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Books Related to Keep the Aspidistra Flying George Orwell - ISBN: 0754001148
Very irritating central character - Rated
Probably my least favourite Orwell novel, as I found the central character Gordon Comstock very irritating with his constant moans about having no money and his stubborn resistance to doing anything constructive about it; he really has chosen poverty due to his mental attitude. The novel improved after he got hopelessly drunk and spent the night in a police cell. The story became more engaging and the ending was heartwarming, if a little sudden and twee.
Ouch - depressing! - Rated
I "like" Orwell's novels - can't say that I "enjoy" them as such but they all have a certain something.
Parts of Aspidistra, however, are really gut-renchingly depressing though. You just want to pick him up and shake him out of his terminal decline.
I think the main reason I am not a big fan (as well as the depression) is that I didn't find him likeable - I didn't really care if he dropped down dead at any moment. There was something about him (weird though this may seem) that reminded me of Hardy's Tess - Ijust wanted to pick him up and give him a good shake!
Chin up - Rated
The dogged pursuit of a life outside the capitalist system by the central character can begin to get frustrating. However, it is well written and the descrptions of life unadorned by material possesions, at any level, offer a remarkable contrast to the way we live now.
Faith, hope and criticism. - Rated
My favourite novel of all time chronicles Gordon Comstock's war against money and British society. That Gordon chose to live outside the system and stay true to his art tempers the optimism of most follow your dreams type aspirational story with Gordon sinking further and further into poverty much to the shame of his family. It was always my intention to buy an aspidistra and display it in the bay window on getting married in homage to this book. As it happened my wife wouldn't hear of us owning an aspidistra and bought a cheese plant which she then proceeded to kill. This should have told me a tale in it's self. Anyway on getting my own novel published I was determined not to brood on it in the way Gordon tracks down copies of `London Pleasures' in the remaindered shelves. So whenever I catch myself checking the inventory on Abe Books or my the ranking on Amazon for `Here's 2 Absent Fathers' I find myself drawing a parallel with Gordon and his bleak world view.
A disappointment - Rated
Tired and tedious, lacking any sort of coherency.
The plot tells of a misguided socialist who eventually submits to earning a proper living.
