The manuscript that was arrested: Linda Grant on Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate

First posted July 28, 2017 Life and Fate was written in the late 1950’s & confiscated by the Soviet authorities. It was published in the West in 1980, and in Russia in 1988. Grossman died in 1964. Linda Grant says of it: ‘Novels fade, your immersion in their world turns into a faint dream, and then is forgotten. Only… Read More The manuscript that was arrested: Linda Grant on Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate

The Zhivago Affair: one of the Cold War’s most fascinating cultural skirmishes / Boris Pasternak’s refusal of The Nobel Prize. His son’s memoirs

First posted June 21, 2014 The Zhivago Affair by Peter Finn and Petra Couvee Reviewed by Adam Kirsch More than Christianity, however, life itself is Zhivago’s sacred value – his name is related to the Russian word for life – and he despises every ideology that claims to be superior to life, to be able to… Read More The Zhivago Affair: one of the Cold War’s most fascinating cultural skirmishes / Boris Pasternak’s refusal of The Nobel Prize. His son’s memoirs

Dear Arsehole

The French newspaper Le Monde described the book as “luminous” if also dense with ideas Angelique Chrisafis in Paris A novel depicting France’s #MeToo movement by the French punk feminist writer Virginie Despentes, irreverently titled Cher Connard – which roughly translates as Dear Arsehole – has become a bestseller, prompting a debate about sexual harassment and… Read More Dear Arsehole

Book review: The State as Faction: Mao’s Cultural Revolution

First posted May 8, 2018 NB: This is a longer version of my review of this book which appeared in the April 2018 issue of Biblio. DS The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962–1976 By Frank Dikötter; Bloomsbury Press, 2016 The GPCR was yet another example of the totalitarian impulse, the open secret that motivates all… Read More Book review: The State as Faction: Mao’s Cultural Revolution

Karl Marx in the Anthropocene: the post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan

Justin McCurry  “It is broadly about what’s going on in the world … about the climate crisis and what we should do about it,” Saito said in an interview with the Guardian. “I advocate for degrowth and going beyond capitalism.” Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people… Read More Karl Marx in the Anthropocene: the post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan

Book review: Chronicles of the Champaran Satyagraha

The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 brought the miseries of the region’s peasants to official notice. A volume of 165 testimonies of peasants translated into English is revealing of their wretched lives, but many aspects of the struggle remain unexplored and there remain gaps in our understanding. MOHAMMAD SAJJAD Thumb Printed: Champaran Indigo Peasants Speak to… Read More Book review: Chronicles of the Champaran Satyagraha

Book review: Conceptualizing an Emancipatory Alternative: Peter Hudis reviews István Mészáros’s ‘Beyond Capital’

First posted June 29, 2016 It is no exaggeration to say that with 1989 a long historical phase – the one initiated by the October Revolution of 1917 – came to its end. From now on, whatever might be the future of socialism, it will have to be established on radically new foundations, beyond the… Read More Book review: Conceptualizing an Emancipatory Alternative: Peter Hudis reviews István Mészáros’s ‘Beyond Capital’