Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Burning Down George Orwell's House

Escape. You can run but you can’t hide. Ray Welter, the protagonist of Andrew Ervin’s debut novel titled, Burning Down George Orwell’s House, runs away from his advertising job in Chicago for the Scottish island of Jura where he rents the remote house named Barnhill in which George Orwell wrote most of the novel 1984. Thinking he would find the same refuge that Orwell had discovered, Ray instead finds that the islanders knew plenty about Ray from the Internet, and their world is as packed with crazy behavior as the life he was trying to escape. Sampling lots of whisky didn’t bring Ray any closer to enlightenment about the human condition. Readers looking for a funny and intelligent novel are those most likely to enjoy this one. I laughed enough, and enjoyed a drink or two, enough, in fact, to start rereading 1984. Sláinte! Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase Burning Down George Orwell’s House from amazon.com.

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