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Classic Book Reviews for You – Read what I think of famous books you may have read. Do you agree with me? Whether you do or not, let me know here (click) or by emailing me at [email protected] and I’ll send you a free book.

Classic Book Reviews – You begin with ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’

September 13, 2022

The greatest novel of the 20th century, a true 5 star book, one that’ll be read in another hundred years.

My latest re-read was in the single volume edition with Christopher Lee’s artwork. His art is detailed and complex, with hidden elements that tell the story.

In this re-read, I saw the close connection between the start of the book, which is often called dull, and the end of the Hobbit. One dovetails into the other. The hobbit background is necessary for those who didn’t read the Hobbit, and provides additional detail on them, including their three races: the Stoors, the Harfoots, and the Fallowhides.

I also noticed in my re-read the masterful way Tolkien built tension and prolongs conflict and threats. He also increases the risks and dangers throughout the book. These details jump out at me more since I became an author.

Andy Zach

What Classic Book Review Is Next?

January 22, 2022

This was the first time I’ve re-read ‘The Little Prince’ since the first time, about 31 years ago.

It was nothing like I remembered. I remembered it as a great children’s book, but I never read it to my children, that I recall. Rather, it was a book I skimmed through, thinking I understood it.

I didn’t.

I thought it was about the difference between adults and children. It was, but much more. Somehow I missed all the discussions about friendship. There were many friendships in the book. There was the one between the little prince and the author. There was one between the little prince and a fox. And the most important one was between the little prince and his flower.

It taught an important truth about friendships. They are valuable because of the time you spend together. And it told another important truth. The important things of consequence are not what you can see.

But you may think this is a boring, moralizing book. It isn’t. That’s why the book is still read 80 years after it was written. It’s an adventure of the author, an aviator and artist, and the little prince.

Andy Zach

Now for a classic Dystopia

I couldn’t find my review of 1984, but I found a review I agree with.

I read Nineteen Eighty-Four when I was eleven years old. School had just let out for the summer, and my family spent that first Saturday down on Lake Moovalya on the Colorado River. It was my first time out in the sun, and I seriously overdid it, spending all day in the river and getting severely sunburned. The next day I could barely move. My mom told me I was “sun poisoned.” The weather turned ugly, too–we were hit with a howling dust storm, so strong and thick I couldn’t see across the street. I wasn’t going anywhere, so I looked for something to read. Our next-door neighbors’ son had gone off to college and his parents, knowing I was a bookworm, gave me a box of paperbacks, mostly science fiction. And in that collection was a copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four. I don’t know why I picked that particular volume–I could have selected Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot or Andre Norton’s The Sioux Spaceman–but Orwell was what I went with.

Wow. When I finished the book a few hours later, I had never been so bummed in my life. I think maybe being so sick and miserable must have had something to do with it, but the experience of reading about Winston Smith’s futile, hopeless fight against Big Brother was so overwhelming, for years afterwards–until I read Robert Cormier’s I Am the Cheese—Nineteen Eighty-Four was my nominee for most depressing book ever written.

But even though I was thoroughly depressed after reading Nineteen Eighty-Four, I still rate it five stars. The total despair the book engendered in me is a testament to Orwell’s skill as a writer. As with all of Orwell’s work, fiction and non-fiction alike, Nineteen Eighty-Four is well-written–Orwell certainly knew his craft. It also captures perfectly life in the Stalinist Soviet Union. The utter bleakness of life, the omnipotent repression by the government, the controlling of the very language to restrict the ability of the populace to think, and the futility of rebellion, all were features of life in the USSR, and all are portrayed truly and vividly in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Hank Hoeft

Now here are my comments. I remember them as my review, if you want my perspective.

Andy Zach

3 years ago

It’s so depressing (I read it at about 17) that I rate it 2 stars, despite being still read seventy years after it was published. Normally I would give it 5 stars for that feat.

Andy Zach

3 years ago

The real horror of the book is that Orwell was describing conditions in Soviet Russia at the time and that nothing has changed in human behavior since then. The same conditions exist in North Korea.

Hank Hoeft

3 years ago

I understand where you’re coming from. And in reading your comment, I realize I need to amend, or add to, my review–I should have included why I rated it five stars.

Andy Zach

3 years ago

Hank, I can make a strong argument to rate it five stars. 1) It’s a historically accurate portrayal of Soviet Russia and current North Korea and Cuba; 2) It provides an ominous warning against socialism and communism; 3) It’s still relevant 70 years after it was published; 4) It is extremely well written with gripping characters.

But ultimately my rating is subjective. I read it twice and hated both experiences.

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