This is the second book in my quest to
read the best 100 books of all times. It is a short story published
in 1918 by Lu Xun (1881-1936) and as in the previous book, I had not
heard of the author before... and it surprises me to realize the
extent of bias towards Western culture of my high school education,
since in six years of literature classes at school back in Montería,
I do not remember to have ever dealt with an author that was not
Hispanic, American or European. The interesting thing about Lu Xun is
that he was an innovator breaking from the traditional Chinese
ways... and he must have been really brave to pull this off, in my
opinion.
I must say that A Madman's Diary is hilarious! It is so uncommon to find a book that could actually
make you burst into laughter. I could count a couple... I think it is
really hard to be humorous in the written form; I mean, to the
point of making you laugh out loud. All in all I rate this story very high, just for its entertaining value and without regard for its historical or literary context.
I do not want to give you any spoilers
but the story is about this young man who thinks the entire world is
full of cannibals, even his older brother is conspiring against him.
Unfortunately for him, he IS their next meal!
Save the children...
Lu Xun
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