Neglected Books
@neglectedbooks.com
Brad Bigelow, writer in Missoula, MT
Author, Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts (Jan 2026)
Editor, Recovered Books series @ Boiler House Press:
www.boilerhouse.press/recovered-books
Editor, neglectedbooks.com. Champion of reading off the beaten path.
Author, Virginia Faulkner: A Life in Two Acts (Jan 2026)
Editor, Recovered Books series @ Boiler House Press:
www.boilerhouse.press/recovered-books
Editor, neglectedbooks.com. Champion of reading off the beaten path.
Hemingway's little-known 18th century novel. Now in audiobook.
www.audible.com/pd/T...
www.audible.com/pd/T...
January 12, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Hemingway's little-known 18th century novel. Now in audiobook.
www.audible.com/pd/T...
www.audible.com/pd/T...
I never cease to get a chuckle out of the Pre-Code pretense in which we, the audience, see women in lingerie rush to cover themselves up before they allow male characters in the movie to see them. This instance, with Una Merkel and Mary Carlisle, comes from Murder in the Private Car (1934).
January 12, 2026 at 7:00 PM
I never cease to get a chuckle out of the Pre-Code pretense in which we, the audience, see women in lingerie rush to cover themselves up before they allow male characters in the movie to see them. This instance, with Una Merkel and Mary Carlisle, comes from Murder in the Private Car (1934).
I also share this birthday with John Hancock, whose best-remembered work is his John Hancock.
January 12, 2026 at 3:58 PM
I also share this birthday with John Hancock, whose best-remembered work is his John Hancock.
Pleased to find myself sharing a birthday with the Hungarian writer (not just a playwright) French Molnár. His 1945 novel, Farewell My Heart, is one of the better "Hmm, what's this?” reads of recent years.
neglectedbooks.com?p=10107
neglectedbooks.com?p=10107
January 12, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Pleased to find myself sharing a birthday with the Hungarian writer (not just a playwright) French Molnár. His 1945 novel, Farewell My Heart, is one of the better "Hmm, what's this?” reads of recent years.
neglectedbooks.com?p=10107
neglectedbooks.com?p=10107
Human Landscapes from My Country by Nazim Hikmet is a 480 page novel in verse translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk that reads like a runaway locomotive. One of the most thrilling books I know.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
January 12, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Human Landscapes from My Country by Nazim Hikmet is a 480 page novel in verse translated by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk that reads like a runaway locomotive. One of the most thrilling books I know.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
Finally, we come to Yuri Krotkov's The Red Monarch (1979), a succinct, blackly comic, and razor-sharp portrait of Stalin, another Russian autocrat who grew too powerful for any of his cronies to tell him the truth.
(No, this is not an exhaustive list. Just an exhausted one.)
(No, this is not an exhaustive list. Just an exhausted one.)
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Finally, we come to Yuri Krotkov's The Red Monarch (1979), a succinct, blackly comic, and razor-sharp portrait of Stalin, another Russian autocrat who grew too powerful for any of his cronies to tell him the truth.
(No, this is not an exhaustive list. Just an exhausted one.)
(No, this is not an exhaustive list. Just an exhausted one.)
Although classified as nonfiction, Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (1978), about Ethiopian ruler Haile Selasse, and Shah of Shahs (1982), about the Shah of Iran, are highly, well, imaginative and stand as two of the best portraits of autocracy unchecked.
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Although classified as nonfiction, Ryszard Kapuscinski's The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (1978), about Ethiopian ruler Haile Selasse, and Shah of Shahs (1982), about the Shah of Iran, are highly, well, imaginative and stand as two of the best portraits of autocracy unchecked.
Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah wrote a trilogy, Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship (1979-1983), about the repressive rule of "the General" and his Soviet-backed "Communist" regime.
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah wrote a trilogy, Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship (1979-1983), about the repressive rule of "the General" and his Soviet-backed "Communist" regime.
Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah (1987) recounted the rise, corruption, and fall of a young liberator-turned-dictator named simply, Sam (later, "His Excellency").
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Chinua Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah (1987) recounted the rise, corruption, and fall of a young liberator-turned-dictator named simply, Sam (later, "His Excellency").
Switching continents, autocrats have been such a rich source for African novelists that a critical review, Fictions of African Dictatorship, edited by Charlotte Baker and Hannah Grayson, was released in 2018.
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Switching continents, autocrats have been such a rich source for African novelists that a critical review, Fictions of African Dictatorship, edited by Charlotte Baker and Hannah Grayson, was released in 2018.
Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat (2000) returns to the subject of Rafael Trujillo, focusing on the dictator's last days before his assassination in 1961.
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Mario Vargas Llosa's The Feast of the Goat (2000) returns to the subject of Rafael Trujillo, focusing on the dictator's last days before his assassination in 1961.
Tomás Eloy Martínez's The Perón Novel (1985) fuses factual and fictional material into a portrait of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, mostly before and after his marriage to Evita. His Santa Evita (1995) provides the middle, using the same technique on the cult of dictator's wife.
January 11, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Tomás Eloy Martínez's The Perón Novel (1985) fuses factual and fictional material into a portrait of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, mostly before and after his marriage to Evita. His Santa Evita (1995) provides the middle, using the same technique on the cult of dictator's wife.
