From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Milagro Beanfield War

John Nichols

Start date: July 1, 2024

Finish date: September 30, 2024

Discussion: Frontier Western Classics

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Jul 29, 2019 Dan | The Ancient Reader rated it liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction

I know The Milagro Beanfield War is a cult classic, but based on a cursory perusal of the reviews, I’d say it’s a book that you either love or don’t. I won’t say you love it or hate it because I found very little actual animosity toward it in the negative reviews. Those readers just couldn’t seem to get into the book.

My feelings about the book are somewhere between the love and don’t love ends of the spectrum. For me, reading it was like an unsatisfying/unsuccessful romantic endeavor. Part 1 of I know The Milagro Beanfield War is a cult classic, but based on a cursory perusal of the reviews, I’d say it’s a book that you either love or don’t. I won’t say you love it or hate it because I found very little actual animosity toward it in the negative reviews. Those readers just couldn’t seem to get into the book.

My feelings about the book are somewhere between the love and don’t love ends of the spectrum. For me, reading it was like an unsatisfying/unsuccessful romantic endeavor. Part 1 of the book was a bit tedious and confusing with the introduction of so many characters and backstory. Kind of like when you first start getting to know someone with whom you have an inclination to become romantically involved. You get a lot of information about the person’s family, friends, and past life, but most of it just sails past you because you want to know about the person rather than all the peripheral stuff. I came close to giving up on the book at this stage. The main reason I didn’t is because when you grew up in New Mexico and currently live here, it’s hard to admit that you’ve never read The Milagro Beanfield War or Bless Me Ultima or at least one Tony Hillerman book. (I finished Bless Me Ultima a month or so ago, by the way.)

Once you get to Part 2…a little shy of a hundred pages in…things start to pick up. The actual story starts to progress and there’s some action that creates and builds the tension. There are still a lot of characters and backstory thrown in, but you can start to see more clearly how those contribute to the story. The primary characters also start to feel more real and personal. You’ve reached the part of the relationship where the two of you are getting closer. You share more personal information with each other. You start to understand how all that info about friends, family, and past life reveal to you more of who your potential partner really is. You become more comfortable with the physical aspects of your relationship…the touches, caresses, and kisses.

As the story progresses through subsequent Parts, the humor of the beginning subsides and the tension builds through actions and deeper character development. There are two or three very moving "reflective" sections related to specific characters. At this point, it was hard for me to put the book down. In your relationship, you want to spend as much time as possible in the presence of the other person. The sexual tension is building and you’re eagerly and enthusiastically looking forward to your first night together.

The tension of the story builds like a wave to the crisis point, but It never crests. It just resolves itself almost pathetically and washes up harmlessly on the shore. There’s follow-up to it, but nothing very satisfying as far as bringing any kind of closure to the story. You’ve had sex with the person you thought might be “the one,” but it was just sex. It didn’t bring you the closeness and soul-completing oneness you thought it would. You stay for the rest of the night because it’s kind of expected. You get together a few more times but you both realize things won’t work out because something undefinable is missing. When your friends ask how the relationship is going, you find it difficult to admit to them that, in the end, there was just no spark there...that their hopes for you happiness have gone unmet.

I may at some point try another John Nichols book. He himself didn’t think The Milagro Beanfield War was his most profound work. If there’s enough of an ember left somewhere down the line, maybe I’ll try one of the two or three that he felt were the best reflections of what he strove to do with his writing. ...more

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