Staff Pick
Reading this book (an analysis of the life of one of the most prolific writers and anti-fascists of the twentieth century, from a woman whom I consider to be one of the most insightful writers of the 21st), I came to understand a truth at the core of Orwell's writing, as well as that of my own disaffection: any movement, whether political or otherwise, that refuses the promise of peace and joy to its adherents, is not a movement worth struggling for. Rather than a nihilist or even simply a satirist, Solnit paints a fresh portrait of Orwell as a pensive, sensitive man with a profound love for his fellow human and for the natural world, and a deep, persistent hope for the future. (TLDR: Rest in peace, king, you would've loved Murray Bookchin.) Recommended By CJ H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography "An exhilarating romp through Orwell's life and times and also through the life and times of roses." --Margaret Atwood
"A captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker." --Claire Messud, Harper's
"Nobody who reads it will ever think of Nineteen Eighty-Four in quite the same way." --Vogue
A lush exploration of politics, roses, and pleasure, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded by his passion for the natural world
"In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses." So be-gins Rebecca Solnit's new book, a reflection on George Orwell's passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and on the intertwined politics of nature and power.
Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the roses he reportedly planted in 1936, Solnit's account of this overlooked aspect of Orwell's life journeys through his writing and his actions--from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left) to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism.
Through Solnit's celebrated ability to draw unexpected connections, readers are drawn onward from Orwell's own work as a writer and gardener to encounter photographer Tina Modotti's roses and her politics, agriculture and illusion in the USSR of his time with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell's slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid's examination of colonialism and imperialism in the flower garden, and the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market. The book draws to a close with a rereading of Nineteen Eighty-Four that completes Solnit's portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as offering a meditation on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.