Dragon's Teeth

This book stunned me. I chose to read it because I want to read all the Pulitzer Fiction award winners and this book was next in line.

Initially, I enjoyed the book for the quality of writing, yet I wondered what the book was actually about. Slowly, it's development began to move forward slowly revealing it's topic in much the way as landscape becomes more and more clear in the early hours of dawn, sharpening with the light from the rising sun as all becomes bathed in light.

Lanny Budd is a well-off American who has married a very rich American girl. They love one another dearly but politically are very different, which is important in the European world in which they live. Set in the time of the rise of National Socialism in Germany show more [read "Hitler'], we watch as Irma Budd, a devout capitalist, tries to support her husband's efforts to strengthen Socialism, but not go so far as Communism. In the book the two groups are referred to as Pink and Red, respectively. But as he watches, Lanny realizes the danger with which Hitler and his comrades threaten Germany. Moreover, he is greatly concerned about his sister's husband's family who are wealthy Jews in Germany. Get out, he tells them. Oh, no, they answer, we have strong friends in government. As Lanny watches the situation in Germany worsen, he begs them Get out now. But they rely on their friends in the government, unaware of the trap set and ready to spring on them.

But what struck me most, as I read this book, was the uncomfortable comparisons of the path "Hitlerites" took as they gained more and more power and the path the Tea Party in this country is taking. And how, in Germany, the ultimate power brokered to Hitler came from the wealthy businessmen and factory owners. How, in this country, the wealthy businessmen are pushing the same agendas in this country. To quote Lanny Budd, "They seek to create a nation of slaves." The Nazi's succeeded in changing Germany. Will the Tea Party succeed? The Germans never believed the Nazi changes could ever happen in a civilized nation. But it did. Will it happen here? It could. Because too many of us are so foolish as to believe it never could, and that is the only opening the politicians need. After all, it was the capitalists of Germany, and not the Socialists, who ultimately put Hitler in power. show less

Summary: As Irma’s fortune wanes, Lanny uses his art dealings both for income and to secure release of the Robins, who are swept up in the anti-Semitism of pre-war Nazi Germany.

This is the third of eleven books Upton Sinclair wrote around young, well-connected Lanny Budd, set in the years between the two wars and World War 2. In my review of book #2, I noted a Matthew Arnold quote about “Wandering between two worlds, one dead,/The other powerless to be born.” and hoping the wandering would end with this book. If anything, Lanny and Irma’s wanderings around Europe seem more pronounced with yacht trips and migrations from Bienvenu on the Riviera to Paris, Berlin, and Munich.

If there is a plot line, it revolves around the Robin show more family, a Jewish financier and his sons, Hansi and Freddi and their spouses. Hansi and Freddi were swept up into Lanny’s “pink” socialism, while Johannes had cultivated a business relationship with Lanny’s father, a gun manufacturer. Johannes thinks his affluence protects him and his family. It turned out otherwise. Lanny negotiates the family’s freedom with Hermann Goring, at the cost of the Robin fortune. But Freddi is left behind, and eventually reported in Dachau. Much of the story revolves Lanny’s efforts to get him out of Germany.

Under his trade as an art dealer, he goes in and out of Germany, holding shows of his step father, Marcel Detaze’s paintings. He mutes his socialism and cultivates ties with Goebbels, Goring, and even Hitler, who he meets twice. Throughout, the question is really who is using who, but a significant part of the narrative is an expose’ of the growing persecution of the Jews, the “disappearings,” and the ambitions of the Fuhrer.

Lanny and Irma make a glamour couple with her fortune and his looks, though that fortune is “declining” due to the crash of the market. In this book, one senses increasing tension between the daughter of capitalists and the socialist Lanny. Each indulge to a point the wishes of others, but Lanny’s efforts to rescue his Jewish, socialist friends at the risk of his life clearly strains the relationship as Irma sees more clearly who she married, and Lanny wrestles with the circuits around Europe, seeing and being seen. Irma wants to host a salon. Lanny wants to find some greater purpose, preferably resisting the rising Nazi threat, whose measure he has accurately taken.

This book won a Pulitzer in 1943. I personally wonder what this says about other published works of that year. Most of the action and excitement happens in the last 100 pages of a 600 page book. The rest is hundreds of pages of wanderings around Europe whose main purpose is to show Western society’s last flurry’s as Nazism arose–the dissolution of the French government against the backdrop of a German society buying order and prosperity at the cost of the suppression of the Jews and the rise of tyranny. I do think Sinclair could have cut at least 200 pages out of this book without harm either to the plot or Sinclair’s polemic purposes. show less

These books are so great, history lessons and exciting stories all in one. Must say, not a big fan of Irma, I wonder if the two of those kids are gonna make it. Also, read the lion’s share of this in isolation recovering from COVID.

Reason read: Pulitzer winner 1943, TIOLI
An American in Germany fights against the Nazi Terror. A "saga of the 20th century world history". There really is nothing new under the sun. Reading this is like reading something than could be occuring now. Racism is one of the themes so that is not a new topic. It is promoting "pink" or socialism and opposed to jingoism (extreme patriotism, for of aggression". "...loud voices--economic determinism. The nearer the country to crisis the more noise its intellectuals made." It was an interesting book, I guess a part of a series. I won't read further. I think it was a bit long and definitely a promotion of socialism over capitalism. The author's bias was obvious.

I read this as a library book. For a GR rating, I selected, in error, the edition that broke it into two volumes. So now I am rewriting my review.
This was a powerful book, about the rise and power of the Nazis.
I got a lot out of reading it, although not in the sense of great pleasure. Strong emotion and a taste of the evil that was Hitler. I find it hard to understand those who followed him willingly. It's a book that is truly unforgettable.

This novel was outstanding and introduced me to Upton Sinclair's 11 volume Lanny Budd series. Dragon's Teeth is the 3rd book of the series and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1942. Lanny Budd is a 30-something rich American living in Europe in the early 1930's. The plot revolves around the rise of Hitler in Germany and the beginning of Jewish persecution and the competing forces of socialism, facism, communism and capitalism. Lanny's sister's husband, Freddi Robbin is Jewish and Freddi's family has close connections to the Budds and their struggles in Europe create a riveting plot within the larger historical context.

553. Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (read 13 Sep 1958) (Pulitzer fiction prize for 1943) This was the sequel to Between Two Worlds. which I read right before I read this. I found both books enjoyable books to read.