{"product_id":"the-hall-of-uselessness","title":"The Hall of Uselessness - Collected Essays","description":"An NYRB Classics Original\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Hall of Uselessness\u003c\/i\u003e 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 André 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, \u003ci\u003eThe Hall of Uselessness\u003c\/i\u003e 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.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51305383002400,"sku":"9781590176207","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0836\/3661\/7504\/files\/9781590176207.jpg?v=1772758751","url":"https:\/\/creativebysanchez.com\/es\/products\/the-hall-of-uselessness","provider":"Creative By Sanchez","version":"1.0","type":"link"}