Kristel's 2017 Randomised Reading List

[[deleted user]]

Kristel's 2017 Randomised Reading List

1. Man's Fate André Malraux
2. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
3. The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett
4. Indigo Marina Warner (WL)

2 swaps left

[Kristel]

I've read the Maltese Falcon. Do we get to exchange read books out or do we have to use a swap or do a reread?

[Kristel]

Read the instructions so I get it, I keep The Maltese Falcon for now, I thave 3 others to work with at this point that are all readable. So thanks for the list.

[Kristel]

I am reading Man's Fate and plan to be done before the end of the year.

[Kristel]

Man's Fate completed This was an interesting read; one of my random picks for 2017 and also chosen because it was a winner of the Goncourt (1933), it tells the story of the 1927 Chinese revolution and the violent suppression of the communist party in China.

Authors of this period, such as Malraux, André Gide and Romain Roland were attracted to leftist politics, specifically the version put forth by the Soviet Union. Both their own ideological convictions and material concerns played a role in this, as the USSR sponsored conferences of writers and helped found literary organizations during the Popular Front era, which for it marked a definite de-emphasis of the revolutionary role of the working class, and an accommodation with intellectuals as well as the ruling class itself in the name of anti-fascism. https://thatfaintlight.wordpress.com/.... The author of this book is French and this is French literature but it is set in China. It does feature a Ferrel, a French man who would be a typical capitalist stereotype, definitely lacking in redeeming traits and other foriegn countries are represented. This story is of 4 men; Kyo Gisors, an idealist, Chen Ta Erh, a communist terrorist, Baron Clappique – a French merchant and smuggler, and Kaptov, a Russian advisor to the communist party.

I found the story interesting in comparison to the history I had been taught about Chiang Kai-shek and conservative factions in the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). This was a whole different perspective and a look at the world of the terrorist from the point of view of the terrorist. I found the book easy to read. My translation was by Haakon M. Chevalier.