Good rev/leftist fiction ?

[spiltteeth]

The only literature involving revolution or leftism I've read is Mao II: (http://www.amazon.com/Mao-II-Novel-Don-DeLillo/dp/0140152741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249335914&sr=1-1) by Don DeLillo. It's about a famous writer who gets involved with a group of Maoist terrorists.
Any other suggestions? Maybe we can start a list.
Thanks.

[x359594]

As a matter of fact, there are lists here already. You'll just have to search for them.

In the meantime, Hermanos! by William Herrick, about the Spanish Revolution by a veteran of the Abraham Linclon Brigade. Very well written, more politically acute than Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Another novel of the Spanish Revolution is Seven Red Sundays by Ramon Sender, about the first seven weeks of the revolution, vivid even in translation.

[spiltteeth]

Thanks, I did find one list, but it had only 6 responses and so was kinda lame.

[Random Precision]

http://www.revleft.com/vb/leftist-fiction-t108430/index.html

Also, Mao II is in no way leftist. It's a pretty typical "individual versus the dumb masses" story that is completely devoid of a class perspective or anything touching on a revolutionary message.

[spiltteeth]

http://www.revleft.com/vb/leftist-fiction-t108430/index.html

Also, Mao II is in no way leftist. It's a pretty typical "individual versus the dumb masses" story that is completely devoid of a class perspective or anything touching on a revolutionary message.


I actually read it as the attempt of any group, political or religious, to use terror and violence -in images or actual practice-as a means to impose a new narrative structure on the cultural consciousness of a people in effect hijacking the service of art and even politics to forge a new meaning on what bonds people into a 'relationship' weather between 2 lovers, 2 strangers, or an entire people.
High literature, which I do consider Mao II to be, usually transcends, even while containing, social theories to touch upon universals.
But at the very least it speaks to what bonds people together, and breaks them apart, toward a better world.

[Durruti's Ghost]

Well, there's Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed, although it's not about socialist revolution per se. Beyond that, I don't know...most (good) pro-socialist literature isn't going to be so blatantly obvious about its themes as to simply tell the tale of a socialist revolution. It's more likely to be set in capitalist society for the sake of illustrating how fundamentally fucked-up it is. If we're allowed to be that broad, though, basically any piece of literature that's considered a classic could be interpreted as having socialist themes--The Great Gatsby, anything Dickens, the list goes on...