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Orwell's Roses

Orwell's Roses

by Rebecca Solnit

Viking ·2021 ·308 pages
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
60/99
Maybe Someday

43/99

Critics' Rating Index

Top of the Pile

76/99

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About This Book

A lush exploration of roses, pleasure, and politics, and a fresh take on George Orwell as an avid gardener whose political writing was grounded in his passion for the natural world "In the year 1936 a writer planted roses." So begins Rebecca Solnit's new book, a reflection on George Orwell's passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit's account of this understudied aspect of Orwell's life explores 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 encounter the photographer Tina Modotti's roses and her Stalinism, Stalin's obsession with forcing lemons to grow in impossibly cold conditions, Orwell's slave-owning ancestors in Jamaica, Jamaica Kincaid's critique 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 her portrait of a more hopeful Orwell, as well as a reflection on pleasure, beauty, and joy as acts of resistance.


Reviews

"Eager Orwellians, scrambling to get their hands on Rebecca Solnit's book, can relax."

John Carey· The Times (UK) Read review ↗ Bottom of the Pile

"But she may as well have been describing her own, or at least this book's, aesthetic values and pleasures as well."

Ilana Masad· NPR Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Orwell will always be relied on for his astute understanding of the threat of totalitarianism and its malignant lies; Solnit also ensures that we'll value Orwell's profound understanding of how love, pleasure, and awe for nature can be powerful forms of resistance."

Donna Seaman· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Regardless, readers of the early 21st century should be grateful for her clear-eyed, articulate presence in our midst."

Harvey Freedenberg· Shelf Awareness Read review ↗ Near the Top

"not all the branching diversions of this book are so successful ..."

Gaby Hinsliff· The Guardian Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Though Orwell's every word had been scrutinized by the time Solnit began this project, her stellar book shows us that an original thinker can make any subject fresh."

Kevin Canfield· San Francisco Chronicle Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Solnit's personality...is always there on the page: confrontational, anxious, angry, self-absorbed, and—most importantly—female."

Frances Wilson· New York Review of Books Read review ↗ Maybe Someday

"Essayist that she is, Rebecca Solnit pursues her subjects down multiple pathways of thought, feeling, memory and experience, aided by historical research and the intuitive literary hunch, as needed."

Suzannah Lessard· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"[A] brilliant survey ..."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A fine Orwell biography with equally fine diversions into his favorite leisure activity."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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