Funny Dirty Little War [Paperback]

Osvaldo Soriano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 1986

This classic novel exposes the folly and horror of Argentina's Dirty War

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this political satire of postwar Argentina, a group of village officials, ordered by their city bosses to find "infiltrators," brands the council leader and the local tax collector "Marxist-Communists" and sets out to arrest them. The two falsely accused men put up a fight, leading quickly to a siege of city hall, shootings, assassinations, arson, bombings. In a day, much of the village is destroyed in a spurious fight between people who all consider themselves followers of Peron. (Typically, a series of hostile notes between the two sides ends with the same phrase, "Peron or Death!") Reminiscent of works by Kurt Vonnegut and Vladimir Voinovich, this farce mirrors Argentina's self-destruction over the last three decades. Although written in 1980, it was published in that country only after the fall of the military junta in 1983.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This story of political confrontation in a small Argentinian village may at first seem alien to the American audience. As one reads on, however, the novella becomes a powerful commentary on the destructive impact of blind ideology, especially when used to justify ambition and greed. Ignacio Fuentes, a local council leader, is accused of treason by the ambitious leader of a rival Peronist faction. No one really quite understands what is happening, but soon the whole town is engulfed in partisan violence, everyone believing he is fighting on behalf of the Peronist cause. Soriano's masterful juxtaposition of farce and tragedy greatly intensifies the story's impact. A worthy addition to collections of modern Latin American fiction. David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: Readers International (May 25, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930523180
• ISBN-13: 978-0930523183
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,272,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Argentina cries for itself, December 17, 2003

By 

Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Funny Dirty Little War (Paperback)

Back in 1913, my Uncle Sid worked on a ship that went down to Buenos Aires from Boston, Mass. The way he told it, he almost decided to stay there forever, it was such a grand, rich city with opportunities for anyone. Every man ate steak every day. Argentina then was one of the most prosperous countries in the world, perhaps number six on the "rich country index". By the time Soriano published this book (first in Spain because the Argentine generals would never have let it appear), Argentina had slipped a long way---down to around number eighty. How could this happen ? How could a country so mess up its chances ? Who or what was responsible for the inflation, the civil wars, the rising poverty, the decline in services, education, health; the corrupt, inefficient government ? Of course there is not just one, simple answer. You could write an academic treatise about it, and many people have. Or, you could try to say it all in another way, which is what Soriano has done in this amazing book.

A FUNNY DIRTY LITTLE WAR reminds me incredibly of Nathaniel West, though the subject is different. No magical realism for Soriano. This is all action, everything is expressed through a tightly-controlled, gripping series of events. I doubt you can put this 108 page book down until you finish it. The Peronist police (supporters of the longtime dictator, Juan Peron) in a small country town need to find and arrest some "infiltrators" to show the capital that they are on the job. They nominate a couple individuals, but these so-called traitors refuse to go quietly. What's more, they consider themselves Peronists too. A battle starts between the two sides. One group resembles fascists, the other, perhaps communists. Executions, torture, shootings, explosions, fires, and deaths continue right up to the end. The village is largely destroyed on a single night and, most symbolically, is covered in pig manure dropped by a `leftist' hero in a cropduster. Argentina in a nutshell. Nobody seems to realize that their killings and destruction achieve nothing. Peron is still in power, laughing behind his sunglasses, while all those who could rid the country of him fight each other. As day dawns, the surviving "heroes" dedicate the beautiful new day to.......Peron ! A most powerful political satire which explains Argentina's predicament better than any serious work I've ever seen. Wall-to-wall action brings you inevitably to a feeling of sadness at the human condition. [Abe said "Where you want this killin' done ?" and God said, "Out on Highway 61".] Brilliant, simply brilliant.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hilariously tragic commentary, August 26, 2007

By 

Penumbra (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Funny Dirty Little War (Paperback)

"A Funny Dirty Little War" is a novella that packs a lot of irony and black humor into a bitter commentary about Argentine politics in the 1970's.

