Ivar Hagendoorn

Ivar Hagendoorn

· Blog | Non-Fiction

Misha Glenny: McMafia

On the cover of my copy of McMafia it says that “anyone with even the smallest interest in how the world really works should read this book”. I’m not really sure whether this really is how the world really works, but it sure is an eye-opener.
· Blog | Literature

Borges and Perec on Classifying Animals

In his short story The Analytical Language of John Wilkins Borges famously lists a hilarious classification of animals found in an apocryphal Chinese encyclopedia. In Penser/Classer Georges Perec lists an equally hilarious classification drawn from various official documents.
· Blog | Literature

Joseph O'Neill: Netherland

It has won the PEN/Faulkner Award and it has been almost unanimously praised, but perhaps that is precisely the problem. The novel nestles itself comfortably in the nicely made corner lounge of current taste.
· Blog | Economics

The Wealth of Nations

Of course I’d like to have more purchasing power and pay lower taxes and I too disagree with some of the ways the government of my country allocates its budget. But there is a different form of private wealth which depends on the public infrastructure of the country you live in.