The Final Diary: 1961-1972.

by Ned Rorem

Joe Mondragon, a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble, slammed his battered pickup to a stop, tugged on his gumboots, and marched into the arid patch of ground. Carefully (and also illegally), he tapped into the main irrigation channel. And so began-though few knew it at the time-the Milagro beanfield war. But like everything else in the dirt-poor town of Milagro, it would be a patchwork war, fought more by tactical retreats than by battlefield victories. Gradually, the small farmers and sheepmen begin to rally to Joe's beanfield as the symbol of their lost rights and their lost lands. And downstate in the capital, the Anglo water barons and power brokers huddle in urgent conference, intent on destroying that symbol before it destroys their multimillion-dollar land-development schemes. The tale of Milagro's rising is wildly comic and lovingly ter, a vivid portrayal of a town that, half-stumbling and partly prodded, gropes its way toward its own stubborn salvation.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

445 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1974

About the author

Ned Rorem (born October 23, 1923) is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.

Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana and received his early education in Chicago at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the American Conservatory of Music and then Northwestern University. Later, Rorem moved on to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and finally the Juilliard School in New York City.

In 1966 he published The Paris Diary of Ned Rorem, which, with his later diaries, has brought him some notoriety, as he is honest about his and others' sexuality, describing his relationships with Leonard Bernstein, Noël Coward, Samuel Barber, and Virgil Thomson, and outing several others[vague] (Aldrich and Wotherspoon, eds., 2001). Rorem has written extensively about music as well. These essays are collected in anthologies such as Setting the Tone, Music From the Inside Out, and Music and People. His prose is much admired, not least for its barbed observations about such prominent musicians as Pierre Boulez. Rorem has composed in a chromatic tonal idiom throughout his career, and he is not hesitant to attack the orthodoxies of the avant-garde.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just to be clear: This is my review of The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols. Idon't know how it got attached to "The Final Diary: 1961-1972" by Ned Rorem.

2021 reread: Not as good as I remembered -- but still first rate, if long-winded. It hasn't aged well (or my memories of my long-ago first read were too rosy). Dan Porter's review is fair and nicely-done: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Read that first, though I liked it more than he did. Reactions to the novel differ, and have since its first publication. Nicholls captured the flavor of northern New Mexico really well. And the hapless Vista volunteer from New Jersey redeemed himself in the coda! Sweet. Que Viva Snuffy Ledoux! Overall, 2.5 stars, rounded up.

In place of an actual review, here are some personal memories and background about the area. I first visited Taos in Junior High (I grew up in Oklahoma), and have visited periodically ever since, including living near Taos for about 5 years, and before that, in Santa Fe for another 5. We both love the area and still go back, and I miss northern New Mexico -- especially the food! We even had a nodding acquaintance with the author while living in Taos! Which is quite a literary town. Northern NM has been a big draw for artists and tourists for 150 years or more. I think most of the local people have benefited from the visitors and new residents, but there are still resentments, and it's still a poor area. The major water project planned (central to the novel) was defeated by local opposition: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/cul... (which has a LOT of background info for the book and area. Maybe more than you will want to read?). Hispanic people have a lot more political power in NM now than 50 years ago. The financial gap is smaller now, but still large.

"Chamisaville" in the novel is Taos itself. Milagro or Miracle Valley is a composite of several of the outlying Hispanic villages in the Taos Valley. The large mine mentioned is the Questa Molybdenum Mine, near the town of Questa, 40 minutes north, still a major employer. Midnight Mountain is Taos Mtn, a part of the Sangre de Cristo range. The movie version was filmed in Truchas, still a very small town, an hour's drive south of Taos.

[Christine Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! That was a long one! One of those massive, epic-style novels that we used to see so much of in the 1970s and 1980s. I feel like I've been living in the fictional town of Milagro, New Mexico for the last month - the time it has taken me to finish this!

I visited New Mexico last summer and loved everything about it! This author did such a great job with setting that I was immediately transported back through his vivid descriptions. I also loved the quirky, multi-layered characters of the town. Powerful storyline, too - kept it moving.

The only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars is that there were just TOO MANY of those quirky, multi-layered characters! There were about 65 names mentioned and seriously, about 30 that the reader had to really remember because they were part of all the events and plot action. It was totally unnecessary, and the author's editor should have jumped on that right away. Delete, delete, delete.

