Jessica D’Itri
Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith consists of 17 very short stories, each featuring a distasteful female protagonist. The writing is very spare, so the tales come across almost as fables. Each one tells a tragic, weird story where somebody ends up dead or worse. The female characters are completely unredeemable, so the reader can almost cheer their falls, even if you can’t help but feel that it all isn’t quite fair to them. My favorite story is “The Breeder,” in which a man is driven into penury and insanity by his wife’s super-fecundity. As the husband strains under the growing financial and personal burdens of having so many children, the wife sails along serenely, unconcernedly adding to his troubles and eventual mental breakdown. There is something wickedly satisfying in reading these highly biased and misogynist stories.
Jessica Hun
Bin Liang’s The Changing Chinese Legal System, 1978-Present: Centralization of Power and Rationalization of the Legal System examines the evolution of the Chinese legal system against a backdrop of China’s changing political economy and the impact of legalization on the official political ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The functions and limitations of such process are explored in an attempt to explain the imbalance between political and legal reforms and why the Chinese legal system is far from the standards of the rule of law. By studying the current efforts to tackle issues of crime and punishment and to improve the court system through clearer procedures and better personnel training, Liang provides significant proof that law remains dependent on the political environment. Rather than weakening the CCP’s capacity to rule, he argues, the development of law strengthens it.
Nonna Gorilovskaya
Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter centers on mother-daughter relationships. Ruth, a successful ghostwriter in modern San Francisco watches as her mother, Luling, struggles with onset of dementia. Aware that she will soon not remember the past, Luling sets down her story—and secrets—down on paper. The big discovery is that Precious Auntie, the mysterious woman Ruth grew up believing was her mother’s nursemaid in China, was actually Ruth’s grandmother. As Tan traces the lives of Precious Auntie and Luling in China, the novel takes on the feel of a fable complete with breathtaking scenery, a beauty, a hero and a villain. Because the lives of Precious Auntie and Luling are so dramatic, Ruth’s life seems mundane and sometimes annoying by contrast. I had some issues with the ending but, overall, I was engaged by this beautifully-written novel that left me thinking about the women in my life.
