Animal Farm - George Orwell

The animals of Manor Farm rebel against their owners and establish England's first Animal Farm, owned wholly by animals. 

A relatively short novel, all but about a hundred pages long. A very easy read and quite engaging. Owing to the relative short length of this book I decided a new approach to reading this - Buddy reading. What this means is you read the novel, in tandem with a friend. You decide how many pages/chapters to read per day and at the end of the day you discuss the chapters read. It was a really fun experience for me and I couldn't have picked a better book for this.

The style of the novel is political satire, mocking the erstwhile Soviet Union. What engaged me the most about this novel was the fact that how many of the satirical images are relevant to our present world political scenario. The fanaticism, the blind following of the beings in power, the constant disregard and the changing of rules, everything is of so much relevance to India's Political situation now. 

Noteworthy present day parallels

1. The Sheep being an embodiment of the blind followers of the government'
2. Boxer, the horse being the most naive of followers.
3. The Pigs, a parallel to the government
4. Benjamin, the donkey, an old timer who knows everything but does nothing.
5. The misguided second generation of puppies, a parallel to the right wing activists of the day

Over and above, I would rate this book a 8/10 for the sheer terror that it made me feel, when relating the animals' actions to our present political scenario.

#NapoleonIsAlwaysRight