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A review by ethanrstories
Coming Up for Air by George Orwell
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The main character of George Orwell’s Coming up for Air, George Bowling, is a bad person. He’s sexist, selfish, a lousy dad and a cheater. However, he’s also human. He is so human. Despite the subject of this book (who we spend an extreme amount of time with and see everything through the eyes of) being just about the most average man from the 1930s that you could ever meet, Orwell manages to make him into a relatable vessel to explain the decline of the Western middle class after World War I. This decline is influenced by several things, like:
•Suburbanization, which separated many millions of people from the natural scenery of the rural places they grew up in
•The industrial revolution, which furthered the effects of suburbanization that I just mentioned, since instead of the spread out English countryside of before, the industrial revolution encouraged population (and therefore, economic activity) to be packed into a few big cities. This (I believe) led to the domination of big business over small shops, killing a lot of economic activity
•The nuclear family, which forces people into unhappy marriages at young ages, causing them to raise a child they don’t love, who will then repeat the cycle due to not having a happy childhood
The book is structured in a strange way because half of it is a recap of George’s childhood, and that half is located in the middle, not the first or second half. However, I do think this is for the best. Orwell has an absolute knack for explaining things in emotionally conductive and effective ways. One of the most common phrases in the whole story is “you know the _____.” George will be describing a bridge or a person or a building or the inside of a church and he won’t dumb it down; he’ll connect it to what he knows you’ve already seen before, and it’s a very effective tool. He wastes no words in describing scenes and he does it almost perfectly. There is a ton of description, though, and some of the chapters can drag. I wouldn’t blame you for skipping a page or two every once in a while.
Coming Up For Air is about the contrast between then and now. Fulfillment and monotony. Young and old. How the passing of time can change your view on how something actually played out. George Bowling acknowledges that he sees his memories of his youth through rose-tinted glasses—yet, he still yearns for what he had back then. He still wants to escape his marriage and fish in the sun for hours like he did when he was a kid, running around in fields until sunset. Yes, he’s a bad person, but that’s because George Orwell is not a liar. He understands people on a deep level, especially the middle class, and that’s exactly who the main character of this novel is; a middle class man who grew up in the early twentieth century, portrayed how he truly is.
I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in reading about the relatable and insightful thoughts and feelings of the average man who lived through the first world war.
•Suburbanization, which separated many millions of people from the natural scenery of the rural places they grew up in
•The industrial revolution, which furthered the effects of suburbanization that I just mentioned, since instead of the spread out English countryside of before, the industrial revolution encouraged population (and therefore, economic activity) to be packed into a few big cities. This (I believe) led to the domination of big business over small shops, killing a lot of economic activity
•The nuclear family, which forces people into unhappy marriages at young ages, causing them to raise a child they don’t love, who will then repeat the cycle due to not having a happy childhood
The book is structured in a strange way because half of it is a recap of George’s childhood, and that half is located in the middle, not the first or second half. However, I do think this is for the best. Orwell has an absolute knack for explaining things in emotionally conductive and effective ways. One of the most common phrases in the whole story is “you know the _____.” George will be describing a bridge or a person or a building or the inside of a church and he won’t dumb it down; he’ll connect it to what he knows you’ve already seen before, and it’s a very effective tool. He wastes no words in describing scenes and he does it almost perfectly. There is a ton of description, though, and some of the chapters can drag. I wouldn’t blame you for skipping a page or two every once in a while.
Coming Up For Air is about the contrast between then and now. Fulfillment and monotony. Young and old. How the passing of time can change your view on how something actually played out. George Bowling acknowledges that he sees his memories of his youth through rose-tinted glasses—yet, he still yearns for what he had back then. He still wants to escape his marriage and fish in the sun for hours like he did when he was a kid, running around in fields until sunset. Yes, he’s a bad person, but that’s because George Orwell is not a liar. He understands people on a deep level, especially the middle class, and that’s exactly who the main character of this novel is; a middle class man who grew up in the early twentieth century, portrayed how he truly is.
I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in reading about the relatable and insightful thoughts and feelings of the average man who lived through the first world war.