Very good. Political Satire about 1930s New York City communists and capitalist. Endearing, eccentric, and funny. Mr. Nut— the anti hero’s hero.

“If I can’t straighten out a professor-back, how am I going to straighten out this crooked world?”

“That is great. Sounds heroic. Oh, gee!” commented Miss Digger jokingly.

“I’m sorry. I meant how are we going to straighten out this crooked world,” added Stubborn apologetically.

“That’s right! We . . . the people . . .” Mr. Wiseguy interrupted with his Oxford and Harvard accent.

“No, I mean we, the WORKERS, are going to straighten out this crooked world,” said Stubborn scientifically.

“Don’t you see I am a Socialist. Here is the New Leader, our paper.”

“No, I would not read that yellow sheet,” replied Stubborn, revolutionarily.

“That is the trouble with you Communists. You’re so fanatic!” said Mr. Wiseguy.

This is a fascinating communist propaganda novel (with play elements?) from 1935 written by an exile from China in NYC that's also often very funny. It's good to read anyway as a novel but your enjoyment will be much higher if you're interested in the communist and history element. There's some gentle poking fun at the communist milleu (the groups of people insistent you donate For The Cause, the incredibly insistent and pushy paper seller, the educated people who slot themselves in as bureaucrats and don't do the work) that's very recognisable today, but it's obviously always done with love.

The characters are all archetypes: Mr Nut starts out as very similar to the IWW's Mr Block, believing that even while he's poor, soon he'll be a success story, before having a Damascene conversion and joining the side of the communists. Mr System is the landlord, the boss, the capitalist class in general. Mr Wiseguy a chancer, not wealthy but willing to do anything and scam his fellows to get thrown a dime by the capitalists. Miss Digger is probably the dodgiest portrayal, although it's not too bad - she's a courtesan/sex worker who refuses to show solidarity with other workers in the hopes that by sucking up to rich men she can earn a living in some way or another. Mr Ratsky is a gangster (he identifies himself as Al Capone on his introduction). Stubborn is the struggling communist, a hard party worker who struggles along looking after her ill family, committed to the struggle, in some ways *the* hero of the novel.

There's a lot of very funny parts here - the ending section of it (cw for hanging/suicide talk - there's also a suicide 2/3 of the way through) is absurd and hilarious and yet feels not far off what actually happens, A Modest Proposal for Depression-era America. The section where a boy tries to sell Mr Nut the communist newspaper for kids is very funny. There's lots of it scattered throughout the book and I laughed out loud quite a bit, especially the first third. There's also some serious talk about the horror of living in poverty in the era - lots of talk of suicide, people selling sex, evictions of dying people, doing anything for their next meal. And also surprisingly a couple of gay encounters - none consummated, but it's played off as fine, just Mr Nut not understanding the signs (he's often pretty naive).

Overall I really enjoyed my time with this book. There's some minor issues but it's a fascinating and funny look at a particular moment in history with a rousing, absurd, inspiring communist conclusion. ( )

I am going to go out and say it: this book is a wild romp. It is set in the Depression and traces the story of Mr Nut over the course of one day.
An unemployed man, he changes during the course of this day. The story will challenge you in many ways - it is a commentary on politics and the state of the times. I cannot make any comment on the subtle statements on any Chinese references, however, it is a satire on life. It is not your usual book, with a neat flow. The poems in the book once read carefully, will challenge you as well.

There is a cast of characters that will stay with you.

Go on, check it out!

H.T. Tsiang self-published this book, and I am not surprised that many traditional publishers rejected it. Despite that, it has been in print for 80 years

More power to him ( )