The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea



This seems to me a lot like the other Hemingway I recently read. A macho fantasy that is way too boys own and obvious. Not sure why the old man went so far out to sea with such a predictable result. It's a man vs beast tale but as Hemingway acknowledges man's weapons hardly make it the mano a mano fight he mostly makes out it is and with references to when the old man was younger in Morocco. I found it predictable and tedious. I can't understand why it got a Nobel prize for literature or why the reviewers say there are no spare words. They all are for me. I must be wrong and there must be something I don't get? Doesn't make me want to read any more of the Hemingway collected works I've got at my bedside...

Animal Farm (George Orwell)

George Orwell
Animal Farm



A short novel I read on the train from London to Salisbury which charts the cynical corruption of political revolutions in the early half of the 20th Century and predicts the same for social revolutions of the latter half of the 20th Century. The story is told in a believable and sentimental way. Odd that Orwell railed against vegetarians yet puts this most classic of novels in a context where any killing of animals is seen as the worst of crimes. And when this does happen he's so sentimental about it. Maybe he just hated the types of people who were veggie back in the war time years rather than the concept. Whatever, it's a great read and whilst it can be read as a warning there's little to inform as to the alternative outcome. Maybe Orwell thought that there was no alternative.

Homage to Catalonia (George Orwell)

George Orwell
Homage to Catalonia



An fascinating account of Orwell's time in Barcelona and on the front line in the Spanish Civil war. Mainly about the futility of his stay there (he may or may not have killed a fascist), life on the front line, the organisational problems and the internecine in fighting between the various government left wind anti Franco forces. He gives us a flavour of this breaking out into open conflict in Barcelona and how the Russian backed communist forces then repressed the more radical anarchist forces. Interesting as he wrote this before the start of WWII and before the end of the Spanish conflict with Franco's victory. Ultimately fairly depressing as he would have expected us to move on a lot further towards socialist societies than we have done with the prescient statement that if Spain and others didn't defeat fascism (I guess we did that to an extent) and revolutionise society then we would descend into semi-slavery (which we have for a lot of the world). Still at least Spain and Catalonia showed what is possible with collectives set up and hierarchies demolished, at least until the "communists" went back to the old status quo. Makes me want to read his two great novels.

The Establishment (Owen Jones)

Owen Jones
The Establishment (and how they get away with it)



A run through of all the things you know (or should know - or rather would know if you thought a bit behind the news) about the people and institutions that work to keep power and wealth with those who already own it and indeed increase that power and wealth. Include the Labour Party in that list. Of course the other side of the coin is increasingly repressing those who support the rich and powerful (who we could term the working and middle classes) and those who are disenfranchised from society such as the long term un- and under-employed. Nevertheless an excellent read with a lot of information supporting the arguments put forward often coming straight from the mouths of those in privileged positions. That's something that Owen Jones emphasises - that the powerful are so sure of their position they are happy to crow about it.

The start is an insightful analysis of how we came to move from a society that was moving towards a fairer system, albeit slowly, with representation by the masses and engagement in the democratic process helping those less fortunate to a society that is supposedly ruled by the market (more of that myth later) and survival of the fittest (or rather of the already privileged). How did we end up having the Labour Party whilst in government privatising the NHS? The same party that wanted to nationalise the banks two decades earlier. Jones then takes each pillar of the establishment in turn analysing their vested interest and how they manipulate their power base to increase wealth and power. And how they blame the ills of the world and Britain on others such as the unemployed, immigrants, public sector workers and Trade Unions. The most recent example of this is the recent crash in the banking sector whereby the Tories blamed Labour's high public spending on the countries ills and once in power, supported by the Liberals, set about decimating the welfare state by selling off anything that worked and reducing welfare payments to the vulnerable. All whilst continuing the Labour policy of supporting the banks to the tune of billions upon billions of pounds and not asking for anything in return. Even whilst bankers were still paying themselves millions in bonuses. Each.

Reading all this together is ultimately very depressing. Especially that the electorate fall for such obvious lies and are now moving towards UKIP not seeing that they are not against the establishment but in more entrenched than the Tories. I had to stop reading the book half way through and pick up something lighter to read. If you can call George Orwell fighting in the Spanish Civil War light relief. Which is appropriate as Jones finishes with an optimistic note saying that if we've moved so far to the right politically and the "free market" economically (see above re banks for why we are not actually in free markets - markets are free when the powerful want them to be and state supported when they are in trouble) then why shouldn't we move to a fairer society in the future and look back on this time with wonderment at how those in power duped us into supporting them. After all we are a democracy. I guess there's the rub - we have elections and at the moment they don't matter a scrap to the powerful. If we started voting for real change who knows if those vested interests would allow that and come out fighting (at least by proxy through the police and army as they have before and pretty recently) to put us back in our place. Maybe George Orwell's book should be read as prophetic as to how not to run a war...