Puuvillanoppijad

by B. Traven, Arnold Tulik (Translator)

Gales, ein mittellos durch die Welt trampender Gelegenheitsarbeiter, erzählt in Ich-Form seine Erlebnisse als Baumwollpflücker, Bäcker und Viehtreiber im sozial rückständigen Mexiko der frühen dreissiger Jahre. Der packende Roman, der unverkennbare autographische Züge enthält, nimmt Partei für die ewig Geprellten und Geschundenen, er appelliert an das Gewissen, um damit den Boden für eine gerechtere Gesellschaftsordnung vorzubereiten...

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Classics, Novels, Historical Fiction, German Literature

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

B. Traven was the pen name of a German novelist, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. A rare certainty is that B. Traven lived much of his life in Mexico, where the majority of his fiction is also set—including his best-known work, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927), which was adapted as the Academy Award nominated film of the same name in 1948.
Virtually every detail of Traven's life has been disputed and hotly debated. There were many hypotheses on the true identity of B. Traven, some of them wildly fantastic. Most agree, that Traven was Ret Marut, a German stage actor and anarchist, who supposedly left Europe for Mexico around 1924. There are also reasons to believe that Marut/Traven's real name was Otto Feige and that he was born in Schwiebus in Brandenburg, modern day Świebodzin in Poland. B. Traven in Mexico is also connected with Berick Traven Torsvan and Hal Croves, both of whom appeared and acted in different periods of the writer's life. Both, however, denied being Traven and claimed that they were his literary agents only, representing him in contacts with his publishers.
B. Traven is the author of twelve novels, one book of reportage and several short stories, in which the sensational and adventure subjects combine with a critical attitude towards capitalism, betraying the socialist and even anarchist sympathies of the writer. B. Traven's best known works include the novels The Death Ship from 1926 and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre from 1927, in 1948 filmed by John Huston, and the so-called Jungle Novels, also known as the Caoba cyclus (from the Spanish word caoba, meaning mahogany), a group of six novels (including The Carreta, Government), published in the years 1930-1939, set among Mexican Indians just before and during the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century. B. Traven's novels and short stories became very popular as early as the interwar period and retained this popularity after the war; they were also translated into many languages. Most of B. Traven's books were published in German first and their English editions appeared later; nevertheless the author always claimed that the English versions were the original ones and that the German versions were only their translations. This claim is not taken seriously.

Reviews

[Meltem Sağlam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kitap, sanki üç ayrı öyküden oluşan, ancak kahramanları ve geçişliliği ile roman oluşturan bir anlatı.

Okuduğum diğer öykü kitabında (Gece Ziyaretçisi) ve romanda (Kanlı Oyun) olduğu gibi Latin Amerika sömürge dönemi sıkıntılarını ve özellikle proletarya aydınlanmasını konu alıyor. Irkçı ve ayrımcı düşüncelerin ve davranışların irdelendiği bölümler de bulunuyor.

Kitabın son bölümü, Gece Ziyaretçisi kitabında yer alan bir öyküden oluşuyor. Ancak burada öyküye bir ara bölüm de eklenmiş.

Çok akıcı, etkileyici bir anlatım. Çok beğendim.

“... Adalet sevgisinden, yoksul ve ezilenlere yardım etme isteği yüzünden devrimci oldum. Yoksunluk ve açlık kadar haksızlığı ve zulmü görmek de devrimi yaratır...”, sf; 87.

“... Eninde sonunda beyazdık biz ve diğer beyazların Amerikalıların, İngilizlerin, İspanyolların, Fransızların ve tüm diğerlerinin gözünde öyle kalabilmek için, iyi ücret uğruna fırındaki kölelikten kurtulamazdık. Soylu olmamanın getirdiği zorluklar, hele beyazların kalabalık yerli nüfusun içinde çok küçük bir azınlık oluşturduğu tropikal ülkelerde çok daha önem kazanıyordu...”,sf; 155.

