nate’s Reviews > Keep the Aspidistra Flying > Status Update

Gordon’s self-sabotage is exasperating, yet there’s something strangely poetic in the way he clings to despair as if it were integrity. This novel captures the grind of poverty so vividly — the humiliation, the stubborn pride, the hollow comforts of art — that even his bitterness feels luminous, as though Orwell carved beauty out of ruin.