The Milagro Beanfield War | John Treadwell Nichols, John Nichols

The Milagro Beanfield War | John Treadwell Nichols, John Nichols | A Very Good Read

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The Milagro Beanfi...

	The Milagro Beanfield War John Treadwell Nichols, John Nichols, 2000 - 456 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Joe Mondragon, thirty-six, is a feisty hustler with a talent for trouble, who slammed his battered pickup to a stop one day, tugged on his gumboots, and marched into an arid patch of ground. Then, illegally, he tapped into the main irrigation channel. And so began John Nichols' classic tale of the little guy against the big guy -- THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR.

WWIII New Mexico Style

When Joe Mondragon illegally irrigates a puny beanfield, he starts WWIII and becomes the unwitting, reluctant symbol of this battle between the haves and the have nots. The book is absolutely hilarious with its wry yet rich descriptions of the people and the cultures clashing in Milagro, NM. But underneath, the end is near and everyone knows it, is resigned to it, but will fight to hold on for as long as possible. I've read this book several times and have come away with something new every time. Nichols' description of Kyril Montana's initial stealthy and secret foray into Milagro will always hold a special place in my heart. Que viva, Snuffy!

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A Very Good Read

I absolutely loved this book - a great story and excellently written.

Great Story

If not considered a classic it should be. It is a great story about the never ending struggle between those with and those without.

A delightful read about the day a man began irrigating his father's beanfield

I finally got around to reading this novel whilst on summer vacation (it was in the free pile at the condo) and am so glad that I did.

Nichols engages the reader from the first page, with a blend of magical realism, social commentary, satire, and good old fashioned story telling.

Jose "Joe" Mandragon sets in motion a variety of forces in the state of New Mexico when he irrigates his family legacy, a miniscule beanfield left to him by his father. With that simple act, centuries-old tensions between rancher and farmer, Mexican and Anglo, subsistence living and the cash economy, come to a head.

What could have been a dull exercise in race relations, regional history, and economic theory, is instead brought to wonderful, earthy life in this charming novel that will make you think, laugh, and perhaps even shed a tear or two.

Definitely worth reading!

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entertaining, but something seems wrong

The Milagro Beanfield War is a book that starts out very well. Nichols knows
the people and the area he is describing. The stories that he uses to introduce
the location and the characters have a touch of magic realism, and for the
first 100 pages I really thought this would be one of the best books I read
this year. I felt that after that the story got bogged down. As Nichols notes,
this is really a book with an agenda, and this becomes perfectly clear very soon.
Unfortunately this means that the characters and their lively stores that show
such promise in the first part of the book get pushed aside. What
remains are stereotypes of the people (on both sides) and language ("Ai Chihuahua!")
in service of an indictment of capitalism and large scale landownership. While
I agree with some of the points made, I thought that the approach was
heavy handed, and the story suffered as the result.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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