Coming Up for Air

出版者:Recorded Books

作者:George Orwell (Author)

页数:0

出版时间:1988

价格:0

装帧:Audio Cassette

isbn号码:9781556901140

具体描述

Synopsis

George Bowling, the hero of this comic novel, is a middle-aged insurance salesman who lives in an average English suburban row house with a wife and two children. One day, after winning some money from a bet, he goes back to the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. The pool, alas, is gone, the village has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of his holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.

Amazon Review

Insurance salesman George "Fatty" Bowling lives with his humorless wife and their two irritating children in a dull house in a tract development in the historyless London suburb of West Bletchley. The year is 1938; doomsayers are declaring that England will be at war again by 1941.

When George bets on an unlikely horse and wins, he finds himself with a little extra cash on his hands. What should he spend it on? "The alternatives, it seemed to me, were either a week-end with a woman or dribbling it quietly away on odds and ends such as cigars and double whiskeys." But a chance encounter with a poster in Charing Cross sets him off on a tremendous journey into his own memories--memories, especially, of a boyhood spent in Lower Binfield, the country village where he grew up. His recollections are pungent and detailed. Touch by touch, he paints for us a whole world that is already nearly lost: a world not yet ruled by the fear of war and not yet blighted by war's aftermath: <blockquote> 1913! My God! 1913! The stillness, the green water, the rushing of the weir! It'll never come again. I don't mean that 1913 will never come again. I mean the feeling inside you, the feeling of not being in a hurry and not being frightened, the feeling you've either had and don't need to be told about, or haven't had and won't ever have the chance to learn. </blockquote> Alas, George finds that even Lower Binfield has been darkened by the bomber's shadow.

Readers of 1984 will recognize Orwell's desperate insistence on the importance of the individual, of memory, of history, and of language; and they will find in Fatty Bowling one of Orwell's most engaging creations--a warm, witty, thinking, remembering Everyman in a world that is fast learning not to think and not to remember, and thus swiftly losing its mind. --Daniel Hintzsche

Review

A very different dish of tea from his earlier Animal Farm and recent Nineteen Kighty Four both of which instigated aroused controversy, is this book which was published in England before the war. Prophetic in its atmosphere, it is the total recall of George Bowling, 45, which is started by his set of new false teeth and some money he has won on the horses. The morning's events help him envision what will come with Hitler's threats growing stronger, lead him to think of his youth with special intensity and review the sort of secure, continuous life that went with World War I which took him out of the grocery business, turned him loose among books, inspired his thinking. The mental squalor of his life thereafter with Hilda and their two children and his present doubts as to what is coming - and the 17 quid - send him on a secret visit to his old home. It in turn offers only failure as an antidote for the country has turned into town, no one knows or remembers him or his family - everything is disillusion. In London again with the knowledge earned that there is no going back, that what is to come - horrible as it must be - cannot be stopped. Honesty in the picture of a man neither highbrow nor a fool of a poky milleu and the mingy situations of living, of the downhill path to a ghastly flux, this in its backward, introspective look offers a nostalgic, sincere appreciation of a way of life that can never be again, and will prove something new for his followers. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coming Up for Air

Author George Orwell

Publication date June 1939

Coming Up for Air is a novel by George Orwell, published before World War II and predicting that conflict. It is written in the first person, with George Bowling, the forty-five-year-old protagonist, telling the reader his life story.

The social and material changes experienced by Bowling since childhood make his past seem as distant as the biblical character Og, King of Bashan, whom he remembers from Sundays at church. A news-poster about the contemporary King Zog of Albania, along with 'some sound in the traffic or the smell of horse dung or something' triggers the connection in Bowling's mind and his subsequent 'trip down memory lane'. Orwell's writing tends to show a real relish for pessimism and squalor; nevertheless, Bowling expresses a nostalgic melancholy of some tenderness. The novel presents an absorbingly realistic evocation of what is now called 'a mid-life crisis'.

What is most notable is not so much that Orwell predicted the start of World War II, which was becoming expected, but that he foresaw the transformation of society which would succeed it. Indeed, just a few years after the publication of this book, pre-war England was almost as different as George Bowling's Edwardian childhood.

The themes of the book are nostalgia, the folly of trying to go back and recapture past glories and the easy way the dreams and aspirations of one's youth can be smothered by the humdrum routine of work, marriage and getting old. George Bowling is not a very sympathetic character ?he is a fat, middle-aged insurance salesman who dislikes his wife and children and who would betray what few principles he has for a couple of pints or a good night out with a prostitute.

However, like many Orwell protagonists, his saving virtues are perceptiveness and candour, especially regarding himself.

Orwell wrote the novel while spending six months in Morocco.

作者简介

乔治·奥威尔（George Orwell，1903-1950年），英国人道主义者、新闻记者和社会评论家，著名的英语文体作家。最著名的作品有《一九八四》和《动物庄园》，堪称世界文坛上最著名的政治讽喻小说。

读后感

如果一本书 能够让我有一直看下去的欲望 并且时不时会让我觉得要停下来想一会 我会果断给它五星 奥威尔说 读到一本喜欢的书 是因为它提供的东西刚好和你现阶段的想法不谋而合 它诱使你将原本只是蠢蠢欲动的思维拉扯上来然后抽丝剥茧 或许我们每个人 在年轻的时候都会有环游世界...  

