"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

"Fahrenheit 451" is set in a dystopian future where advertising and television aggressively pervade everyday life, people don't vote or question their government, where the USA is in a perpetual state of war with an unspecified superpower, and people's everyday lives are deeply affected by a sense of ambivalence and detachment (in some ways too close to the real state of the present world). Also, books are out-lawed and a special team of "firemen" are tasked with unquestioningly destroying all books on sight (by burning them) and sending book owners/hoarders/readers to gaol. The central protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman who through a series of though-provoking experiences (his acquaintance with Clarisse, a new neighbour who is "different", his wife, Mildred's attempted suicide and the self-immolation of a book-hoarder in her house upon his team's discovery of her illegal collection) questions and challenges the state of his dystopian society. Guy secretly begins to hoard books himself and is eventual exposed by his fire-chief, Beatty, whom Guy murders, beginning a large-scale (and cynically-televised) manhunt for his capture. Guy manages to evade the authorities (with the help of a book-hoarder, Faber) on the eve of the outbreak of a large-scale war that is hinted-at throughout the novel, which destroys Guy's home-city (and the pursuing authorities) hours after Guy escapes into the countryside.

A great book! Really clever and particularly engaging given the all-to-close to home nature of the dystopian future Guy Montag lives in. Guy is a particularly well-written protagonist, and I found it very easy to share his feelings of frustration in the maddening world around him. I thoroughly enjoyed Mildred, who was the embodiment of everything dysfunctional with Guy's society, and Beatty, who was the embodiment of those in power who enforced the status quo (what a brilliant villain!). Bradbury's writing is very accessible, I can see why it's such a popular text in school english. Bradbury does a great job of building up the climax towards the end of the novel during Guy's manhunt, I found I couldn't put the book down from this point on until the end!

It's really very difficult to criticise anything in this book. Definitely a must read.