Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Keep the Aspidistra Flying – 3.5 stars

For this book, I think it’s helpful to clearly separate style from content. Stylistically, it’s exactly what you’d expect from Orwell: masterful command of language, impeccable pacing, and a beautiful, fluid tone. As for the story itself, it’s quite simple and intentionally repetitive around its central theme. The characters are one-dimensional, and the book often feels more like a personal catharsis or a stylistic exercise than a fully developed work of literature. Still, even when Orwell writes something uneven or overly introspective, his prose makes it a pleasure to read.

“Tutto è denaro”

La storia di Gordon Comstock mi ha toccato molto, nonostante più volte mi sia sentito come se fossi arrabbiato con lui, la mia mentalità non riusciva nemmeno a comprendere la profonda contraddizione su cui si basa la sua vita. Alla fine però credo di averlo capito un poco, ho ripensato ad episodi della mia vita, e ho compreso che in realtà non ha torto, infine mi ha anche donato una importante lezione di vita, che difficilmente dimenticherò.
Gordon Comstock è un simbolo di un tempo, un veicolo ideologico, che Orwell sfrutta per sferrare una lucida e razionale critica al mondo capitalistico e alla società. E io non potrei essere più che d'accordo con lui, perché tutto quello che dice è ancora attualissimo e non è veramente così ovvio.
Oggi, ho come la sensazione, si sia smesso di parlare di come siamo incredibilmente condizionati dal denaro, è una verità non detta che bene o male accettiamo tutti, ma a volte pensiamo:
“Ma è impossibile che i quattrini abbiano una simile importanza, Gordon!” Dopo tutto, ci sono altre cose, oltre ai quattrini.” Forse sì... o forse no.

I enjoyed this one of Orwells, written in 1936, and set in 1930s London. Gordon is a character set up to be pitied and despised, but who also grudgingly earns some respect, for sticking to his philosophy - no matter how theoretical and impractical it is.

There is no doubt the novel is deep into description - and for me that was what made it, the descriptive 1930s London, the grimy and impoverished existence of Gordon Comstock, the mundanities of every-day life in a going nowhere job, a struggling poet in the evening. The aspidistra as a symbol of middle-middle-class, Gordon's reluctance to use his three penny bit (which he calls a Joey) and his view that everyone would know it was his last coin.

Gordon offers enough for the reader to become, at least, partly invested in him. He lives a meagre existence by choice, nevertheless disdains it. He resigns from a good job, as he declared his ‘war on money' and seeks only ‘a job' (but not a ‘good job'), while continually blaming his lack of money for his failure of a social life, and his going-nowhere relationship with Rosemary.

Of the other characters, Ravelston is for me the most interesting. Ravelston is relatively wealthy, but lives down as a part of his belief in socialism, become a benefactor to Gordon, trying as he might to encourage him to further his poetry, and using his position as an editor of a socialist magazine to publish a little of Gordon's work. Gordon is constantly battling against Ravelston, determined not to bludge off him, yet looking up to him at the same time.

While others may consider it too long, I enjoyed the descriptive nature of this story, and could have read more, and particularly enjoyed the bookshop description, and the scenes of public transport, and London in general.
4.5 stars, rounded down, as it isn't quite a 5 star book.

Some quotes:

They were one of those depressing families, so common among the middle-middle class, in which nothing ever happens.–Gordon put his hand against the swing door. He even pushed it open a few inches. The warm fog of smoke and beer slipped through the crack. A familiar, reviving smell; nevertheless as he smelled it his nerve failed him. No! Impossible to go in. He turned away. He couldn't go shoving into that saloon bar with only fourpence halfpenny in his pocket. Never let other people buy your drinks for you! The first commandment of the moneyless. He made off down the dark pavement.–“The mistake you make, don't you see,is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You're trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can't. One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can't put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.”–The aspidistra became a sort of symbol for Gordon after that. The aspidistra, the flower of England! It ought to be on our coat of arms instead of the lion and the unicorn. There will be no revolution in England while there are aspidistras in the windows.”

I remember reading 1984 when much younger and being surprised at how readable it was. A simple story, well told, disguising some more thought-provoking ideas and clever satire.

So I should have been prepared to find the same with this book: also very readable, straightforward and funny, but discussing some darker truths.

My reaction to the main character kept veering wildly from frustration and annoyance to sympathy and affection, but this meant I was always engaged in one extreme passion or another. This is not a boring book. Add to that some comic moments and a general, overall amusing tone and rarely was the smile not on my face.

Orwell's writing is just so beautiful and controlled: it takes a lot of skill to make writing look this damn easy.

My favourite image is a description of a nursing home wherein the inhabitants have nothing to talk about except their diseases:

“All over the darkish drawing-room, ageing, discoloured people sat about in couples, discussing symptoms. Their conversation was like the dripping of stalactite to stalagmite. Drip, drip. ‘How is your lumbago?' says stalactite to stalagmite. ‘I find my Kruschen Salts are doing me good' says stalagmite to stalactite. Drip, drip, drip.”

Genius.