If you like essays, this volume will keep you happy for all of its 500 pages. Simon Leys is the pen name of a Belgian-born Australian scholar, and his range of interests includes the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, Cervantes, the opinions of Christopher Hitchens and political terror in our times. His voice is witty, scholarly, and often iconoclastic. The writing is always accessible and free of academic jargon or literary pretension.