Andrew Ervin (1)

“Pouring a glass of whisky felt less like the right thing to do and more like the only thing to do (124).

In this fast-paced detour of a novel, Ray embraces the dream adventure to discover what it would be like to live on an island with no one around on a completely different level; moving to the island where the locals knew Orwell as Mr. Blair; where the locals don’t really want Ray there to sort himself out and there is a very distinct possibility that a werewolf roams the island.

The rich, piquant descriptions of the scotch will have you running off to research so you can enjoy a wee dram of your own. The humor and Ray’s misadventures on Jura will keep you reading.… (altro)

A successful adman whose campaigns have changed society for the worse suffers a midlife crisis and takes refuge in the Inner Hebrides where he drinks copious amounts of high-quality whiskey and tries to get his life back in order. "Burning Down George Orwell's House" doesn't work for a number of reasons. The author's descriptions of Jura, the alcoholic paradise in question, are quite well done, as are its descriptions of the subtle flavors of the whiskies produced there. But the islands inhabitants come off largely as a collection of improbable, picturesque eccentrics, with the possible exception of Farkas, the island's troubled, thoughtful master distiller. Worse still, the book features not one but two beautiful, alluring young women whose purpose is to demonstrate to our protagonist that a better life is possible. I encourage you to look up the term "manic pixie dream girl" to see exactly what I mean. The novel's main character isn't particularly captivating either: he's obviously what is referred to in polite conversations as A Problem with alcohol, but this is played mostly for laughs, rather than serving as a window into his personality. The author wants you to believe that his character's falling apart inside, but the novel's tone makes him seem like the hapless victim of a series of wacky misadventures.

While I admit I didn't know that Orwell wrote his magnum opus on an isolated Scottish isle, "Burning Down George Orwell's House" doesn't have a lot to say about the great man himself. I get the feeling that the author had an interest in Jura and merely used old Eric Blair as a convenient plot device. The gentle art of advertisement is probably best paired with Huxley's "Brave New World," anyway. The book even asserts that "1984" is the finest novel of the twentieth century, an opinion that I'm going to have to take exception to. Even so, while you could spend a lifetime poring over that novel's political and social implications, "Burning Down George Orwell's House" is pretty simplistic when it comes to its politics. They're entirely focused on easy contemporary American dichotomies. There's a middle ground between marketing SUVs and renouncing capitalism and/or careerism entirely, but the author can't seem to find it. Shallow and underthought, this novel is one to skip.… (altro)

I loved this little gem of a book by Andrew Ervin. It's based on a couple places with which I'm familiar, Chicago and a Scottish island in the Hebrides, and the story is by turns funny, sad, and fantastic.

It's pretty simple. A young Chicago advertising guy is living the yuppie lifestyle, but is having problems at home and at work (where he has moral qualms about the agency's clients). He decides to chuck it all and move temporarily to the island of Jura, which is where George Orwell wrote the novel '1984'.

The problems he faces are many: he has bad shoes, an unhealthy addiction to fine scotch whisky (the best of which is made on the island), a populace of eccentric islanders who distrust anyone who wasn't born there, constant rain, a possible werewolf on the loose who dumps his 'kill' on our hero's front porch every morning, a young lady with whom he has a complicated yet chaste relationship, various attempts on his life.... I could go on and on. I wouldn't say it's a laugh-out-loud book, but it'll definitely cause a chuckle or two per page.

I live in Chicago and have visited the area near the setting for the novel in the Scottish islands, and his descriptions of both seem pretty spot on. It's a well-written story that's funny and weird, with a happy ending. What more can you ask?… (altro)