“In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. On rally-goers being shown the face of their opposition: So while it isn’t exactly a road map, perhaps it’s worthwhile to look at the places where our current lives and the doomed lives of the people in this book intersect-if only to have a place to start fighting back from. Humanity, independent thought, truth and justice lose at the end of Nineteen Eighty-Four. More important, though, is this: Orwell’s characters don’t survive. First of all, as others have pointed out, while there are a number of chilling echoes, it isn’t the perfect book for a Trump presidency-though to be fair, I don’t think there is one. (Actually, Big Brother was more than likely an “alternative fact” himself.) But for those hoping the novel might be a kind of survival guide for the trying times ahead…well, it won’t.

It’s now out of stock (though you can read it online for free), and Penguin has ordered a larger-than-usual reprint of the novel to keep up with the new demand-a demand clearly stirred up by Donald Trump’s inauguration and his administration’s subsequent spouting of “alternative facts.” Because you know who else tried to shove alternative facts down the throats of the people in order to control them? Big Brother. This week, George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel and high-school curriculum staple Nineteen Eighty-Four became the best-selling book on Amazon.

Too good to be true 1984