In his own words
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The True Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales
Review: This was really good. Very different from conventional western short fiction, but very well written and enjoyable to read. The true story of Ah-Q is superb, and it made me lol in parts. Some are tough to read, people starving and dying and it’s always snowing. No wonder Hsun liked Russian literature so much.…
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Light in August
Review: Clearly a classic work of American literature. Wonderful imagery and work painting. You can feel the oppressive heat and hear the insects. “Too many notes” the annecdotal comment of the King to Mozart on hearing his compositions. In this case – too many words. It goes around and weaves back and then goes out…
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Ficciones
Review: A collection of very well written and very unusual short stories. Like any collection or anthology, you take the best and get through the rest. Fortunately most of these are of the former variety. Some of the faux-literary-criticism ones were over my head, or just not my thing. Thought provoking and often very surprising.…
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Burmese Days
Review: Outstanding novel of British Colonial Burma. All the protagonists are thoroughly dislikeable. Gin soaked, heat baked, pathetic lives playing out in a dirty, remote hill station in Burma’s jungle. Once again Orwell proves to be the voice of conscience for the 20th century. SImply an amazing piece of writing, yet it is never much…
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Step Across This Line
Review: A wonderful collection of essays, columns, reminisces, and letters from a remarkable man. I lived through all the years and events that are described in this volume. Yet I have very little knowledge or experience of them, having chosen to spend all of the time from 1992-2002 sitting on a barstool and missing out…
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Anthem
Review: Magnificent. A beautifully crafted dark vision of a dark future. I feel no need to write a manifesto or donate portion of my comic book sales to the Ayn Rand Foundation (true story, there is a dude on eBay that does that. Makes a point of telling you in the item description. I bought…
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Klee Wyck
Review: Vivid, spare, imaginative prose. Says in one phrase what some would take three lines to say. Proust would take 10 pages. I had a pretty low opinion of natives before, but I like them even less after reading this. The myth of the noble savage is just that, a myth. Savages need to be…
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Pride and Prejudice
Review: Why did I wait so long before reading this? Outstanding narrative, humor, plot was a bit convoluted but I got it sorted quickly. The prose is exquisite. Really. Hard to improve a single line after 200 years. So good. Did not expect that. This book made me want to: read the rest of her…
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The Recognition of Shakuntala
Review: Introduction by Rabindranath Tagore. So you know it is good! Goethe loved this, thought it was exquisite poetry. An excellent translation and the rhyming parts, where they occur, are natural sounding and not forced like often happens in translated poetry. A lot of the characters and rituals you would really have to be Hindu…
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The Myth of the Sisyphus
Review: A series of essays on existential philosophy. First and longest of them was tedious, but well worth the effort to get through. The last few essays were beautiful vignettes of the life and scenery of Algiers and Iran. A brilliant and honest writer. This book made me want to: visit Algiers in the 1950s…