2020 review for Banned Books Week at my library: In a bleak totalitarian future, everyman Winston Smith desperately grasps for love and hope in a society controlled by the Party's constant war, pervasive lies, and invasive spying. This provocative and prophetic classic, written as Orwell was dying in the late 1940s, remains a compelling must-read with much to say about power, violence, truth, and freedom.

2017 review: Wow, what a story. Fear. Instinct. (mis)Information. I'm not sure what to say except that, not unlike the experiences of protagonist Winston Smith, the weight of the world Orwell creates surrounds and overpowers and, with only slight glimpses of hope along the way, crushes into dust.