“... Namusun ayakta kalabilmesi için açlıktan ölmemek gerek, çünkü namus kavramı her gün kaç öğün yemek yediğine, kaç öğün yemek istediğine ve kaç öğün yemediğine bağlıdır. Üç ayrı namus anlayışı ve çeşidi olmasının nedeni de budur. ...”, sf; 176.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh.. What a pleasure it is to give this bk a good review! The 1st bk I read of Traven's was probably "The Death Ship" - wch details the slow decay of a sailor's life as a result of facets of 'modern' life that the author & I abhor in common - like nationalistic borders & parasitic capitalism (is there any other kind?). I loved "The Death Ship" but it started out humorous & turned increasingly grim as the bk made its point clearer & clearer. Then I think I read 2 of the 6 "Jungle Novels" wch, according to a short description in the back of this bk, "describe the conditions of peonage and debt slavery under which the Indians suffered in Díaz's time." [ie: before the Mexican Revolution] These were extremely insightful political novels, as was "The Death Ship", & also GRIM - almost 'unbearable'. As such, even though I considered Traven to be a great political writer, I hesitated to read more - my mood is often too depressing as is.

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.

[Ulrike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nach dem Totenschiff war es das zweite Werk des Autors, das mich begeistern konnte, zumindest in einigen Teilen. Das Buch steht aus zwei Kapiteln oder auch zwei zusammenhängenden Kurzgeschichten.
Die erste Geschichte trägt den Titel des Buches und konnte mich sehr begeistern. Die Art wie der Autor schreibt passt einfach für mich, ebenso wie der ab und zu durchklingende Humor in seinen Schilderungen. Es wird nichts beschönigt und und die schlimmen Umstände und Ungerechtigkeiten beschrieben und trotzdem schafft B.Traven keinen schwergewichtigen oder leidigen Tonfall anzuschlagen.
Obwohl der Autor auch selbst einiges wertet, hat man als Leserin doch noch genug zu tun die Dinge für sich einzuordnen. Gegen Ende des Geschichte gibt es sogar einen Kriminalfall zu lösen.
Die zweite, sehr viel längere Geschichte, schließt zeitlich an die erste an und behandelt, trotz des gleichen Protagonisten, nun andere, meist ebenso schlecht bezahlte Berufe. Hier wirkt die Geschichte trotz fortlaufender Erzählung weniger aus einem Guss und eher anektotenhaft und in seinen Schilderungen der Kellner, Bäcker und Huren etwas oberlehrerhaft ohne die jeweiligen Personen aber moralisch zu verdammen. Durch die ganzen Schilderungen zieht sich der Text auch etwas und in dieser Geschichte zeigt sich auch sehr stark die politische Weltsicht des Protagonisten, was in der ersten Geschichte auch vernehmbar war, aber nicht so stark im Vordergrund stand.
Trotzdem gibt es hier, vor allem gegen Ende hin und in der eingeschobenen Geschichte zu der Olga aus Charlottenburg, auch wieder Abschnitte die mir vom Autor sehr gut gefallen haben, was mich dann auch bewogen hat dem ganzen Buch doch noch 4 Sterne zu geben.

[Corto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is kind of a tough one for me to review. There was no plot. There were parts of this novel that were plodding. There were parts of this novel that were, more or less, just an outward polemic on the harsh nature of the relationship between people and capitalism. However...there were parts of this novel that were pure literary brilliance - small, well written anecdotes and episodes that left me intrigued and wanting more. So...I give it 4/5. Not as good as "The Death Ship", but I'm not dissuaded from reading more of his work.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of sketches, a slice of life south of the border on subsistence and less than subsistence wages, from cotton-picking to baking to a cattle drive...I've never read anything like this. It feels entirely autobiographical, a white man and Wobbly down and out and willing to do anything to keep body and soul together, self-reflective enough on race and class and labour to make it good rather than unbearable.

[Ulises · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like about his books is the honesty in which he portrays characters, never exaggerating nor lacking any necessary details. Sentimental where it has to bee and sometimes raw where it is needed.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a newfound respect for... EGGS!

