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Loading... The Cotton-Pickers (1926)by B. Traven
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I agree with the other reviewer that the novel is structured quite oddly. The narrator, Gales, appears to have a sixth sense as he narrates his way through most of the situations by relating stories of the people he meets in his travels. How would he know? He wouldn't--it's just Traven's way of getting the message across, and the message here is: a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. The narrator travels around Mexico doing odd jobs and suffering bosses who like him or don't. He meets some characters on his way, telling their stories as he goes. The last few chapters are really beautifully written. Gales finds himself in charge of breaking a horse and herding 1,000 cattle to a port. It's a dreamy little interlude after the rest of the novel. Though I do think this Traven book is particularly odd, I still think it's worth reading, if only to get a feeling for Traven himself, as well as understand labor issues a little more deeply. no reviews | add a review
The background of The Cotton-Pickers, set in Mexico in the 1920s, is the struggle of the emerging trade unions to end the exploitation of hungry laborers. Gales, a laconic American drifter, turns his hand to anything for a meal and a flea-bitten bunk--he works on a cotton plantation, in an oil field, in a bakery, as a cowboy for a North American ranch owner. Opposing exploitation, he leaves behind him a trail of rebellion. Underlying this lively and funny tale of his adventures is a powerful study of social injustice, and most of all a testament to the strength of human courage and dignity one of Traven's favorite themes. "B. Traven is coming to be recognized as one of the narrative masters of the twentieth century."--New York Times Book Review. "Great storytellers often arise like Judaic just men to exemplify and rehearse the truth for their generation. The elusive B. Traven was just such a man."--Book World. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)833.912Literature German literature and literatures of related languages German fiction Modern period (1900-) 1900-1990 1900-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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SO, I read this anyway. & it was akin to "The Death Ship" in its sarcastic, philosophical, & subtle humour - BUT, the protaganist has a sortof 'easier' time of it & the Mexican Revolution is shown as being somewhat triumphant. It was a relief. I assume that it was historically accurate when it depicts greedy restaurant owners as being successfully forced into cooperation w/ unions BY THE POLICE! What a time that must've been!
Now, I've lumped this together w/ Tom Collins' great Australian cattle-driver novel "Such Is Life" by putting it on my "working-class-intellectuals" bookshelf. From me, that's an honor. Whether Traven's actual life trajectory deserves this or not I don't know. I've read sparse, & perhaps conflicting, bios about him. This bk's afterword claims:
"The mysterious B. Traven (1890-1969) was born in Chicago, spent his youth in Germany as an itinerant actor and revolutionary journalist, became a seaman on tramp steamers, settled in Mexico in the early 1920s, and began recording his experiences in novels and stories."
That rings 'true' - but then so do conflicting claims! Whatever the case, Traven writes like he's been there. Damn, he even makes reference to Baltimore row-homes! Making me wonder whether he'd ever been THERE. If he had, that perks my interest even more. To make Traven even more akin to Collins, there's even a cattle herding. It's all interesting, politically astute, sad, funny, & there's even some uplifting triumph for workers! &, unlike Collins, he wrote many bks! HOORAY FOR B. TRAVEN!
"The Cotton Pickers", by the by, was also called "DER WOBBLY", & was either Traven's 1st or 2nd novel. To make the plot even thicker, one supposedly unsubstantiated theory has it that Traven might've been Arthur Craven - the dadaist/boxer who's reputed to've disappeared off the coast of Mexico in a small boat. Wdn't THAT be a trip. ( )