'Next station is... Kidbrooke' goes the familiar voice in the train.
- I have to finish this before we reach I tell myself, weekend is coming!
And I did it. I actually overdid it to the extent that I reached the final few words before the 'We will shortly be arriving to... Kidbrooke' announcement, thus, I went again and again through the main point as manifested in this very last page.
Just that the lives of the simple people actually matter, asserted the author, not q concepts like democracy, world peace etc etc. You will see the most obedient people turning into lions at home and, trust me, that's not abstract at all.
This comes out of one of the main heroes of the book who spent all his life trying to find a noble cause, passionately delivering speeches in parties' gatherings, getting beaten by the police in leftist protests, turning from pacifist to nationalist and vice versa and so on...
And you will tell me, that's what 'they' want, right? For you to focus on your private life and let them rule you however they want.
The truth is, that these are the kind of bullshits ideologists tend to actually believe or clever politicians try to convince you that they really do so. You can read a lot from books, read extremely complicated articles on where the world is going, listen to self improvement podcasts etc but the core of the people can truly be seen in their weddings, funerals, accidents, their chats while waiting for the morning train to London, not in the abstract world of concepts.
I did read these two books in the daily train to the city and back btw and I do miss the tranquil feeling that nothing has changed over the last hundred years the first book (The Dreaming Suburb) refers to - I could even very well identify myself with a guy working close to St Paul's (he was just hoping on the train a few more stops in the south than myself)... and that is really something indeed - it's so enticing to lose yourself in this super high tech, smartphone, smartwatch, AI, you_name_it world and just get stressed trying to catch up with how fast all is pacing... just reading about normal people commuting from East London to the City a couple of generations ago helps you fight this madness.
On the purely literature level, the first book is a masterpiece - clearly passes the message of focusing to the ordinary peoples' lives. The second one is just a sequel and, expectedly, not as good - the fact that the writer was trying to make it a standalone by summarizing the key events from the 'Dreaming Suburb' didn't help either.
All things considered, though, I cannot imagine a better train companion than these books (especially if you manage to find the first one from the original publishing date, dust covered as it has to be.
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