Literature Group: New 2026 Monthly Series
Meets monthly on Saturdays, 2-4 pm ET
The MEP Literature Group hosts a new monthly series, meeting at 2 pm US ET on the last Saturday of each month. In our new format, we discuss a single book each month. Selections are not limited to fiction – we are branching out to include memoir, biography, essays, and other forms that investigate and challenge literary norms. We encourage participants to recommend books and topics. (Note that our weekly series on Peter Weiss’s Aesthetics of Resistance will also continue for now).
April 4 My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria, by Andrée Blouin, in collaboration with Jean MacKellar (Verso Books, 2025, 288 pages). We suggest reading this book while streaming Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. The Literature Group has read a number of fictions set in Africa; Blouin’s memoir gives background on the turbulent postcolonial period in Africa and the unrecognized contributions of women to national liberation movements.
April 25 Faraway the Southern Sky: A Novel, by Joseph Andreas (Verso Books, 2024, 82 pages). A narrator walks through contemporary Paris, identifying the locations where a young Vietnamese refugee/revolutionary lived and worked in a city marked by rebellions and massacres. This novel will resonate with MEP members who read The Sorrow of War.
May 30 The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise, by Georges Perec (Verso Books, 2025, 80 pages). All wage slaves resent the humiliation of the yearly self-evaluation to justify the request for a pay raise. Perec, a noted literary avant-gardist and member of Oulipo, had a lowly job as a library clerk that he used to advantage when IBM asked for writers to experiment with computer algorithms.
June 27 Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile, by Eden Medina (MIT Press, 2014, 326 pages). Allende’s Chile attempted not only a political change, but a technological change. As we deal with the AI bros proclaiming a world of their own making, this study of a socialist government applying technology provides an alternative.
July 29 The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammett (various publishers). Published in 1930, Dashiell Hammett wrote a scathing description of small-town corruption in which capitalism supported local economies and power elites. The novel has inspired many movies, all worth watching and worth discussing in this session.
Previous discussions:
February 28 Victor Serge: Unruly Revolutionary, by Mitchell Abidor (Pluto Press, 2025, 424 pages). On November 3, 2025, Mitch Abidor spoke at the MEP on how his biography of Victor Serge could disturb readers who have a romantic view of Serge’s dissidence. We will discuss how this biography brings out the difficulties of Serge’s living within defeat and poverty and whether Abidor’s reportage changes our assessment of Serge’s novels.
Convened by Jacqueline Cantwell and the MEP Literature Group. Jacqueline became involved with the MEP’s Literature Group because of her love of Victor Serge’s novels. Participating in an MEP reading group led by Serge translator Richard Greeman eight years ago, Jacqueline found a community of readers eager to be challenged by the ambitions of international writers devoted to the creative potential of political fiction. Since the death of Michael Lardner, who hosted and organized the Literature Group for so many years, Jacqueline has taken the lead in furthering the group’s goals of exploring international fiction and encouraging thoughtful conversation.