Dan Hancox

The story of Marinaleda, the village in Andalusia often described as Communist, but perhaps better thought of as a giant commune, and its charismatic mayor Sanchez Gordillo, is reasonably well known. So you look to a book like this to take you deeper, to reveal the thoughts and dreams of the residents, to bring up the conflicts that must inevitably occur, to hear the voice of the opposition and so on. Dan Hancox is only moderately successful at doing this; even though he visted Marinaleda for 8 years he doesn't seem to have got very close to anyone that matters in the village, and although he captures the libertarian nature of the place well you still don't feel you've got under the skin of what is actually going on, whether it represents an alternative way of politics, or is just, as Hancox himself suggests, similar to the village of Asterix; an oddity in a sea of conformity.

Hancox editorialises a great deal, and in a relatively short book, I'd have liked to have heard more of the villagers' voices. Perhaps they just didn't want to talk. What seems a curiosity to the outside work is just everyday life for them… (meer)