I suppose the last thing to mention is that it was pretty political. Little farmer guy "good" vs. big corporate guy "bad". I thought there was balance and that it was portrayed fairly, and I didn't think it was too heavy-handed for either side, though I've heard people argue that it was. You read and decide! I thoroughly enjoyed it and would like to see the movie now.

[Googz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to say this was my step-grandfather Bill Macabe's favorite novel. Or if it wasn't, it was his favorite movie. In any case I had two copies of it at one point, thanks to him. I don't remember how or where or to whom I got rid of the other, but I'm glad I kept the one. The book isn't exactly perfect, and for a book whose title is of the form "The...War" you don't exactly see a lot of battlefield action (so-called or otherwise). But that is to subtract none whatsoever from the beauty and whimsy of a richly-built, colorfully-charactered novel that was an absolute joy to read almost every single word of. I wish I'd taken a quick note every time a character was introduced because some of them (the bureaucrats in the state capital, and their allies, in particular--though perhaps that was partially the point) either blended together or otherwise I couldn't keep track of them. But when it counted, when it was really important for you to know who a character was and what they were doing, Nichols made sure you knew, by virtue of epithet or other reminder. I should say, at no point did I feel confused, at least no more confused than I believe I was meant to feel.

I had seen and loved the movie a coupla times over the years, but never recently. I know Bill liked it a lot. I recently got the Blu-Ray for Xmas but decided to read the book before I watched it again. Mostly I have forgotten who played whom but I admit I did picture Daniel Stern as Herbie Goldfarb and John Heard as Charlie Bloom. I'm excited to pop it in soon and see how all the others were characterized and who played them.

A really satisfying book to read, to be reading, and to have read; one that, in future years, I could see myself reading again. High recommendation!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I am glad it was in the viewpoint of the people and showed it was the rich and the government who make ghost towns and screw over the little people. I am from a small poor ag town so totally side with the people. How they can just slowly get screwed out of land and water rights and rights to graze their animals and grow crops while the rich and powerful can come in and bulldoze a national forest for their cattle demonstrates how the American dream has been butchered. Though it is over 50 years old it is so apparent today.
But for some reason this book took me months to read....lol. I enjoyed the writing and all the side stories and backstories but for some reason only read a few pages at a time. Be prepared to fully meet new characters throughout though not all of them will play a huge roll lol!
Excellent work in giving a voice to what we consider the lower class but really are just families wanting to survive and wanting peace.

[Susan Eubank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here are the questions we discussed at the Reading the Western Landscape Book Club at the Arboretum Library of the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden on April 1, 2015.

• This novel is often referred to as “comic.” Did you perceive it as that? How? Why?
• Who is your favorite character? Why?
• Is the story real, believable? Is the narrator reliable? Why? Where? Why not?
• Does this story have resonance for today’s economic/political struggles? How? What strikes you as ways the world changed since the times of this story? What’s the same?
• What was the author best at?
• What did you perceive in his portrayal of the locals/rural society?
• How did the book make you feel?
• Was there anything confusing that you didn’t understand? What?
• What is the best part of this book?

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silly and serious and very much an artifact of the purple haze imbued 1970s, Nichols' "Milagro Beanfield War" renders so much love and hope for we pathetic humans. Funny and irreverent, the characters and their quandaries are hilarious, but raw and bestial as well. At first, as Nichols set the scene, I could hardly stand this story: the way the politicos in power dirtily and secretively pushed their enslaving agenda on the people, and alternately, how the drunken and random tactics of the locals as they squabbled among themselves did nothing to improve their position. Compellingly though, grace begins to fall at around page 300 and Nichols begins to describe what a creative native resistance could look like, how a community could be saved, and we find out who would have the patient planfulness and the courage to save it.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me awhile but I finally finished. Enjoyed the characters and their setting. Part of my slow pace was because of the segmented approach to the novel where I enjoyed reading about the episodes in the various characters lives; sort of like a soap opera, and nothing like a normal soap opera if there is such a thing. I wasn't in any rush to finish. Moving on to The Magic Journey, the next book in Mr. Nichols' New Mexico Trilogy.