Typically when I choose books to read, factored into my decision is what is going on in the rest of life - at home, at work, at church, in my extended circle of friends and family, or in broader society. To gain insight, perspective, context, understanding, or to counterbalance excesses, I'll choose books that check boxes.
Yesterday I finished 'China: The Novel' by Edward Rutherford. Published May of 2021, it was the last book in my queue which was a holdover from my previous employment, and that feels good.
Both my own life and the world as a whole look different to me now compared with when I put that book in the queue, now I have a few different strains of thought I want to key in on, explore, and delve into.
But at the time I put this work into the queue, I had just finished the last novel in James Clavell's epic Asian Saga series. Fascinated by the whole East meets West paradigm, I wanted more of the same.
Rutherford's novel was both that and not-that in different ways. Covering much the same period and topic as Clavell's series, there were a lot of similar themes and features that cropped up in both. But the tone and tenor of Rutherford's take definitely feels like a product of the kind of thinking in the West which is du jour these days, and I don't mean that in a good way.
Doing the compare and contrast between Clavell and Rutherford is fascinating, though. One was obviously written in the latter half of the 20th century by a former POW and WWII veteran. The other was definitely written, edited, published, and promoted in the 2020's - and it shows.
