The Milagro Beanfield War (Hardcover)

~ John Nichols (Author) "went after her, following her tracks in the snow. Just as I left the road to enter the chamisal an owl dropped out of the..." (more)
Key Phrases: santo riot, lone parking meter, irrigation boots, Kyril Montana, Ladd Devine, Onofre Martinez (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Barnes & Noble Modern Classics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 555 pages
• Publisher: Barnes and Noble (2002)
• ISBN-10: 0760731411
• ISBN-13: 978-0760731413
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #909,957 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel (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!)

13 of 13 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 (Auckland, New Zealand) - 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.

12 of 12 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel (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.