Rating: 
Summary: Better than 1984
Review: When I was in high school in the 'sixties, I had to make a joint book report on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984 for an American History class. I was so annoyed with this assignment that I wrote a vehemently nasty review. The teacher was vastly amused. He suggested that I read Road to Wigan Pier. I couldn't see anyway to niggle out of reading it, so I settled down to read it as perfunctorily as possible and still be able to convince the teacher that I had given it due thought. Instead, as I read, I became enthralled by Orwell's descriptions of life in a bleak industrial town in the north of England. I gained new respect for Eric Blair; I still didn't like 1984, but I understood better where he was coming from and why he wrote it. I've thought about Road to Wigan Pier many times in the intervening years, and I just recently re-read it. It is still just as powerful and despairing. The non-fiction beats the fiction any day. I have an insig! ! htful teacher to thank for recommending this book.
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