I finished reading The Man who Stayed Behind. It was a great read. I learned a lot about the history of China in the 20th century. I actually met Sidney Rittenberg and his wife Yulin last May at a conference. He's an amazing man. He's very quiet and unassuming.
Since then, I tore through For Us, The Living by Robert Heinlein, written in 1939 and published just this year for the first time.
It was clear why it wasn't published during his lifetime. It was terrible. It's actually (as the introduction describes) a thinly-veiled set of lectures on topics of interest to him, set 150 years in the future and looking back. A long diatribe on the economic system; also one on laws and customs. You can see very clearly that he poached a lot of other material from this book for his others -- including one anecdote he lifted in it entirety.
I always have a hard time with Heinlein. He's such a quixotic mix of ideas 100 years ahead of their time, and pure mysogyny. He nails some things, and others he just completely misses (like he thought in 2086 everyone would still smoke -- shades of "Sleeper")
So as a historical record on Heinlein's development, it's an interesting read. As science fiction, fuggedabowdit.
Next: The Secret Life of Bees.
7:48:00 PM  ; ;
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