[MARgOT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pesueht proletaarne kirjandus, ent haarav olustikukirjelduse, lobeda jutustamislaadi ja vähemalt kahe meeldejääva naiskarakteri poolest.

Vanduda oskas missis Pratt, nii et tõeline rõõm oli teda kuulata. Iga teist sõna saatsid "son of a bitch", "bastard", "f-ing injun", "f-yeself", ning muud taolised ilusad ütlemised. Säärases rantšos ollakse ju neetult üksi, ja ööd on pikad. Isegi kesksuvel valitseb juba kella seitsme ajal pilkane pimedus, kun siin videvik puudub. Ja ega saanud missis Prattile süüks panna, et ta elas nii intensiivselt, kui seda veiserantšos olemine ainult võimaldas. Kuidas peab säärane õnnetu naine kulutama oma energia, mis tal ülearusena alles jääb, kuna ta ei saa hommikust õhtuni naabritega lobiseda ja keelt peksta nagu külas või linnas? Ta vannub nagu vana klipri tüürimees. Ja kõik on talle "hoorapojad" – tema mees, mina, indiaanlased, kohvitassi kukkunud kärbes, indiaanitarist köögitüdruk, sõrm, millesse ta lõikas, kana, kes lauale lendab ja supitirina ümber ajab, tema hobune, kes sõidab aeglaselt, noh, lühidalt: hoorapoeg on iga elus ja elutu objekt taeva ja maakera tsentri vahel.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was enthralled with novel when I first read it in 1970, marveling that the hard life of Gales and his poor and itinerant mates could be represented with such equanimity, that for many poverty and hard work were just facts of life that didn’t bear over-thinking or pathos. Also marvelous in Gale’s straightforward presentation of his hardships was a laid-back exuberance, which enabled him to withstand any set of present circumstances with the thought that he could move on and attempt something else.

The desultory amble up to the ranch where Gales and his group will serve as hired hands, picking cotton, is laconic and meandering, much as were the opening chapters in The Treasure Sierra Madre, where Dobbs is shown living a semi-squalid life in Veracruz, scrounging pesos through begging and odd jobs. Even the mystery surrounding the death of one of the workers causes some temporary anxiety but no melodramatics, and Gales receives from his mate a perfectly sensible account of the “murder,” which in fact had been only a diversion gone wrong.

The longest third of the book is Gale’s stint as a baker’s assistant, and it is filled with his account of how waiters unionized (with even tacit collaboration from the police), which entails a lengthy, mildly droll showdown with the restaurant/bakery owner, who finally comes to understand just how much profit he must divert to comply with the union. While the waiters prove successful, Gales laconically notes that he and the other baker assistants still work like dogs.

Leaving the bakery, Gales lucks into a stint as cattle driver, which period was my fondest recollection of the novel from my previous reading. I was disconcerted to see that it only entailed about 25 of the novel’s 200 or so pages, but it was sufficient to show Gales at his most pragmatic, using good sense and empathy to successfully bluff his way through the details and practicalities of a cattle drive (which includes allowing for attrition of the herd due to deaths and rustling) without having had any prior experience. Gales quickly susses what is needed and he allows neither fear/doubt nor egoism to get the better of him.

Traven’s common-man wobblyism is given metaphoric expression in this cattle driving section, as Gales takes on the role of “owner” to deal with his cattle/workers in a practical and sympathetic way, suggesting that owners need a working man’s perspective/sensibility to retain happy workers and better profit.

