Communism: A Love Story

by Jeff Sparrow

'What I remember most about the communists is their passion... ' For more than seventy years, idealists and rebels of all stripes saw in the Communist Party the best hope for a world remade. Who were the people who dedicated themselves to that beautiful dream? How did they experience its shimmering promise - and cope with its shattering collapse? This is the story of Guido Baracchi, the playboy and dilettante who experienced communism at its best - and its very worst. His love affair with Marxism took him from his father's astronomical observatory to the rough halls of the legendary Wobblies. He debated Bob Menzies at the University of Melbourne; he wooed novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard on a luxury ocean liner; he belonged to illegal organisations in two world wars. The Sun dubbed him 'Melbourne's Lenin' , and ASIO classified him 'a person of bad moral character and violent and unstable political views' . From Weimar Germany to Stalin's Russia, from Melbourne's Pentridge gaol to the bohemian colony of Montsalvat, Baracchi entwined political intrigue with a series of tempestuous romances with poets, artists and playwrights. Yet communism remained his real love and communism broke his heart - in a betrayal that still resonates in the political choices available today.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Australia, Politics

272 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Writer, broadcaster, nogoodnik.

Reviews

[Q · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually picked up this book as oblique research into the race politics of left and labour movements in Australia 1900-1950 but of course my little red heart was totally charmed. The combination of left radicalism, saucy gossip and thorough historical research is a winner. And I've always liked Sparrow's style. But mainly I am a total sucker for a grand ideology - there is no more romantic tragedy than that of idealism betrayed - gosh.

[Velvetink]

is a biography of the radical intellectual Guido Baracchi, a founder of the Communist Party of Australia. The book traces Baracchi's political career from his support for the Industrial Workers of the World to his association with the Trotskyist Fourth International; it also examines his turbulent personal life and his relationships with writers such as Katharine Susannah Prichard, Lesbia Harford and Betty Roland. It was shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Award.

[Peter Dickerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved Communism A Love Story. This book is about the life of famous Australian Communist Guido Barrachi. Jeff Sparrow has done such a wonderful job of describing the passion, the romance and the treachery of Communist world and Australian politics in the 20th Century.

Australia is a different place now. The Labor Party now stands for nothing. There are no Communists. There are very few Socialists that actually know anything about Socialism. Australia used to be the best country in the world. Everything has changed.

A wonderful book about a great Communist and a true intellectual. Mr Barrachi is Trotskyiest in his stature.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeff Sparrow’s book centres on Guido Baracchi, a wealthy Melbourne political activist and Communist, described by historian Stuart Macinture as “the knight errant of Australian radicalism…a man of considerable wealth and emotional spontaneity, utterly without guile or worldly ambition, of luminous innocence and limitless self-centredness” (cited on p. 5).

But this is a story not just of one man, but of an intellectual milieu, over several decades.

This book brought me everything that I like most about biography: a clear and chronological narrative of events; rich context to make sense of them; depiction of a complex social network around the subject; an appraisal of emotional entanglements, and most importantly, a curiosity about the subject that acknowledges foibles, complexities and inexplicabilities. All this, written with sensitivity and insightfulness- an excellent biography!

For my complete review, please visit
https://residentjudge.com/2020/03/22/...

[taramaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about a little known Australian Communist. Filled with lots of humour and drama - Sparrow is an excellent writer.

[Joey Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff writes really well, so that this does indeed read like a novel, as the puff quote promises.

I learnt a whole heap about the Communist party through this. I really had no idea how the Soviet Union controlled what happened in Australia under Stalin. Terrifying.

And hey, who can resist reading about a charming young radical who nobody could resist? His many romances were almost as interesting as thinking about a time when people met in endless study groups really thinking they were about to overthrow capitalism. sigh.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A marvellous story of the life of one of Australia's most remarkable radicals of the 20th century. Sparrow is compelling.