The hall of uselessness - Simon Leys

An NYRB Classics Original

Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the
era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art
and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the
appalling toll of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with
unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art,
literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the
way we live now.

The Hall of Uselessness is the most
extensive collection of Leys's essays to be published to date. In it, he
addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the
mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of Andr Gide and
Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on
the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes
with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn
Waugh, and Georges Simenon. Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time.