Certainly the best-known fictional account of the last days of a dictator is Garcia Marquez's magnificent The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), in which an elusive autocrat rules for hundreds of years as his palace and people rot around him.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Certainly the best-known fictional account of the last days of a dictator is Garcia Marquez's magnificent The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), in which an elusive autocrat rules for hundreds of years as his palace and people rot around him.
Augusto Roa Bastos' I, the Supreme (1974) is based on the rule of 19th Century Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Augusto Roa Bastos' I, the Supreme (1974) is based on the rule of 19th Century Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia.
Enrique Lafourcade's King Ahab's Feast (1959) was the first, but not the last, novel inspired by the long dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo over the Dominican Republic.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Enrique Lafourcade's King Ahab's Feast (1959) was the first, but not the last, novel inspired by the long dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo over the Dominican Republic.
Sadly not yet translated into English, Jorge Zalamea's El gran Burundún Burundá ha Muerto, a short novel about a Colombian dictator, sounds fascinating. At his death, his body is replaced by "a great big parrot, a voluminous parrot, all swollen, inflated and wrapped in documents"
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Sadly not yet translated into English, Jorge Zalamea's El gran Burundún Burundá ha Muerto, a short novel about a Colombian dictator, sounds fascinating. At his death, his body is replaced by "a great big parrot, a voluminous parrot, all swollen, inflated and wrapped in documents"
Miguel Angel Asturias's El Señor Presidente (1946), one of the earliest works of magical realism, was inspired by the 20+ year presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera in Guatemala.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Miguel Angel Asturias's El Señor Presidente (1946), one of the earliest works of magical realism, was inspired by the 20+ year presidency of Manuel Estrada Cabrera in Guatemala.
Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism (1845) introduced the genre with its portrait of the gaucho tyrant Juan Facundo Quiroga, based on the real-life Argentinian ruler Juan Manuel de Rosas.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Domingo Sarmiento's Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism (1845) introduced the genre with its portrait of the gaucho tyrant Juan Facundo Quiroga, based on the real-life Argentinian ruler Juan Manuel de Rosas.
Dictator Novels: A Thread. The rise—and particularly the fall—of autocrats has been a rich source for novelists around the world. So much so that the "dictator novel" is considered a genre in both Latin American and African fiction. Here's a short guide to some of the best.
January 11, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Dictator Novels: A Thread. The rise—and particularly the fall—of autocrats has been a rich source for novelists around the world. So much so that the "dictator novel" is considered a genre in both Latin American and African fiction. Here's a short guide to some of the best.
One of the sappiest (and yet most touching) endings of all Hollywood's many backstage soapers: husband Harry Richman, who literally drank himself blind, steps in to rescue wife Joan Bennett when she breaks down performing "their song." From Puttin' on the Ritz (1930), the first "A Star is Born" tale
January 11, 2026 at 7:01 PM
One of the sappiest (and yet most touching) endings of all Hollywood's many backstage soapers: husband Harry Richman, who literally drank himself blind, steps in to rescue wife Joan Bennett when she breaks down performing "their song." From Puttin' on the Ritz (1930), the first "A Star is Born" tale
You can tell who the young Virginia Faulkner modeled herself on.
January 11, 2026 at 5:04 PM
You can tell who the young Virginia Faulkner modeled herself on.
A Family Failure, Renate Rasp's brutal allegory of an older generation's sacrifice of its youth to unrealistic ideals, deserves a place on the shelf next to Kafka's Metamorphosis—though it makes Kafka's tale seem a light-hearted romp by contrast.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
January 11, 2026 at 2:00 PM
A Family Failure, Renate Rasp's brutal allegory of an older generation's sacrifice of its youth to unrealistic ideals, deserves a place on the shelf next to Kafka's Metamorphosis—though it makes Kafka's tale seem a light-hearted romp by contrast.
neglectedbooks.com/?...
neglectedbooks.com/?...
Seconded. I picked up this after finishing it. What a unique and long-lived literary friendship. 66 years.
January 11, 2026 at 4:01 AM
Seconded. I picked up this after finishing it. What a unique and long-lived literary friendship. 66 years.
Wife: If you could know exactly when, exactly where, and exactly how you will die—would you want to?
Husband: No way!
Wife: Oh...never mind, then.
Husband: No way!
Wife: Oh...never mind, then.
January 10, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Wife: If you could know exactly when, exactly where, and exactly how you will die—would you want to?
Husband: No way!
Wife: Oh...never mind, then.
Husband: No way!
Wife: Oh...never mind, then.
Reformed by Brain Surgery
Article in The American Weekly, March 9, 1947.
Yes, it was a prefrontal lobotomy. "The hospital physicians reported that one month after the operation the patient said she no longer felt the urge to commit criminal acts. She is more relaxed," they said.
Article in The American Weekly, March 9, 1947.
Yes, it was a prefrontal lobotomy. "The hospital physicians reported that one month after the operation the patient said she no longer felt the urge to commit criminal acts. She is more relaxed," they said.
January 10, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Reformed by Brain Surgery
Article in The American Weekly, March 9, 1947.
Yes, it was a prefrontal lobotomy. "The hospital physicians reported that one month after the operation the patient said she no longer felt the urge to commit criminal acts. She is more relaxed," they said.
Article in The American Weekly, March 9, 1947.
Yes, it was a prefrontal lobotomy. "The hospital physicians reported that one month after the operation the patient said she no longer felt the urge to commit criminal acts. She is more relaxed," they said.