The Milagro Beanfield War [Paperback]

John Nichols (Author), Rini Templeton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Gentle, funny, transcent." --The New York Times Book Review

From the Inside Flap

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Owl Books (February 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805063749
• ISBN-13: 978-0805063745
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Movie Tie-Ins

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Karl Marx Brothers in Nuevo Mexico, April 9, 2001

By 

Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Milagro Beanfield War (Paperback)

This is a truly enjoyable book, a fun read full of interesting, quirky characters, revealed in a mini class-war. The peace-loving agrarians of Milagro find themselves oppressed by the city slickers & suits who draw up water-compacts & grazing regulations. Slowly, but certainly, they're being squeezed off their ancestral lands, having their buccolic lifestyle eroded by the landed, the government, and the wealthy.

But this is not a grim, revolutionary novel, full of dogma and bloodshed. It's a tale of a bunch of characters, who really just want to be left alone, backed against the wall and making their last stand.

Who couldn't cheer for Cleofas or Joe Mondragon? Who doesn't want to drop El Zopilote into the Rio Grande with cement shoes? The protagonists seduce you into their stories, and their enemies are disgusting precisely because they are so removed, because they are so ordinary, so boring.

Nichols demonstrates to us that authentic people work the land, work their jobs, lead their lives, and that their lives are worthy of storytelling. In our dominator culture, the wealthy are the powerful. Their lives, while pampered & protected, are dull, uninteresting. We only care about them when our heroes stop bending over for them and say "enough is enough." Look deeply within yourself & see just how much of Joe Mondragon you carry. Now, log off the internet & see if you can live a life worthy of Milagro.

Five stars for characterization. Five stars of making a tired plot (underdogs vs. oppressors) so much fun. Five stars for a gentle, funny read that worms its way into your heart.

(If you'd like to comment on this review, click on the "about me" link above & email me. Thanks!)

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny, extremely accurate take on Northern NM cultures, January 21, 2000

By 

Cheryl Fillekes - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milagro Beanfield War (Paperback)

I had been living in Northern NM for about a year when I read The Milagro Beanfield War. I took it with me on a backpacking trip through the Pecos Wilderness. I had been completely bewildered by the wide variety of cultures surrounding me in my all-too-brief sojourn in the Santa Fe area.

The Milagro Beanfield War, with its warm wit and characterisations, made all the little puzzle pieces I had been fumbling with come together--from the Taos real estate broker who told me at a party in White Rock that he didn't like to sell land to "those people" because "they just pull in a trailer and start raising chickens and pigs right there in their front yard--ruins the neighborhood" (he could have been a character in the book) to the reverence of my neighbors for the centuries-old practice of community care of the acequia.

The magical internal lives of the local characters and the convoluted way in which the story is told are really part of the rich texture of the place -- nothing is ever straightforward or simple. That's the beauty of it.

Read the book. The movie captures very beautifully what a movie can -- but there's so much more in the book! In particular, the female characters are even stronger, better and more interesting.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Antidote to Modern Cynicism, June 26, 2000

By 

Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Milagro Beanfield War (Paperback)

If, like me, you need an occasional break from the cynicism and irony that prevails in modern fiction, you're probably just looking for a good, warm-hearted, read. This is it. It offers up a story of people who are at odds with each other, but learn to compromise. The characters are quirky, but the writing is not overly cute, as is the case with authors such as Tom Robbins, to whom Nichols is sometimes compared. This is essentially a "good time" read. Those looking for deep human insights or psychological delving should look elsewhere. This one's an unadulterated joy-ride.