The Road to Wigan Pier

This book felt like sociological journal critique for industrialism and poverty also Orwell’s views on Socialism. I very much enjoy the part I of the book, whereas Orwell talks about the poverty over England, and how different it could be especially in the North. The narrative as he speaks on the experience where between him and the miners is very interesting. But as we go to the part II, it’s changing into a long essay on Orwell’s view of Socialism and class struggle. He’s very straightforward but one might find it boring to see his prejudices and political views. I feel like he’s circling around the question of ‘why do people from different classes can’t get along with each other?’ ‘why the working class person is an unintelligent socialist?’ Hence, I do actually prefer the first part of the book, as I feel much more interested in his story of poverty and unemployment around that time which I see can be relevant in today’s society.

When reading about "The English" or class and politics in the UK you're not many words away from someone referencing The Road to Wigan Pier. The book is split in two parts: the first, a kind of anthropological account of Orwell's time living in the North of England and the brutality of the day to day lives of the working class; the second a promotion of socialism, presented in the form of an attack on the issues Orwell sees in British socialist sentiment.

It's bleak, crude, meandering and frequently descends into rants about bearded juice drinkers. And yet it retains a visionary quality because the observations feel relevant today and have no doubt felt relevant to its readers over the past 86 years.

Had a pretty large impact on me, which is strange when you consider he was writing about a society that subsequently had 70 years of relatively pro-poor growth. I now only remember him being grim about the monotony of the diet (white bread and dripping times 365) and the fewness of the shillings.

I liked the savage descriptions "aging people creeping round and round like black beetles". I liked the chapter on coal mining and on the working class diet: "the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food." "It is in fact very difficult to escape, culturally, from the class into which you have been born." Is this more or less true today? Some sections felt circuitous and I had more fun reading 'Down and Out'.

In my opinion, this was just a middle of the road book - a solid 2.5 read. Since it's non fiction and about a topic I really am not interested in, there wasn't a way for me to enjoy it for more than it was. It excellently handled the topic of the hard conditions under which miners lived in England, but for the life of me, I could not care less. I literally only read it for book club (and yes, we do realize now that this was quite a bad book club pick).