6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
1984! Innit!, December 16, 2009
London, One Hundred Years Hence: Trafford Sewell ekes out an existence with wife Chantorria and newborn, Caitlin Happymeal, in a repellant, crowded, postdiluvian London which has been consumed by religious fundamentalism, tabloid culture and a rampantly prurient culture of egocentric self-involvement. Privacy is viewed as an aberration, fiction has been outlawed and the majority of the populace are largely unable to communicate in (or relate to) anything beyond the clichéd wooden spoon platitudes of tabloid newspapers and inane reality television shows. But Trafford nurses a secret and in a world in which the keeping of secrets is viewed as an affront to God-the-love himself, this will set him on a collision course with the corrupt orthodoxies that police this feculent dystopia...
Its been about twenty years since I last read a Ben Elton novel and reading "Blind Faith" was something of a reintroduction to what I used to enjoy about his writing. It must be said, whilst I was never much of a fan of him as a left-wing stand-up comedian and a vanguard of the politically correct alternative comedy establishment during the Thatcherite eighties, "Blind Faith" seemed to me in many ways to be an act of atonement for past sins: age, living through ten years of disastrous new labour government and bearing witness to the encroaching "dumbing-down" of popular culture has clearly removed the scales from his eyes and invested his writing with a righteous indignation and affront at the increasingly bovine nature of modern life.
Whilst the plot of "Blind Faith" is essentially a reinvention and a grand satire of Orwell's
1984 (Signet Classics) and Bradbury's
Fahrenheit 451, what raises it above the level of a facile pastiche are Elton's vitriolic broadsides at the moronic nature of much of the internet; government surveillance; peer pressure; philanthropic celebrities; the death of literacy and reason; 'touchy-feely' office culture and religious fundamentalism and its incipient hypocrisy.
In the best tradition of Wellsian science fiction, he is not really purporting a realistic speculative future, so much as asking us to look at the lunacy of our present through a glass darkly.
Upon first cracking the spine of this book, I considered it to be a three star effort as best, but upon reflection, I can't find it in my heart to give it anything less than five; the plot may be predictable and the characters may be trite, but it's message is just far too important.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Predictable, February 21, 2011
My final rating for the book leaves me to give a "I like it" rating but I took off a star because while I enjoyed it, it came down to a predictable ending which wasn't really all that satisfying. There were also certain things that I felt made no sense in the world the author created.
One thing that sticks out to me is the part where they have to go to a concert and how women must sit on their mans shoulders for at least one song. Otherwise, it's disrespectful etc. I just felt that didn't make any sense. There are probably 2-3 of these types of situations through out the book that just didn't belong in the world in my opinion. Other than that, it was good. I bought this book on a whim. There was no excerpt to read so I bought this on "blind faith". The faith, God, and Lord talk made me nervous. I thought I made a wrong choice at first but I liked how that aspect turned out. So if someone is worried about this being about faith in God, it's not... really about that. It is more about science vs. faith.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow- Great Find!, February 17, 2009
I'm amazed at the poor reviews on this book. It's like Farenheit 451 - only modernized. I mean, really- that's almost exactly what this book is. I noticed several comparisons while reading. It's set in the future, where privacy is against the law. Literally every moment of your life is televised- kind of like now, how facebook is updated every 3 minutes so you don't miss out on your best friends mothers boyfriends second cousin going to the washroom. Yes, the idea is far fetched- but really, how far off are we? Think about that as you read.
I have never read a Ben Elton novel before, and I was very surprised. I go through about 5 novels a week, which is quite a bit. I couldn't put this book down! I was anxious to get back to it when I needed a break. It was quite different from anything else I've read this year, and i'm going to make sure I read some more of his books. Good find!
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