Book 78 - Yevgeny Zamyatin "We"

[jazzy_dave]

Yevgeny Zamyatin "We" (Penguin  Classics)




I read this because I heard somewhere that George Orwell read this before writing 1984 and I was intrigued.

I enjoyed it, and you can see how it influenced Orwell, but it just didn't have the same impact on me that 1984 did, when I read it the first time in my formative teenage years when I was heavy into science fiction novels. Maybe this is because I had no idea when I read it what to expect from 1984 and I found the book incredibly disturbing. But I also think that the characters in 1984 strike much closer to the bone - they're more believable, and consequently, the story becomes more shocking. Whilst reading "We", all the characters seemed like cartoons for me (an effect, partly, of the way Zamyatin has his central character describe everyone and also of his writing style, which, I hasten to add, I did like) and consequently, less disturbing. However, this remains an enjoyable book as well as being very amusing. It is also, if nothing else, interesting as a predecessor to 1984 and in its parallels and extrapolations from the communist Russia of the time.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Came across this first as an undergrad.