|
In the 1930s, as a young writer,
he decided to spend some time exploring the circumstances
faced by poor men struggling to eke out a living in the big
city. He took on Paris as his first subject, and he lived
as one of the people he was writing about, suffering the same
indignities they faced on a daily basis.
One might imagine a book about poverty
to be dreary dull reading, but this short novel is anything
but. You will find yourself laughing out loud from the first
page.
While his vision of Paris from a
poor man's perspective lacks the romanticism we usually associate
with this city, many of his observations from 1933 still ring
true today. And more importantly, they can be amusing.
The story is a simple narrative that
follows a young writer, Orwell's narrative character, who
finds himself scrounging for a living in Paris, and later
London. He enters the world of the downtrodden, interpreting
it for readers as he discovers it for himself. Orwell's depictions
of the people he meets along the way are vivid and compelling.
Through his relaxed writing style
Orwell brings you the sights, sounds, and smells of day-to-day
existence on the edge. His description of daily life as a
dishwasher in a Parisian hotel kitchen is enough to make you
sweat.
And if you've ever spent time in
Paris on a very tight budget, you may even find a few scenes
that remind you of your own experiences.
|
