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Book reviews roundup: The Tragedy of Liberation, Expo 58 and The Bone Season Book reviews roundup: The Tragedy of Liberation, Expo 58 and The Bone Season
(12 days later)
Frank Dikötter's The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-57 (Bloomsbury) – a prequel to his 2011 Samuel Johnson prizewinning Mao's Great Famine – was much admired. Julia Lovell in the Financial Times explained how many previous histories had considered the period to be the "closest that Maoist China came to achieving a golden age" complete with speculation that "had Mao died in 1956 … his achievements would have been immortal". But, she continued, "Dikötter convincingly demolishes this rosy assessment … violence was the revolution." While "some of what Dikötter describes has been known in general terms", claimed Jonathan Mirsky in the Literary Review, for his taking advantage of the opening of Chinese archives readers are in his debt. If the book did have a weakness, argued Michael Sheridan in the Sunday Times, "it is that the staggering amount of detail sometimes becomes overwhelming". But out of the mass of information, Dikötter has produced a "cool, dispassionate narrative", said Kwasi Kwarteng in the London Evening Standard, in which Dikötter "recounts the orgy of violence which the communists set loose. Mao famously said that 'revolution is not a dinner party'. In a relentlessly direct way, Dikötter shows that the Chairman was right."Frank Dikötter's The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-57 (Bloomsbury) – a prequel to his 2011 Samuel Johnson prizewinning Mao's Great Famine – was much admired. Julia Lovell in the Financial Times explained how many previous histories had considered the period to be the "closest that Maoist China came to achieving a golden age" complete with speculation that "had Mao died in 1956 … his achievements would have been immortal". But, she continued, "Dikötter convincingly demolishes this rosy assessment … violence was the revolution." While "some of what Dikötter describes has been known in general terms", claimed Jonathan Mirsky in the Literary Review, for his taking advantage of the opening of Chinese archives readers are in his debt. If the book did have a weakness, argued Michael Sheridan in the Sunday Times, "it is that the staggering amount of detail sometimes becomes overwhelming". But out of the mass of information, Dikötter has produced a "cool, dispassionate narrative", said Kwasi Kwarteng in the London Evening Standard, in which Dikötter "recounts the orgy of violence which the communists set loose. Mao famously said that 'revolution is not a dinner party'. In a relentlessly direct way, Dikötter shows that the Chairman was right."
Jonathan Coe's Expo 58 has divided reviewers, so far on gender lines. Lucy Kellaway was enthusiastic in the FT, hailing it as "Coe at his funny-serious best, offering his idiosyncratic mixture of slapstick and profundity in a love-and-spies story set at the height of the cold war". While Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth, with the same backdrop, "was all literary twists, Expo 58 is what Coe is so good at providing: pure enjoyment". In the Literary Review, Sarah A Smith similarly found it "top-notch", but saw it as "more than a clever comedy", offering "a rather more thoughtful … examination of British and European identity". Male critics, though, remained sternly unamused. In the Sunday Times, David Mills found "things to admire", but overall judged the book "another puzzling, frustrating disappointment" from an author yet to recapture his early verve. The Times's Leo Robson echoed him in expressing admiration for Coe's What a Carve Up! but wearily dismissed his latest effort's plotting as "clunky" and its approach as "strenuous triviality".Jonathan Coe's Expo 58 has divided reviewers, so far on gender lines. Lucy Kellaway was enthusiastic in the FT, hailing it as "Coe at his funny-serious best, offering his idiosyncratic mixture of slapstick and profundity in a love-and-spies story set at the height of the cold war". While Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth, with the same backdrop, "was all literary twists, Expo 58 is what Coe is so good at providing: pure enjoyment". In the Literary Review, Sarah A Smith similarly found it "top-notch", but saw it as "more than a clever comedy", offering "a rather more thoughtful … examination of British and European identity". Male critics, though, remained sternly unamused. In the Sunday Times, David Mills found "things to admire", but overall judged the book "another puzzling, frustrating disappointment" from an author yet to recapture his early verve. The Times's Leo Robson echoed him in expressing admiration for Coe's What a Carve Up! but wearily dismissed his latest effort's plotting as "clunky" and its approach as "strenuous triviality".
Reviewing Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season, the first volume of a projected seven-book fantasy series, the Daily Telegraph's Helen Brown detected echoes of JK Rowling, Dan Brown, Suzanne Collins and even EL James, but nevertheless praised the 22-year-old author for skilfully combining familiar fantasy tropes to create a "complex" and "original" dystopian universe. Less impressed was the Independent's Christina Hardyment, who complained it was "difficult to remember who is who", and that only fantasy devotees would care about characters who are "made with [Shannon's] mind, not her heart". And in the New York Times, Janet Maslin devoted much of a 1,150-word review to mocking a US TV network for making The Bone Season the "first pick" of its breakfast show's book club, before giving her verdict on Shannon: "There are not many good reasons to plough through her capably written but fun-free epic ... Perhaps she will broaden vocabularies everywhere [by using erudite words], but it's not yet clear what else she can do."Reviewing Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season, the first volume of a projected seven-book fantasy series, the Daily Telegraph's Helen Brown detected echoes of JK Rowling, Dan Brown, Suzanne Collins and even EL James, but nevertheless praised the 22-year-old author for skilfully combining familiar fantasy tropes to create a "complex" and "original" dystopian universe. Less impressed was the Independent's Christina Hardyment, who complained it was "difficult to remember who is who", and that only fantasy devotees would care about characters who are "made with [Shannon's] mind, not her heart". And in the New York Times, Janet Maslin devoted much of a 1,150-word review to mocking a US TV network for making The Bone Season the "first pick" of its breakfast show's book club, before giving her verdict on Shannon: "There are not many good reasons to plough through her capably written but fun-free epic ... Perhaps she will broaden vocabularies everywhere [by using erudite words], but it's not yet clear what else she can do."
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