If Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads debuted as a public art installation in 2011 to challenge the monolithic view of Chinese history, then his thought-provoking graphic memoir, Zodiac, offers another shift, by focusing on his individual trajectory as an artist whose role is to resist the totalitarian state. In this context, Ai’s work and life are astutely reflected in the way he reinterprets the 12 animals that make up the Chinese zodiac: the mouse symbolizes insidious state power, the buffalo parental love, the tiger steadfastness, the rabbit artistic transformation, the dragon lightness, the snake romantic love, the horse artistic freedom, the sheep social justice, the monkey intuition, the rooster hope, the dog defiance and the pig self-awareness. Continue
— Thúy Ðinh, book critic
NPR staffers pick their favorite reads of the year
The 2024 edition of Books We Love is here. Each year, NPR staffers and critics submit their favorite reads of the year across genres. Those selections are compiled into a reading guide, where you can sort by filters, including Book Club Ideas, The States We’re In, Rather Short or Rather Long. Continue
