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Contents

Louis Begley

A Matter of Survival

October, Eight O’Clock by Norman Manea, translated by Cornelia Golna and Anselm Hollo and Mara Soceanu Vamos and Max Bleyleben and Marguerite Dorian and Elliott B. Urdang
Geoffrey O’Brien

Blazing Passions

Red Sorghum directed by Zhang Yimou (1987)

Horse Thief directed by Tian Zhuangzhuang (1986)

The Big Parade directed by Chen Kaige (1985)

Yellow Earth directed by Chen Kaige (1984)

Raise the Red Lantern directed by Zhang Yimou (1991)

Fists of Fury directed by Lo Wei (1972)

Shanghai Blues directed by Tsui Hark (1984)

Peking Opera Blues directed by Tsui Hark (1986)

A Chinese Ghost Story directed by Ching Siu-ting (1987)

A Better Tomorrow directed by John Woo (1986)

Boat People directed by Ann Hui (1982)

Rouge directed by Stanley Kwan (1988)

Once Upon a Time in China directed by Tsui Hark (1991)

A Touch of Zen directed by King Hu (1975)

A Terra-Cotta Warrior directed by Ching Siu-ting (1990)

Letters

Contributors

Louis Begley’s books include Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters and the novel Wartime Lies. His eleventh novel, Killer Come Hither, will be published in 2015.

Caroline Blackwood (1931-1996) was born into a rich Anglo-Irish aristocratic family. She rebelled against her background at an early age and led a hectic and bohemian life, which included marriages to the painter Lucian Freud, the pianist and composer Israel Citkowitz, and the poet Robert Lowell. In the 1970s Blackwood began to write. Among her books are several novels, including Great Granny Webster and Corrigan (both available as NYRB Classics); On the Perimeter, an account of the women’s anti-nuclear protest at Greenham Common; and The Last of the Duchess, about the old age of the Duchess of Windsor.

Frederick C. Crews’s new book, Freud: The Making of an Illusion, will be published in the fall.
 (February 2017)

Joan Didion is the author, most recently, of Blue Nights and The Year of Magical Thinking, among seven other works of nonfiction. Her five novels include A Book of Common Prayer and Democracy.
 (May 2016)

Hugh Honour is the author, with John Fleming, of The Visual Arts: A History, which has recently been published in its sixth expanded edition. (November 2002)

George F. Kennan (1904–2005) was an American diplomat, political scientist and historian. He is best known for his role in shaping US foreign policy during the Cold War and, in particular, for the doctrine of containment. Kennan was Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and served as Ambassador to the USSR in 1952 and as Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1961 to 1963. His books include At a Century’s Ending and An American Family.

Hilary Mantel is an English novelist, short story writer, and critic. Her novel, Wolf Hall, won the Man Booker Prize in 2009.

Geoffrey O’Brien’s books include The Phantom ­Empire, Stolen Glimpses, Captive Shadows: Writing on Film, 2002–2012, and, most recently, the poetry collection The Blue Hill.
 (October 2018)

William Pfaff’s latest book is The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy.
 (June 2013)

Garry Wills, whose most recent book is What the Qur’an Meant: And Why It Matters, is the 2018 commencement speaker at Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim campus in America. (June 2018)