Realist Literature under Communism: Herta Müller, László Krasznahorkai, and Mo Yan

Today we conclude our series Life under Communism by taking a second look at all three novels, The Passport, Satantango, and The Garlic Ballads. We talk about whether there are any takeaways about Communism for us here, or whether that's even something that should be sought from realist fiction. We also discuss whether these realist novels change how we feel about speculative fiction dealing with Communism or adjacent ideas (Vagabonds, The Dispossessed, Parable of the Sower), and if all those books belong under the same topical genre umbrella as the books we just read. Finally, we explore what these books tell us about the future of Communism in their respective countries.
For this series, we discussed Life Under Communism with Herta Muller's The Passport Aug 12-26, László Krasznahorkai's Satantango Sept 2-16, and Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads Sept 23 - Oct 7.
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