In the small, fictional town of Colonia Vela, somewhere near Tandil, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, a minor conspiracy escalates into a small scale civil war as everyone in tiny Colonia Vela chooses sides in the struggle.

Don Ignacio Fuentes, Deputy Mayor, is shocked when the Mayor approaches him with a request to fire his long time employee, Mateo. The charge against Mateo is that he is a Marxist Communist who has "infiltrated" the government.

Don Ignacio, knowing that Mateo like himself was a supporter of General Juan Peron during his exile, claims the charges are untrue and refuses the request. Ignacio is then also accused of being a Communist and asked to resign. From there, things only get worse...and worse...and worse.

The speed and ferocity of the reprisals are as ridiculously and hilariously overblown as they are bleak and tragic. Both sides claiming to be true Peronists fighting for "Peron or death!".

Briefly, the story's historical background is based in the struggle between the left and right wing supporters of Juan Peron. The left wing Montenero guerilla movement was formed around 1970 and vowed to bring Peron home from his 18-year exile in Spain. Their hope was that Peron could turn Argentina into a "Socialist Fatherland." To further their goals they used terror tactics such as bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations. When Peron did return to Argentina in 1973, over three million people were waiting near Ezeiza airport to greet him. Snipers, believed to be from the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina, right-wing Peron supporters, opened fire on the crowd killing at least 13 people and injuring over 300 more. Although Peron had previously enjoyed support from both left and right, after the Ezeiza Massacre the split was irrevocable. Peron banned the Monteneros from his Justicialista party, aligning himself with the right wing (dominated by the labor unions). After Peron died in 1974, the Monteneros returned claiming to be the true supporters of Peron's "social vision" and continued to employ terrorist tactics to undermine the right wing. The clashes eventually led to the military government takeover and the subsequent Dirty War.

5.0 out of 5 stars No Habrá Más Penas ni Olvido..., June 10, 2009

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Funny Dirty Little War (Paperback)

That's the original title of this novella in Spanish, meaning "There'll be no more pain or forgetting." The word 'olvido' might alternately be translated as "inattention." In either case, the English title is wretchedly off the mark, leading one to expect a satire. Though there is gruesome humor in the slaughter that occurs one night in a small Argentine town -- with a crop duster dropping a load of pig excrement on the gunmen in the plaza -- Osvaldo Soriano takes his material far too seriously to be a mere satirist. He is a prophet, and his pointless bloodbath is a forecast of worse to come. Except for the title, by the way, translator Nick caistor has done an excellent job of catching the acrid flames and fumes of Soriano's idiomatic Spanish.

Two factions of small-time politicos, both claiming to be loyal disciples of Peron, square off in a tussle for power that escalates into mayhem, with most of the leaders of both factions ending up dead. Latin American writers, I'll have to take the risk of saying, set the bar high for descriptions of violence; in this case, people are killed by gunshots, run over by various sizes of vehicles, beaten to death, tortured and blinded, blown to gobbets with dynamite, burned, knifed, crushed under rubble, all in graphic detail and all in 108 pages. There is nothing worth such destruction, of course, and there are no winners. The book ends with no indication that Juan Peron will even need to take notice of such hapless provincial rivalry. Argentine readers, nonetheless, and educated anglophones will be aware that Peron himself will soon perish in a macrocosmic version of the village shootout, with the onset of military rule -- CIA certified, Milton Friedman's free market economics the governing principle, thousands of young Argentines 'disappeared' by right-wing paramilitary death squads. This one-night dirty little war is a dress rehearsal for the tragedy of Argentina's descent into class-warfare, economic collapse, and fascism.

The book is hardly longer than a long short story, and some readers may feel distressed at paying a 'novel' price for it. But it's only available used, for pennies, anyway. Of the two previous reviews here on amazon, "Penumbra" gets the historical background right, but Mr. Newman strangely and seriously misinterprets the stakes in the butchery.