If you pick up Anarchist Farm believing you'll reach the same dizzy heights you did when you first read the Animal Farm, forget it. George Orwell's incisive and brutal analysis of the failure of authoritarian communism oozed out of his being as a consequence of his personal experiences during the Spanish Revolution.

Although Jane Doe's Anarchist Farm never succeeds in reaching the same heights as Animal Farm, her book attempts to go one step further than Orwell's open criticism of communism and implied criticism of capitalism. Jane, an activist who lives among the redwoods of California has attempted to present a positive alternative to capitalism and communism in Anarchist Farm. She, like Orwell has reached into her being analysed her experiences and placed them on paper.

Reading Anarchist Farm, it's hard not to make comparisons between Jane Doe's Anarchist Farm and George Orwell's Animal Farm. George Orwell was able to bring two decades of literacy experience to Animal Farm. Jane Doe's Anarchist Farm suffers from her lack of literacy experience. This is her first novel.

The book fails in part not because of the story line or the energy and emotion she has invested in the story, but because she hasn't the literacy experience to give her words the same impact that Orwells have.

Jane Doe should be congratulated for writing Anarchist Farm. Although the story doesn't reach the heights of Animal Farm, readers should seriously consider getting hold of a copy of this book. The author should be encouraged to continue her literacy pursuits. With time and a few more titles under her belt, the apprentice wordsmith has the potential to write a book that the reader may find difficult to put down.

Anarchist Farm was published by III Publishing. They specialise in Anarchist fiction. Write to them for their catalogue;
III Publishing, P.O. Box 1581, GUALALA CA 95445 UNITED STATES

Thanks to Anarres Books for providing the review copy of Anarchist Farm. The book is available post free from Anarres Books.