假设你已在异乡工作数年，不论是位居高官颐指气使或者至今仍是寄人檐下，终于有一次机会，你回到了阔别已久的故土。那是你出来闯荡之前的栖身之地。当你一踏上这片土地，所有往事都会随着故乡熟悉的气味一起涌来。你脚下的崎岖小径曾是上学的必经之路，你知道什么时候该抬脚，...  

昨天早西西弗看了这本书的序 很是喜欢 等我静下心来时 我 一定要好好读完它 我喜欢看 关于一个男人怎样面对他的 生活与信仰的书 关于题目 是今天上午的事儿了 我妈妈问我喜欢 哪种类型的人 作结婚对象 我说 可以陪我到处游走的人  

有些书会是这样，你看完了心里觉得很无奈。谈不上喜欢这本书。却会经常在谋时某刻想起，因为它当中有什么，触到了你的生活，你的心，将现实写得看起来荒诞不已却又丝丝入扣。 《上来透口气》就是这样的书。 乔治·奥威尔只活到了37岁，却将一个45岁戴假牙的胖子写得让人感觉就...  

用户评价

这是一本读起来让人感到“沉重”的作品，但这种沉重并非来自枯燥的说教，而是源于对生命本质的诚实揭露。作者似乎毫不避讳地展示了生活中的灰色地带——那些无法言说的遗憾、那些错失的良机，以及那些不得不面对的妥协。我特别欣赏书中对“遗忘”和“铭记”的辩证处理。人物的行为逻辑非常复杂，有时候甚至显得自相矛盾，但这恰恰是真实人性的体现：我们在追求光亮的同时，也必然被阴影所拖拽。这本书的结尾处理得尤为高明，它没有提供一个皆大欢喜的结局，反而留下了足够多的空白，让读者自己去填补和解读。这种开放式的结局处理，成功地将故事的生命力延续到了合上书页之后，让这本书的影响力得以持续发酵。我强烈推荐给那些不满足于简单情节，更渴望在阅读中进行自我反思的读者。

这本书最让我震撼的地方，在于其对“选择”与“代价”这一主题的探讨，达到了近乎哲学的深度。它没有给出任何简单的答案，也没有强行灌输某种道德观，而是将角色推入一系列艰难的抉择之中，然后冷静地展示每一个选择所带来的不可逆转的后果。我常常在思考，如果是我处在那个位置，我会如何应对？这种强烈的代入感，说明作者对人性的洞察是极为深刻的。叙事结构上，它采用了非线性的叙事手法，时而穿插过去的回忆，时而跳跃到未来可能的景象，这种碎片化的处理方式，完美地契合了记忆的不可靠性和人心的摇摆不定。初读时可能会有些许困惑，但当所有线索在结尾处巧妙地汇合时，那种豁然开朗的震撼感，简直无与伦比。它成功地将一个看似局限的故事，提升到了探讨普遍人性困境的高度。

读完这本书，我最大的感受是那种扑面而来的、强烈的时代气息和地域特色。作者似乎对那个特定环境的方方面面都进行了深入的田野调查，无论是俚语的使用、当地人的生活习惯，还是那些被时间磨损的建筑细节，都描绘得淋漓尽致。这种真实感，使得阅读过程成了一种亲历，我仿佛能闻到空气中的味道，听到街坊邻里的喧嚣。情节本身虽然引人入胜，但我认为其价值更在于它提供了一个观察社会侧面的窗口。书中的人物群像，描绘得十分饱满，每个人都有自己的光芒和阴影，他们的命运交织在一起，形成了一幅宏大而又充满张力的社会图景。虽然偶尔会觉得某些段落的描述略显冗长，但冷静下来仔细回味，那份“冗长”其实是作者精心铺设的底色，是为了衬托后续爆发力的关键所在。这绝不是那种快餐式的读物，它需要时间和心力去细细品味。

这部小说给我带来了一种久违的、沉浸式的阅读体验，仿佛被直接拉入了故事的核心。作者的笔触细腻而精准，对人物内心世界的刻画入木三分，每一个角色的动机和挣扎都显得如此真实可信。我尤其欣赏叙事节奏的把握，高潮迭起却又张弛有度，让人在紧张与放松之间不断切换，却始终无法放下手中的书本。故事情节的推进并非一帆风顺，充满了意想不到的转折和巧妙的布局，使得每一次的阅读都充满了探索的乐趣。书中对于特定时代背景的描摹，也显得非常考究，细节之处尽显功力，构建了一个栩栩如生的世界。这种对细节的执着，让整个故事的质感大大提升，远远超出了普通通俗小说的范畴，更像是一部精心打磨的艺术品。读完之后，那种萦绕心头的复杂情绪，久久不能散去，足见其思想深度。

说实话，这本书的开篇并不算特别抓人眼球，甚至有点慢热，我一度怀疑自己是否选错了书。但坚持读下去后，我发现这种缓慢的开场其实是一种高明的“诱饵”。作者没有急于抛出爆炸性的冲突，而是用一种近乎散文诗般的笔调，慢慢地构建人物的内心世界和外部环境的疏离感。这种克制反而营造出一种独特的张力，让人在平静的文字下，感受到暗流涌动的情绪。尤其值得称道的是作者的语言风格，它既有古典文学的韵味，又不失现代语法的流畅，读起来有一种独特的韵律感。那些精妙的比喻和排比，常常让人不得不停下来，反复咀嚼文字本身的美感。对于那些追求纯粹故事性刺激的读者，这本书可能需要一点耐心，但对于热爱文字、钟情于内心挣扎描绘的爱好者来说，它绝对是一场文学的盛宴。

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