George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier

Road to Wigan Pier starts strong: Orwell describes the life of an English coal miner. His description is grim and convincing. All in all, worth reading, even though the life he describes is history now. The vivid details of Orwell's trip to the bottom of the coal mine are particularly nasty.

The rest of the book - well, it's less interesting. Discussion of hot social issues from 70 years ago, Orwell's thoughts on socialism and fascism... didn't hold my interest, really. It's always somewhat fascinating to read about the way class is an all-penetrating force in the British society, but much of the book is simply not very interesting to a modern reader. Well, some of the things he writes about poverty are very much true, even in the 21st century Finland, so while the times do change a lot, some things apparently stay just like they are.

The first part is strong, that I must say, and worth reading to a reader interested in poverty and social injustice. (Review based on the Finnish translation.) [ The Road to Wigan Pier (Penguin Modern Classics) at Amazon.co.uk ] [ Road to Wigan Pier at LibraryThing ]