[Benjamin Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few months ago I went to an exhibition called B. TRAVEN in the "Museo de Arte Moderno" in Mexico city, and I found it very interesting because although I had heard about this writer, I had never read any of his books, and had no idea about the mysterious and exciting life he led.
After this exhibition, I decided to read this, his first novel and was very pleased with the narrative and intrigued to discover, a foreigner’s point of view of the situation of my own country, after the Mexican Revolution.
Although Traven was German and he chose to make his main character also a foreigner, he chose instead to make him an American sailor named Gerarld Gales, who is a hardworking and honest man in search for opportunities and work in remote parts of Mexico.
He and other fellow workers have to battle the injustices of capitalism, the marked differences in social classes and the difficulties that were (and still are) an inherent part of the life of a poor worker in Mexico in the 20’s.
If you are looking for a shocking story with an elaborate plot this is not the book for you, but if you want a realistic and beautifully narrated story about working class people, you will not be disappointed.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about a rambling man, back in B. Traven's old Mexican stomping grounds. This one's not as depressing as The Death Ship. Combines the aimlessness of Factotum with social commentary like Conrad or Sinclair. Not quite as good as Sierra Madre. The cattle drive at the end was a pretty good part but felt a little tacked-on. Traven tells more stories per page than any other writer--every other line is a new story. Even minor characters get the full treatment.
This is a quick read that found me at a library paperback sale. Definitely worth a look if you are a Traven fan.
Someone somewhere knows who this guy was. I guess it matters less and less who he was as time goes by, but his true identity is turning out to be one of the most enduring literary mysteries.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traven structures his novels in this odd way. It's as if he goes from one tall tale to the next. This was is connected by labor and union issues, going from one job to the next. It doesn't build like a personality-driven novel; more like Brecht. Well worth it.

[Charles Baudelaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

MARXIST RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

[David Partikian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally entitled The Wobbly, The Cotton-Pickers (Die Baumwollplücker in the original German) is enigmatic B. Traven’s first novel. The Wobbly is a more fitting title since Gerald Gales, the protagonist in The Death Ship and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre—and most likely a stand-in for the real “B. Traven”—only works as a cotton picker early in a novel in which the protagonist also works as a baker’s assistant, an oil driller, and-- most successfully—as a cattle driver. The conditions are harsh and bosses unlikeable in most of these jobs, yet Gales is not a union organizer, though he does clearly sympathize with the worker. Working conditions in post-revolutionary Mexico are front and center with the plight of the penurious workers, but a step below a slave, emphasized sympathetically throughout the narration. Hence the original title.

Those looking for clues as to B. Traven’s life (B. Traven of course being a pseudonym for Ret Marut, of whom very little is known during the decade following WWI) may find clues in The Cotton-Pickers:

The Americans British and Spaniards did not consider us their equals. To them we were still only filthy scum, the scum that sticks to the heels of prosperous whites and follows them around the world, and this we remained.
--The Cotton-Pickers pg. 128.

Thus, Gerald Gales is almost certainly German, especially since the original edition was in German. And—to be clear—Gerald Gales was certainly not American, as emphasized above, like Humphrey Bogart in the timeless classic Hollywood film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. And while the typical B. Traven protagonist is a nationless pauper reduced to hard labor in various occupations, The Cotton-Pickers has an adventurous feel of a happy-go-lucky free-spirit in a foreign land that reads like a proto-Beat manifesto. However, instead of relatively affluent Americans heading south of the border to live unencumbered of the stifling spirit of post-World War II conformist America (and exploiting the native population for sex) we have the penniless or peso-less narrator jumping from one odd job to the next describing the exploitative capitalist system in each one, at least until he stumbles on skilled work as a cattle driver; the novel has the same Beat spirit as early chapters of Kenneth Rexroth’s autobiography, but takes place south of the Rio Grande rather than while traversing the American West; in this sense, The Cotton-Pickers is indeed an Ur-Beat text, with the later more verbose Beats attempting to blend pithy Travenesque adventures with rhapsodic Thomas Wolfe descriptions. All the Beat elements are present: the aimless rambling, the working to survive, the visits to brothels, and the inevitable misogyny: “It’s unwise to go drinking with married men. It never does any good. They’re a race apart.” (pg. 173).

Those interested in B. Traven and his life will glean many clues as to what he was up to in the early 1920’s, if it is not adequately chronicled in Karl Guthke’s B. Traven: The Life Behind the Legends. Readers interested in the Beats can experience life in the wilds of Mexico from a foreigner’s perspective years before Kerouac, Burroughs and Cassidy ventured to Mexico City to frolic and drink. Those interested in 20th Century labor history and labor agitators, will find the anecdotes in The Cotton-Pickers indispensable. However, if one is to only read one of the early B. Traven novels, this one is the most humdrum.

