“Night” by Elie Wiesel

A Chinese writer, Lu Xun, writes that comedy is when one witnesses the destruction of what is bad, and tragedy the destruction of what is good. By that definition, this book is the ultimate tragedy, a witness of the utter destruction of many innocent human beings, not only of the body but also of the soul, as people were either mercilessly slaughtered or reduced to mere beasts surviving on instincts […]

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“Resurrection” by Leo Tolstoy

The last major novel by Tolstoy. According to Wikipedia, Vladimir Nabakov heaped superlatives upon “Anna Karenina”, but questioned the reputation of “War and Peace”, and sharply criticized “Resurrection” and “The Kreutzer Sonata”. My opinion is the exact opposite. To me, this is a more mature and riveting work than “Anna Karenina”, because it contains deeper spiritual and social insights, the upshot of the author’s personal struggles and growth in the […]

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