Review: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories

Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Lu Xun
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed all of these stories. The title story was interesting. I confess I don't see the political angle as much (this was written before there was a communist movement), although that doesn't mean it's not there. I do see a critique of historical values, as well as general paranoia. 

The other stories are all about people who are not well off, living outside of major metropolises. In other words, about those who had usually been neglected in literature. All his stories were written in the vernacular as well (白話), which adds to this effect. 

The last story (Forging the Swords) was in a different style, but also nice as a change of pace. 

I think my favorite is still The True Story of Ah Q (a re-read for me). 

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Review: First Snow on Fuji

First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The more I read by Kawabata the more I enjoy his stories. This was a collection of short stories, the best of which was First Snow on Fuji, but every story had something to it. 4.5 stars on average. 

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Review: Traversing the Frontier: The Man'yōshū Account of a Japanese Mission to Silla in 736-737

Traversing the Frontier: The Man'yōshū Account of a Japanese Mission to Silla in 736-737 by H. Mack Horton
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I can't really rate this, since most of it was over my head. The actual travel account is from page 10 to 44 (with the Kanji and Japanese sounds transliterated as well). The rest is pretty much commentary. 

The first part is more or less an introduction, then the travelogue itself. Then "Traversing the Frontier", or basically a geographical tracing of where they (most likely) traveled. The sections after this (Internal contexts, Historical contexts, Literary contexts, Authorial and Editorial contexts) were pretty much over my head. I scanned some of the Historical contexts section, but even then I didn't absorb much. 

As for the travelogue itself, it isn't really a travelogue, but more a collection of poems and sentiments, most about how much they miss home and miss their wives. This was a bit disappointing, although I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy reading it. 

Still, obviously much work was done on this book, which from what I can tell is exhaustive and excellent, so hopefully someone more knowledgable than I am on the subject can give it a more thorough review. 

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Review: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoğlu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a second read for me. I like to read books like this when they are a bit out of date to see if they stand the test of time. This one seemed to, at least re: China. 

I agreed with his premise, but disagreed with some of their examples, at least toward the beginning.

It is true that some countries will not prosper because it isn't in their leaders' interest to allow a democratic government. The authors seem against the idea that these leaders just "need to be educated" as to the correct strategy, a la IMF and World bank, and I tend to agree. 

The poorest parts of South America are the parts that were most under control of the conquistadores (is this true?)

Section 256 of Alabama's constitution still has segregation. Segregation is still law in Alabama. (This is still true today. I looked it up).

I like the idea that (Schumpeter's) Creative Destruction is required for an economy to persevere in the long term, i.e. past the downturns. 

All in all this was a good second read. I'm curious to see how these theories have been updated by the authors.

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Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm sort of amazed at some of the negative reviews here. Lately I've been disappointed by books with a great premise but sloppy follow-through (Like The Imagination library), but I didn't find this was the case here. 

This is more a collection of short stories dealing with regulars in a coffee shop. And it just so happens that this coffee shop allows for time travel, with certain conditions. 

Some of the stories were a bit of a stretch, but I'm still giving it 5 stars since it left me wanting more and I found it very original. I look forward to reading the second in this series. 

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Review: Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe

Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was alternately a confusion of similar names and extremely entertaining reading. I probably am not well versed enough in the history of this era to know much of what is going on. Having said that, the author did do a good job at differentiating all the various royal people with extremely repetitive names. 

Upon reading about Louis IX's crusade, I was immediately reminded of its account in Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. If anything, the entire story, as told here, is even more comical. The entire endeavor (and its sequel) were blunder after blunder. I mean, they were complete tragedies at the time for the people involved, but hopefully enough time has passed by now. As the author stated: "The most virulent enemy of France could not have done a better job of decimating the French royal family than did Louis with his crusade".

As for the queens, considering the men they were stuck with, they were pretty much the ones running the show and/or cleaning up the messes. In some ways it reminded me of The Soong sisters (from the book The Soong Dynasty). 

All in all, a very interesting, if at times confusing, book about an interesting time. 

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Review: Running Wild

Running Wild by J.G. Ballard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this entirely on spec from a used book store, and it didn't disappoint. It is a short book, a murder mystery and, ultimately, a critique of sorts. 

It will be interesting to read more by this author. 

Edit: Wow. I just saw that this author wrote "Empire of the Sun" and "Crash", both of which became movies (I had heard of the movies, but not the books). I'm glad I found out about him. 

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Review: Facing the Bridge

Facing the Bridge by Yōko Tawada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really need to be in the right mood to read Tawada's books. This contained three short stories. I enjoyed reading all three, right until the end. They each seem not to end, but just to stop, without really saying or concluding anything. It is quite odd. 

Anyway, for the first story, I feel like she could have explained a bit more why Amo decided to do what he did at the end. In fact, I wasn't sure why Tamao was acting the way he was half the time either. 

In the second story, it seemed to be getting interesting, but abruptly ended (on a weird note). 

The third story was somewhat engrossing, and probably had more symbolism than I could catch. Once again the ending was very odd to me. 

Probably should have been a dnf, but I was curious about the last story since it was called "St. George and the Translator".

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