The Hundred Years War

I read Desmond Seward’s The Hundred Years War to find out how the war turned out, since A Distant Mirror only covered the first half. Seward did a decent job of describing the various leaders, such as characterizing John II as “probably the most stupid of all French kings.” The summaries of battles were clear without going too deeply into tactics and presented the evolving military technology. Seward discusses the mercenary ambitions of the British, the wartime casualties, and the devastation that the French people suffered.

The earlier parts of the book seemed more compelling than the later parts, though I’m not sure whether that was due to more animated writing early on or to the succession of battles becoming repetitive. Though the war was futile in terms of what it accomplished, it gave rise to a long-lasting sense of national identity among the British and French, along with a strong antagonism between them. Seward presents a coherent and multi-faceted account of the war.

The Good Women of China

The Good Women of China consists of anecdotes about the lives of Chinese women. Xinran, the author, was a radio host in China for many years. Many of the stories are quite sad, since the women had to contend with the ruthless Communist government, poverty, and sexism.

In one chapter, letters from a teenager reveal how she coped with sexual abuse from her father. Another chapter describes the immense poverty of a rural village. Xinran records survivor accounts of the devastating 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, including women who lost their children in the quake and are now running an orphanage. A lesbian provides her perspective of a society in which homosexuality is taboo. Women with bourgeois or foreign backgrounds discuss their torment during the Cultural Revolution. The Communist Party arranged marriage for teenagers who originally strong supporters of the Revolution.

Xinran writes well, pulling the reader into her caring depictions of women’s lives. The best way to understand another society is to observe the lives of ordinary people, and Xinran provides such a glimpse. Communist China was brutal for almost everyone, but women probably suffered more than men did.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, neurologist Oliver Sacks describes some of the more noteworthy cases that he’s encountered, some of which are intriguing. For example, patients with aphasia, who cannot understand words, thought a speech by then-President Ronald Reagan was hilarious. In contrast, a patient with tonal agnosia, who understood words but not speaking tones, timbre, etc., complained that Reagan was not cogent.

However, the book’s writing style is a bit too erudite for my taste, referring to neurologists I’d never heard of and philosophers I’m not familiar with. As a result, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is less appealing than other books I’ve read about psychology and mental functioning.

Life of Pi

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi tells the story of a teenager from India who gets marooned on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The first part of the book, which introduced Pi, the main character, is all right. The central narrative, in which Pi struggles for months to survive in his precarious situation, is entertaining and captivating. The novel probably has some deeper message, as suggested by Pi’s discussion of his unconventional religious beliefs, but I wasn’t able to figure out what it was. Nonetheless, I still appreciated Pi’s description of his adventures.