One Book, One Denver - The Milagro Beanfield War

Cafe Society
1

I must say, I was underwhelmed. Though some of the vignettes were quite enjoyable - the softball game for instance - none of the characters ever seemed quite real to me. There were very few actions by any of the characters that made sense, even in a humourous way. They were all drawn with broad strokes, and only one or two strokes at that.

The tale was choppy, lurching from scene to scene, without necessarily tying them together. And the ending just fizzled out.

Seems to me that Nichols was attempting to write a comic polemic, and it seems to me he failed.

I understand this is supposed to be a cult classic; anyone else read it?

2

I remember when the novel was popular, but I only ever saw the movie, which I loved. The themes are certainly relevant today.

3

I thought it was one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. In fact, I read it three times over the years and laughed my ass off each time.