Books, Arts & Manners: Asian Minor

The Accidental Asian, by Eric Liu (Random House, 210 pp., $23)

MALCOLM Muggeridge told a story about his days as a newspaper correspondent in Moscow during the time of the Stalin-instigated famines. He went with a Russian colleague to see a Chekhov play. Afterward he asked her what she thought of it. “I can’t see what they were all so unhappy about,” replied the woman. “They had enough to eat, didn’t they?”

About the Author

John Derbyshire

Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.

The Accidental Asian, by Eric Liu (Random House, 210 pp., $23)

MALCOLM Muggeridge told a story about his days as a newspaper correspondent in Moscow during the time of the Stalin-instigated famines. He went with a Russian colleague to see a Chekhov play. Afterward he asked her what she thought of it. “I can’t see what they were all so unhappy about,” replied the woman. “They had enough to eat, didn’t they?”