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Paul Swickard pswickard11ce — In Dubious Battle is part of the Steinbeck triad that includes Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. I had read the latter two but had not even heard of the former. It certainly fits nicely with Steinbeck's more famous novels about working class people struggling to earn enough money to eat, much less what most would call a decent lifestyle. This novel depicts the inner machinations of "the animal," that organized body that rises up against the establishment in the form of a strike. Jim Nolan and his radical friend, Mac, are the generals of the strike against apple growers in California. It is raw and shows the very militaristic nature of a strike. Realistic and quite violent in many places, Steinbeck's novel takes us to a place that few people can still associate with, which is why it is as important as ever that In Dubious Battle be read. The character, Mac, looms large in the novel. He utterly facinates. He knows exactly what makes men do spectacular things in the face of tremendous adversity and what will make them quail when they most need courage. Mac alone is worth the time and money spent on this novel. If you have read Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, then you must read In Dubious Battle. It is an essential part of a trilogy of novels about the common man during the Great Depression. Reading it makes the other two parts resound even more. I give it three stars only because Steinbeck's other novels are so much more accomplished.

Triscope Films _riscope_ilms — In spite of the deceptive complexity, the plot of Paco Ignacio Taibo II's Four Hands is actually very simple. It is the colorful yet believable characters and the playful and witty telling that makes the novel very engaging. The story is simply about how the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tried to frame a Sandinista Minister who had a significant role in the struggle against dictator Somoza, spread disinformation, and demoralize the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. This occurs in the background of a brutal US-sponsored Contra War to topple the Sandinistas. But the contours of this narrative can only be realized near the novel’s end, when all the seemingly disparate mini-narratives coalesce. We are first introduced to the personal narrations of the protagonists, the journalists Julio and Greg, one Mexican and the other American, who have a good time backstabbing each other in their minds and giving sardonic comments about everything. One of my favorite characters include the American engineer who volunteered to do social work in the Nicaraguan countryside but was executed by Contra paramilitaries armed by the U.S. Another is the CIA operative Alex who is some sort of sick conjurer whose main role, among others, is to sow disinformation and discord among opponents of US imperialist interests. He operates clandestinely through corporate fronts, flies all over the World in a jet, is well versed in high and popular culture, fights bureaucratic turf wars with his colleagues, and is a torturer and crazy to boot. Leon Trotsky, whose notes for his own novel are provided to us for a peek, also makes a special appearance. Trotsky outlines the main plot, invents his main characters, comments on his own writing, and in the end decides to discard his novel. Then there are the rejected Master’s thesis proposals of Elena Jordan, Greg’s ex-wife which are both ingenious and hilarious. And finally, the long but curious story of the Bulgarian Vasilev, aging revolutionary internationalist extraordinaire who survived the Bulgarian struggle, hobnobbed with Stalin, spent some time in the Gulag, became a firm supporter of Castro, and was involved in the Sandinista final offensive against the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza. Much of socially-oriented literature, both in prose and in poetry, that is considered to be sympathetic or directly supportive of revolutionary causes are perceived mostly as serious, grim and determined works with no place for black humor and playfulness. What Taibo II manages to create in Four Hands is a narrative that critiques the dominant social order while remaining entertaining all throughout. From Taibo’s Four Hands