There?s saying- ?you have nothing to fear but fear itself?. By the time you come to the end of this book, one thing you will be very strongly aware of your fears looming over you, clouding out all the good cheer, and the joie de vivre.
This is not a book for those who like to shut doors on unpleasant things; this book opens doors on possibility of a world, where individuality has been trampled out- where all notions about one?s freedom have been destroyed utterly.
The violence in this book is more implied than explicit- the final breakdown of the hero comes not because he?s beaten down, but because he himself breaks down. And it is all the more terrifying, because it speaks of the possibility of weaknesses within oneself- the fault lines where you can crack down.
This book is all the more disturbing because you see the trends of the situation depicted in the novel all around you.
The three powers in the world who continuously keep on shifting allies, the larger than life Big Brother (the phrase? Big Brother is watching you? originated from this book), the total loss of privacy and subjugation of individual freedom to serve the goals of the state, the continuous editing, rewriting of the news and all information to ensure that people believe only in what the State wants them to believe- all these are present in our society right now if you look hard around yourself, beyond the media hype about India?s progress and stuff, you will see that our current status regarding freedom and choice is very fragile.
And we all too well remember the hullabaloo recently about changing history books, and the subsequent silence, not to be scared that perhaps some day all our histories will be changing as per the big brother?s wishes.