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.
It'll be Monday on the other side of the International Date Line. Otherwise, yeah—space-time continuum break, cats having sex with dogs, etc.
January 12, 2026 at 1:05 AM
It'll be Monday on the other side of the International Date Line. Otherwise, yeah—space-time continuum break, cats having sex with dogs, etc.
This is why we need adult swaddling.
January 11, 2026 at 11:01 PM
This is why we need adult swaddling.
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.
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.
Hamilton, MT is the seat of Ravalli County, one of the reddest counties in a predominantly red state. The sad thing is that a lot of them aren't bots.
But I agree that little that Trump and his administration is doing now is attracting *more* people to his side.
But I agree that little that Trump and his administration is doing now is attracting *more* people to his side.
January 11, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Hamilton, MT is the seat of Ravalli County, one of the reddest counties in a predominantly red state. The sad thing is that a lot of them aren't bots.
But I agree that little that Trump and his administration is doing now is attracting *more* people to his side.
But I agree that little that Trump and his administration is doing now is attracting *more* people to his side.
I made the mistake of reading some of the 600+ comments on a news story posted on FB about a Hamilton, MT vigil in Renee Good's memory. There are a lot of regular Americans scarfing up MAGA propaganda and happily climbing into that authoritarian bubble.
January 11, 2026 at 4:18 PM
I made the mistake of reading some of the 600+ comments on a news story posted on FB about a Hamilton, MT vigil in Renee Good's memory. There are a lot of regular Americans scarfing up MAGA propaganda and happily climbing into that authoritarian bubble.
I also think you did a fine job of telling the story of Cowley's relationship with the Communist Party. Too many accounts suffer from the propriety of hindsight and don't consider how things appeared in the moment.
January 11, 2026 at 4:31 AM
I also think you did a fine job of telling the story of Cowley's relationship with the Communist Party. Too many accounts suffer from the propriety of hindsight and don't consider how things appeared in the moment.