Of the books I reviewed this year, two in particular caught me off-guard. I’m not usually greatly interested in the phenomenon called Christianity, but Diarmaid MacCulloch’s A History of Christianity (reviewed on Sept. 26) proved a stunning experience — skeptical yet sympathetic, learned yet readily accessible, despite its enormous length. This book is as wise as it is magisterial, a sane overview that proves a window into a truly civilized mind.
The other surprise was the George Orwell Diaries (reviewed on July 18). I’d never been very enthusiastic about Orwell’s down-to-earth realism, his determination to record the exact truth, as he saw it, about everything, while remaining blind to almost all imaginative dimensions. But this very mind-set becomes an overwhelming virtue in these marvelous diaries. He views everything, from life on his adoptive Scottish island (unbelievably bleak) to the run-up to World War II in London as observed from his job with the BBC, with equal honesty. Orwell may be, or seek to be, the plain man par excellence, but as a walking camera this proved an extraordinary asset, one it never could be in a writer of novels.
Penguin Modern Classics (which published the diaries) also gave us in 2010 The Mountains of My Life by Walter Bonatti (reviewed on June 20). It’s a substantial collection of essays and chapters from his many climbing books, and it reads like a carefree adventure story. Bonatti’s life was far from carefree, however, and the dark aspects, such as the accusations against him over his role in the ascent of K2 in 1954, provide much of the book’s real interest.
Photo: Taipei Times
But there’s no doubt that Bonatti is a modern hero — climbing, often alone, because the easy life in the valley was “so banal and disappointing” that he had to turn his back on it and embrace instead darkness, cold and an almost ever-present danger.
As for books with an Asian connection, Frank Dikotter’s Mao’s Great Famine (reviewed on Sept. 12) proved the most absorbing, but Marc L. Moskowitz’s Cries of Joy, Songs of Sorrow (reviewed on Jan. 24), with its analysis of Taiwan’s Mando-pop world, probably attracted more readers.
As for next year, the forthcoming books I’m most looking forward to reviewing are the English translation of Michel Houellebecq’s Goncourt Prize-winning La Carte et le Territoire (The Map and the Territory), and Alan Hollinghurst’s long-awaited new novel, now announced as The Stranger’s Child, to be released on July 1.
Photo: Taipei Times
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not