillawybrants]

Stamping on baby thrushes. Masterful.

[MrRobster]

I believe this book was written in 1939, not 1950.

[IamRobotMonkey]

Hi, just found your channel. Sorry to be pedantic, but the book wasn't written in 1950. Blair died in mid-January 1950 😆

[stich]

I wasn't really a fan of this one, first George Orwell book that didn't really resinate with me.

[naomijenkins]

I found this book incredibly boring, loved 1984 and I still like how this one was written and I think I understood some of the take home messages but my god it was so boring. I think its becuase im a 23 year old girl so i cant relate to anything about the character

[bertramwinslowiii]

I thought it was an AWFUL book, full of Orwell's tiresome obsessions, middle-class prejudices and endlessly repeated and largely meaningless phrases (e.g. So many things are "evil smelling", so many people "evil looking"). Then there's Orwell's sadism (lots of stuff about people smashing other people in the face with spanners, that kind of thing) and the bit where the protagonist goes to a lecture given by an "anti-fascist", where Orwell goes very close to appeasement of the Nazi regime, not to mention anti-Semitism! It's vile stuff. Of course Orwell would say, "Well, that's what George Bowling thinks, not what George Orwell thinks!" but it's obvious that a lot of what the protagonist thinks IS what Orwell himself thought at the time, and it isn't pleasant.