Reading List
Yan Lianke
Chinese Novelist
Yan Lianke is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories, born in 1958 and based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, and some of his novels have been banned in China. He won the Franz Kafka Prize in 2014 and has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. His novels include Serve the People!, Lenin’s Kisses and Dream of Ding Village, and he describes his style as mythorealism. His picks here are five works chosen for their satire: Cervantes’s Don Quixote, Gogol’s Dead Souls, Orwell’s Animal Farm, Heller’s Catch-22 and Mario Vargas Llosa’s Captain Pantoja and the Special Service.
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller · 2011 · Classics
“The feeling I describe derives from the work's passionate indictment of humanity's pretenses to justice and nobility.” — via Article, November 2016
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service
by Mario Vargas Llosa · 1990 · Fiction
“Its rhythmic narration creates the work's ironic, satirical tone.” — via Article, November 2016
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol · 1997 · Classics
“All of his exaggerations begin and end with real life, which gives his literature its realistic base and its critical force.” — via Article, November 2016
Animal Farm
by George Orwell · 1945 · Fiction
“Conversely, many people like Animal Farm yet end up discussing 1984 more. I share these biases, which is why the satirical influence of Animal Farm on my work is subtler and the influence of 1984 more obvious.” — via Article, November 2016
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes · 1605 · Fiction
“By presenting his protagonist as a hybrid of knight and anti-knight, he established a tone that combines satire and anti-satire, making the novel a fountainhead of all subsequent satirical literature.” — via Article, November 2016
