Man's Fate

I suspect this Andre Malraux novel about the defeat of Chinese Communist insurrectionists in Shanghai in 1927 would benefit from a better translation. I picked it up on the recommendation of Mario Vargas Llosa, who surely read it in the original French. Still, despite chunks of clunky philosophical exposition, there are passages of great insight into the minds of the characters: revolutionaries, businessmen, intellectuals, and opportunists.

Last Exit to Brooklyn

With this novel, Hubert Selby Jr. extended the literary ground broken by John Dos Passos outward into new areas of frankness and downward into new levels of depravity. It is a work that is both horrifying and tender.

The Sound of Things Falling

This novel by Colombian Juan Gabriel Vasquez examines the price the nation's drug economy exacted on everyday people in the 1980s. Themes of transgression, ambition and benevolence are cooked into a compelling stew.

Lock No 1

The first disappointing Maigret in the reissue series, this novel is dreary and plodding. The characterizations are mostly astute but the action is tentative and blandly presented.