Review - Brave New World

Brave New World is pretty easy to read and get along with, for a dystopian novel, and there are some pretty good quotes. For the most part I didn't think the prose was exceptional, but it was functional and got the story told.

There were several things that bugged me about it, though. The first thing is the characters -- I'm all about characters in my reading, and if I don't connect with a book, it's likely because I didn't get on with the characters. Brave New World doesn't really have any characters I really got to like. Those that are 'civilised' are too conditioned, too vapid, and the 'savages' are too... intense, partially just by comparison. The focus on pain and self-denial in the 'savage' society is as difficult to get behind as the unthinking, unindividuality of the 'civilised' society. Which is basically the other problem I have: that there are only two extremes. That's partially covered by the misfits who get sent off to live on islands, but not really.

The message about what constitutes humanity, what is really living, is good, though. "But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

Pretty much.