[Feargal McGovern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being set in Mexico during the revolution, in the 1920s following the russian revolution. Funnily enough there isnt actually a lot of cotton picking in the book! the chapters on the waiters strike gives a great a description of what is meant by 'workers hegemony.

During the strike, scabs are violently assualted with the police refusing to intervene, to the point that scabs realise for the sake of their own physical safety they quit scabbing and join the union - and are rewarded immediately for having done so.
Further when the boss is finally broken, it is the workers who renegotiate the new terms of employment, including not just raises in salary, but also determining when and at what frequency they will be paid, meal allowances, and compensation for having provoked the strike.
Not only is the boss forced to accept the conditions imposed upon him, but even the states apparatus of repression (the police), dare not intervene on the side of the boss for fear of provoking an even greater an wide spread expression of class militancy (in the form of solidarity strikes in other businesses and industries).
Of course, knowing the ultimate history of the Mexican revolution, that it didnt involve the workers seizure of state power, there is also an implicit lesson in the consequences of the failure to push workers hegemony further. That is, if the expression of workers hegemony is simply content with simply negotiating better wages and conditions, rather than the complete seizure of private property (particularly that of industrial production), it is little more than a renogition of the terms of exploitation of the working class by the bourgiose. The bourgoise are left with power to later reverse all that the working class gained, impose counter revolution and new brutal forms of exploitation and repression.
None the less, it is a brilliant book I absolutely devoured it. It made me feel all the more motivated to see what our class can achieve when we are conscious of our position in capitalist society and act collectively to overturn it, not the least in order to reclaim what we have created.
On top of that, feel very proud to be a part of the working class - the most progressive social class to have ever existed in history of humanity - a class that has no nation, but has advanced the condition of humanity through our militancy in all nations - irrespective of race, gender or sexuality (infact there is a great bit laying into the bourgoise moralism around the shaming and stigmitasion of sex work and workers which i thought was brilliant as well!)
TLDR:
Absolutely a must read for anyone who believes that a better world depend on the seizure of political and economic power by the working class - and would like a little bit of taste of when workers mexico gave a crack of constructing workers hegemony during the mexican revolution of the 1920s

[Budge Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1925 in serial form, in German - and my instinctive response in 2025 is, "What's changed?" It's a slice of the life of an itinerant labourer in Mexico, working in cotton fields, oil fields, bakery, working in any job available which will put food in his belly for another day or week - 'Traven' seems to have been the nom de plume of an exiled German Anarchist / Marxist who worked in Mexico and who was active in promoting the idea of unionising labour to secure decent pay and working conditions for workers, in securing dignity for the working class rather than their brutalisation and marginalisation by police and politicians and their abuse by employers.
And reading the book in 2025, with Trump looking down his snout at anyone not capable of giving him a $400 million dollar aircraft while his minions look to evict labourers from the USA ... well, what has changed? Capitalism still keeps the vast majority of the world trapped in subservience to the interests of a self-indulgent capitalist class. I wonder when will we ever learn.
Interesting storyline, easy to read - but a difficult lesson for the world to learn.

[Adam Bregman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title, the illustration on the front and the description on back are all a bit off. The strangely organized narrative follows Gales, an American vagabond in Mexico in the 1920s first picking cotton, then working in a bakery, where a union has been organized by the waiters, and then as cowboy in charge of a cattle run, also the subject of a B. Traven short story. He does not work in an oilfield as mentioned on the back cover. The front cover looks Grapes of Wrath and there is a little of that in all of B. Traven's work. (He is believed to have been a German anarchist writing under a surname.) Despite covering a worker's toil in dingy conditions, it's almost light compared to The Death Ship. Everything I've ever read by B. Traven is worthy, though The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Death Ship should be on your reading list ahead of this early work.

[Erdem Yılmaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pamuk İşçileri (1926)
B.Traven (1882-1969, 87y)

https://youtu.be/J2i493cVL5c?si=KRGP7...

