Comment by vinceguidry

It's a terrible novel. It's iconic, I'll give you that, but there are lots of badly-written, yet iconic books. (Looking at you Bukowski) The main character isn't complex at all. There's no depth at all to Winston. He's not a revolutionary in any fashion whatsoever. I didn't realize the extent to which he was a complete author-insert until I read Johnston's essay though. I wasn't expecting a political treatise, but I would have liked a better thought out world with characters that have actual motivations. The only character with any kind of motivation at all in the whole book is O'Brian.