Orwell’s Roses
Rebecca Solnit

Orwell’s Roses
Rebecca Solnit
Review
by Justin Avery
As a lover of Rebecca Solnit’s writing, I was thrilled at the prospect of her unique perspective on one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. And Solnit does not disappoint. Orwell’s Roses is only part-biography: Solnit exquisitely sheds light on a little-studied facet of Orwell’s life – a love of gardening – using this as a starting point from which to venture into the intersections of art, politics and nature, while always deftly orbiting back to her subject’s central concerns. ‘In the spring of 1936 a writer planted roses,’ she begins, referring to Orwell’s time at a cottage in Wallington, Hertfordshire. Solnit writes: ‘In an age of lies and illusions, the garden is one way to ground yourself in the realm of the processes of growth and the passage of time.’ Amid the politics, Orwell’s writing is laced with references to the natural world and delight in unremarkable beauty. Bread may feed the body, Solnit notes, but roses (art, pleasure) feed something deeper, a truth equally worthwhile.
Solnit’s writing then beautifully unfurls like petals from her central subject: Tina Modotti’s path from artist to exiled revolutionary; the atrocities of Stalin’s brutal regime; Jamaica Kincaid’s fierce writing around nature and colonialism; and Columbia’s cruel, exploitative rose industry. Circling back to Orwell, Solnit revisits Nineteen Eighty-Four and finds light among the grey in Winston Smith’s rebellious acts and his reveries on beauty – pleasure as resistance – even as Big Brother closes in around him. Throughout, Solnit – like Orwell – writes with clear-eyed precision and empathy for her subjects, an elegant marriage of ethics and aesthetics. Orwell’s Roses arrives at a time in which the term ‘Orwellian’ is as pertinent as ever, indicative of a crisis in politics and journalism. Solnit both reminds us of the enduring power of Orwell’s writing and breathes substantial new life into his work.
Justin Avery is a bookseller at Readings Carlton.
This item is in-stock and will ship in 2-3 business days
Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.

Lovers Dreamers Fighters
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Found, Wanting
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Missing
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Delia Akeley and the Monkey
$27.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Allegorizings
$29.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Lost & Found: A Memoir
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Don’t Call Us Carnies: We are Showies and Damn Proud of It
$29.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Mala’s Cat
$35.00Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World
$49.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

A Hitch in Time: Writings from the London Review of Books
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Facts and Other Lies: Welcome to the Disinformation Age
$32.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Guilty Pigs: The Weird and Wonderful History of Animal Law
$34.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

Cadre Country: How China Became the Chinese Communist Party
$39.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Struggle for India’s Soul: Nationalism and the Fate of Democracy
$29.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Urge: Our History of Addiction
$35.00Buy now
Finding stock availability...

The Shortest History of Democracy
$24.99Buy now
Finding stock availability...