B.Traven ilginç biri.. büyük bilinmezliklerle dolu bir karakter.. kimliğin ayrıntıları kendi yazdığı mirasında bile net olmayıp.. öldükten sonra karısı tarafından ortaya çıkartılıyor.

Yazarın da ifade ettiği gibi.. ‘sonsuz yaz ülkesi Meksika’ dayız.. ‘anlatılamayacak kadar güzel.. masalların, türkülerin, binlerce yılların ülkesi Meksika!’

Kahramanımız Gerard Gales, pamuk toplama işi, petrol işçiliği, fırında pastacılık ve sığır taşıma işlerinde bulunuyor ve biz de akıcı dili sayesinde.. bu birbirinden çokça değişik alanlarda adeta ona eşlik ediyoruz..
..burada aç kalmak istemiyorsanız her şeyi yapabilmelisiniz.. diyor yazar..

Traven’in üslubu çok değişik ve ilginç.. diğer kitapları da tabii ki okunacak.. hepimize öneririm.

[Olga Santillán · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soy fan de este autor desde hace mucho gracias a mi papá, este es un libro poco conocido del autor, creo que el primero. Como los demás que he leído de él, retrata la vida de un México post revolucionario, puedes reconocer características del pueblo mexicano que han trascendido las décadas, también se puede conocer más sobre el día a día de las personas comunes de esa época. Un México en el que si bien no todo era perfecto, al menos todavía tenía un vínculo con la naturaleza y las raíces de los ancestros nativos de este país.

[Marco Subias · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous book about living hard in poverty not long after the Mexican Revolution. The main character does everything he can to avoid unemployment and works at picking cotton, driving cattle, menial kitchen labor, and other tough, marginal jobs.

This is a great look at an earlier period of history, and at Mexico during that time. Traven employs simple yet often somehow elegant language which is a pleasure to read. I wish more people knew his work.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traven deserves to be as well-known as Steinbeck, Kafka and London. This is another excellent book about a guy doing his best to survive in post-war (WW1) Mexico. It's funny, it's insightful, and, like Sierra Madre and Death Ship, it's both heroic and tragic.

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Farbig, aber auch nicht umwerfend spannend. Eigentlich eher eine Sammlung von Geschichten oder Szenen. Da sind mir die blassen Erinnerungen an die alte Vorabendserie lieber. 7/10

[Apina_lukee_kirjoja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable, easy-to-read book about the misery of the working classes; and the power of workers uniting. Charming.

[Patrick Baldauf · Rating 4 out of 5]

classic Traven, he points at the struggle of the poor using clear and drastic language

[kaiky]

que narrador curiosão

[Dennieh · Rating 5 out of 5]

In een moordtempo verteld en met genoeg verhalen voor drie romans bij elkaar.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.[return][return]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.

Merged review:

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.returnreturnThough 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.

[Almir Olovcic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in 1927, this book (at least for me) is prediction of Great depression 2 years after and describes fight of ordinary man against capitalism. Great book that can also be read as an political pamphlet which stands for a rights of ordinary people, unemployed, poor, union formations, etc. Little is known about B.Traven, but reading his books it can easily be imagined that he was a revolutionary and libertarian who fought (through his works and probably personally involving) against everything that capitalism and all kind of political oppression were guilty for. Thumbs up for this great book!

[David Koblos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting! Mexico just after the revolution from the point of view of a foreign drifter / laborer, illustrating life as he works different jobs in a variety of settings. The tone is very socialistic, though not unreasonably so. At times he explains the reasonings of his bosses, expands on the workings of the labor unions, and even adopts a critical stance toward his fellow laborers. His true neutrality, however, is best expressed by his accepting each one of his fellow humans purely the way they are.

[Aleksandar Trapara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how the book is not exactly about cotton pickers and how it takes unpredictable turns. It kind of reminded me of that unconnected part in Sierra Madre near the beginning when the main protagonist went to work on an oil platform, but then Traven abruptly changed his mind about the course of the story and sent him back home. I read the last part as a social allegory. But maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe it's only about cows. Nevertheless, you learn a lot from it.