The Book Pages

Here's something new that I want to try out since we are after all a book discussion group. So here it is a round up of book news and reviews. In the Washington Post Harvard Prof. Jorge Dominguez takes on Alvaro Vargas Llosa's Liberty for Latin America. While Dominguez declares that the "feisty book, which will provoke and annoy people across the political spectrum, is a great read", he does support it unequivocally. He knocks it for some inconsistencies and for not exposing the "overrated" economic performance of Chile under Pinochet. Dominguez is also underwhelmed with Varas Llosa's prescription for change but applauds his faulting US policy for keeping Latin America down. Just a reminder Vargas Llosa will be at MDC Wolfson this Friday, March 18.

China is big in the book news owing in part to an American banker's new bio of former Red Pres. Jiang Zemin. The NY Times has a broad (and long) profile on the book biz in China. The Washington Post has a story on the Jiang book and contrasts it with another political book the explosive Political Struggles in China's Reform Era, which touches on the role that the late Zhao Ziyang had in redefining China and his vision for the country. The Post has a review of three new China books including The Man Who Changed China, the Jiang hagiography, China Inc., the latest in the China rising ouevre and The River Runs Black on the enviromental challenges facing China. Of these the review says that The River Runs Black "ring truest." China Inc. loses points for somehow managing to avoid politics and The Man Who Changed China gets dutifully ripped. By the way how sad is it that the most controversial of all these works is written by a 35 year veteran of the New China News Agency and the weakest and most fawning is written by an American businessman.